Annual Lunch, Reception & Tour
Click here to see photos from the event
SHELTER PARTNERSHIP CELEBRATES $8.5 MILLION IN GOODS DISTRIBUTED LAST YEAR AT ANNUAL TOUR
For 21 years, Shelter Partnership has donated at no cost millions of dollars in goods to hundreds of thousands of people in need. To celebrate this important milestone, Shelter Partnership hosted an annual open house and tour of the S. Mark Taper Foundation Shelter Resource Bank warehouse, a recently rehabilitated 108,000 square foot facility located in the City of Bell.
The S. Mark Taper Foundation Shelter Resource Bank, the largest of its kind in the nation, provides necessities such as new baby clothing, diapers, personal hygiene products, household goods, books and toys, and men’s, women’s and children’s clothing and shoes to over 200 agencies serving the homeless and at-risk in Los Angeles County each year at no cost.
In the most recent year alone the project distributed $8.5 million of goods and secured $13 million in goods. Since 1989, more than $160 million in products have been distributed. For the emergency, transitional and permanent housing providers these provisions enable them to focus on other priorities such as funding for supportive services and operational expenses.
A major product donor to the project is the national New York based intermediary, Kids In Distressed Situations. K.I.D.S. Board of Director, Renee Pepys-Lowe, who is Founder of CoCaLo, Inc., of Costa Mesa accepted a special award at the event. In the last decade, K.I.D.S. has provided $18 million in new children’s product donations to the S. Mark Taper Foundation Shelter Resource Bank. According to Ms. Pepys-Lowe, “Our partnership is one of our longest and strongest of any—both nationally and internationally. We are proud to have such a steadfast and responsive partner and look forward to many more years of working together to serve the thousands of impoverished and homeless children in Los Angeles.”
Anita Nelson, Chief Executive Officer of SRO Housing Corp., who spoke at the event shared with the group: “Since 1989, we have received 91 donations worth more than $850,000 to help us operate our more than 20 residential hotels in downtown Los Angeles. These donations are critical to our ability to continue to offer housing to extremely low-income individuals who are homeless and disabled.”
The event featured Fritz Coleman, KNBC 4 Weathercaster as host and live entertainment was provided by Washington Rucker and the Jazz Collection. More than 100 supporters and community members served by the project attended, including the Honorable Harry Pregerson of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and Los Angeles Councilwoman Jan Perry.
“Shelter Partnership was founded on the principle that homelessness can happen to anyone; it’s complex, it can be long-term or sudden, it sometimes requires assistance in multiple disciplines. “We were established to help in both the development of housing for the homeless as well as providing some of the basic necessities,” said Ruth Schwartz, co-founder and Executive Director of Shelter Partnership.
