Skip to main content

What 'Haven for Hope' is like for a homeless person

WARNING:  READERS SHOULD NOTE THAT SUMMER HILLS AND RON E RUSSELL HAVE NO ASSOCIATION WITH THIS WEBSITE OR, VERY PROBABLY, HAVEN FOR HOPE.  IF YOU ARE COMING HERE VIA A LINK FROM http://summerhillsrealestate.com/ YOU SHOULD BE VERY VERY SUSPICIOUS OF THE CLAIMS OF THAT ORGANIZATION, PENDING CONFIRMATION FROM HAVEN FOR HOPE THAT THEY ARE INVOLVED IN BUSINESS DEALINGS WITH RON RUSSELL OR HIS BUSINESSES, AS THE SUMMER HILLS WEBSPACE CLAIMS.


Following, is the conclusion to a a long article in My San Antonio News, titled "Haven for Hope: New home, life" by Melissa Fletcher Stoeltje and Brian Chasnoff.  These last few paragraphs describe what passing through Haven for Hope, the new $100 million homeless-aid campus in San Antonio, Texas, is like for homeless people, themselves.
For most, the flow through Haven is marked in stages. First comes sleeping outdoors, then indoors next to Prospects Courtyard, then transitioning to “guest” status when moving onto the campus. When the homeless commit to a 40-hour work week of transformation, they become “members” Once earning income, they live in one-room apartments.

Prospects Courtyard likely won’t be able to handle all those who want to get in, Haven officials said. The center is working with area churches that accommodate the homeless to handle the overflow. Salvation Army and a number of other shelters around town will still be functional.

A light-filled chapel offers nondenominational services.

“It’s a theology of hope, not hellfire and damnation,” [George] Block[, H4H’s vice president and chief operating officer] said. “These folks already feel damned.”

The heart of the campus is the Transformation Center, the 65,000-square-foot building where the real change takes place. In addition to mental health counseling and a slew of other services, the San Antonio Independent School District will provide GED and English as a Second Language classes; Alamo Colleges will offer a host of certificate training. There will be a ratio of one case manager to 40 residents. Eight partners will offer job training.

“In the first three months, we’ll have an average of 204 member hours of job training and about 775 hours a week of member classes,” said Ann Hutchinson Meyers, vice president of Transformational Services. Classrooms, including those with computers, will be filled night and day, she said.

Because, while hot meals and showers are the start, true transformation goes deep.

"Theses buildings are wonderful,” said Hutchinson Meyers, “but it’s what’s going on inside that truly matters. We don’t change the lives of the homeless; we just give them the tools. We set up the environment, and then they change themselves. We don’t change anybody.”
An earlier blogpost to SacHo, today, describes Haven for Hope, generally, and the impossibility of something like it getting built and functioning in Sacramento.

Comments

michelle said…
Ron Russell and Summerhills realty Is a SCAM!!!! they are using your name to draw people in take their money never return phone calls never find them a place when you go to their office they lie to your face! when you ask for a refund they tell you He dont have the funds!! it has been to months and I still have not recieved my money!! stay away from him hes a RIPOFF!!
michelle said…
Ron Russell If your finding homes for homeless people where is my HOME IM HOMELESS with 3 CHILDREN????
Unknown said…
I hear you, michelle. I've done some modest investigating and, indeed, it seems that it is a scammer organization you're involved with. At the Summerhills website "Haven for Hope" is conveniently called "Haven of Hope" and instead of using a link to the organization, the webpage links to a blogpost about Haven for Hope at this blog.

All this amounts to a very apparent effort to avert detection that the associations that Ron E. Russell claims are illegitimate.
Sue Best said…
Ron Russell is a FRAUD...Stay Away from him. He only wants your money and he will tell you anything to get your money.He dosen't do anything that he tells you he is going to do. Only wants your money. There is about 50 of us so far..So that should tell you something. FRAUD SCAM .......SHAME ON YOU RON RUSSELL...... Sue Best
Unknown said…
I received an anonymous comment that tells me that Ron Russell has been arrested. I don't know if that happened relatively recently, or long, long ago. If you have been defrauded by Ron E. Russell or Summerhills Realty, call the Sacramento County District Attorney's Office.

Tom Armstrong, blogger of Sacramento Homeless

Popular posts from this blog

More obstacles revealed in effort to make Mather cottages habitable

Mold, asbestos and lead paint, oh my! The 35 cottages out at Mather Community Campus seem closer to being condemned today than ever again being inhabited. But the expectation that some of the cottages can and will be restored to house homeless families before spring abides. A report in the Sacramento Bee tells us ... Some [of the cottages] have extensive mold, a county analysis showed. It's not clear how the county planned to deal with lead paint and asbestos, [Rancho Cordova] Councilwoman Linda Budge said. Still, hope of getting some of the cottages in shape such that homeless families can move in is in play, though not before New Year's day.  Word of where the money might come from to make needed restorations has not been forthcoming, though it is known that the Winter Shelter Task Force hopes to hold a fundraiser to boost the pool of funds to meet the need to keep homeless people warm and safe. At the end of October, placing families, totalling 105 individuals, was

Ron Russell and Summerhills Realty

Readers of this blog should be aware that I am receiving some information that Summerhills Realty and someone named Ron E. Russell is using this blog as a reference in an effort to scam homeless people.  Be aware that Mr. Russell and his business is cited as a possible perpetrator of fraud by a website called Ripoff Report .  See this webpage .  Also, there is this claim of fraud against Ron Russell Properties at the website BizClaims - Latest scams, frauds and complaints . Please be aware that the information of being 'ripped off'' may be coming from only one source is coming from multiple sources, with perhaps as many as twelve persons/couples now pursuing legal action after paying thousands of dollars for services and receiving none of the services that were promised/contracted. While I know neither Mr. Russell nor Summerhills, I do know that an inordinate number of “in links” from readers of this blog have come via summerhillsrealestate.com for quite some time.  I

Loaves & Fishes implicates Buddhism and Jack Kornfield in its June Donations Plea.

The Sukhothai Traimit Golden Buddha was found in a clay-and-plaster overlaid buddha statue in 1959, after laying in wait for 500 years. It's huge and heavy: just under 10 feet tall and weighs 5 1/2 tons. At the beginning of their June newsletter , Loaves and Fishes relates a story, taken from the beginning of renowned Buddhist teacher Jack Kornfield's 2008 book The Wise Heart: A Guide to the Universal Teachings of Buddhist Psychology . The first part and first chapter in Kornfield's book is "Part I: Who are you really?" and chapter 1 is called "Nobility: Our Original Goodness," which ought to serve as a clue to what the beginning of the book is about, not that that sentiment isn't strewn through-out the chapter, section and book such that what Kornfield is telling us should be crystal clear. Somehow, the not-ready-for-primetime management at Loaves & Fishes have managed to use Kornfield's wise and kindly words in a way that mangles th