Yvonne, a native San Franciscan, grew up an independent child in
a family with four brothers. She met her husband-to-be, Donald,
shortly after high school, when they both worked for the Department
of Corrections. He was 12 years older, and Yvonne, who still lived
at home, couldn’t go out on a school night. So he made friends with
her family, they married when she was 20 and they had a great 43
years together.
Yvonne attended college wherever Donald’s work took them and in
1975 received her teaching credential at Sonoma State. She was a
substitute teacher while raising their two girls and three boys.
Don was promoted to Parole Supervisor at Santa Rosa Department of
Corrections. While they lived in Santa Rosa, Don, who had ridden in
the rodeo, dreamed of raising horses.
Don and Yvonne began looking for property and eventually moved
into their house on Chiquita Road where they were partners with a
friend until Don bought him out. The two men shared a fantasy of
making money raising cows, but in reality, there was no time for
that.
“We arrived at the 11 acre property in 105 degree heat in July
when the weeds were shoulder high,” Yvonne tells me. “Though I
cried for a month, everyone else was so happy. Don and the kids
built the deck and a friend built the attic with the help of the
kids. Don, a great gardener, grew wheat, which I wasn’t about to
stand out and shake. We had food in abundance. We also had horses,
cows, chickens, lambs and goats. I milked the goats, but not the
cows. The old barn was turned into a garage when the kids were
teenagers and they would sneak out at night and ride their ‘not
street legal’ go carts.”
As Yvonne reflects on Healdsburg’s good ole days, she doesn’t
miss the 17 bars, the vacant storefronts and the debris which blew
all around town. She does fondly remember the big pier at Memorial
Beach where her two year-old could jump into deep water. She and
the kids participated in Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and 4-H. Even
though she attended St. John’s church, she befriended Father Marvin
Bowers of St. Paul’s Episopal Church in the 1970s and he became a
close friend.
“There was a close link between Reverend Bill Hayes of the
Federated Church, Monsignor Jack O’Hare of St. John’s Catholic
Church and Reverend Bowers back then,” Yvonne recalls. “I believe
that together these three started Healdsburg Shared Ministries. All
brilliant men, they loved good music, poetry and theology. When
Father Bowers asked me in 1995 to write the newsletter for North
County Community Services (St. Paul’s ministry to the homeless), I
thought, ‘I can do that!’
“I began by visiting Wallace House, an overnight shelter in
Cloverdale; then the Spare Room, a Healdsburg shelter administered
by St. Paul’s. Father Bowers then asked me to manage the shelters
by coordinating volunteers, begging for money and writing grants.
The Cloverdale churches took over their shelter, so I became
focused on Healdsburg.”
NCCS began expanding when a 1998 grant from the Wine Foundation
allowed them to rent an apartment which became the “transitional
house” in which a family in need could live temporarily. Soon, a
hard working family with seven children moved in. This farm
worker’s wife wanted to pay Father Bowers, so NCCS began the
practice of having tenants pay what rent they could afford and
saving the money for them. After a year, the family prequalified
for a loan with the money they had saved and found a condo which
they were able to buy – a success story and a win-win for all. This
family also found friends who wanted to do the same thing. By
pooling their resources and the kids also working, the second
family bought a condo in 2000. Both families set a precedent and
defined the type of homeless tenant that NCCS sought: solid
families with integrity, motivation and a determination to
succeed.
When the city then purchased the fourplex next door to St.
Paul’s and asked NCCS to manage it as transitional housing, a next
step was taken. Three of these apartments became low fee,
nonrefundable rentals and NCCS was finally making some income. The
city then remodeled another building with seven more units: the
Victory Apartments and Victory Studios named after Victory
Merchant, the former owner. All the studios are $450 per month and
the bottom four are all handicapped accessible.
“Again, the tenants must be solid individuals for this to work,”
Yvonne reminds me. “Many don’t even speak the language, but they’re
real survivors. One young man is in a wheelchair. We have single
moms and single dads. One mom with four kids. They get some money
back as a springboard incentive to buying a home. And with the
nonrefundable rent money we get from other tenants, we can help
more people in town by paying a month’s rent or helping with a
bill, medicine or gas money.”
Although Yvonne spearheads the program, she is not alone. The
NCCS Board includes our esteemed librarian, Bo Simons, Roger
Dormire, Persis McCarley, Toni Hopkins, Bobby Platt and Vickie
Latimer. Emily Krispin, who is bilingual, gathers and organizes
resources. NCCS has an office at St. Paul’s and Tricia Lay is
property manager of the apartments. A host of volunteers help out
with daytime showers, laundry, bringing soaps, shampoos, socks and
underwear. One volunteer, Jo Beth Giordani, meets clients and helps
process applications for deposit and rental assistance.
Besides her position at NCCS, Yvonne, a former Marie Sparks
Memorial Volunteer Award recipient, is on the Healdsburg Shared
Ministries Board. She also takes care of her 95 year-old mother and
runs a scholarship program in memory of her granddaughter.
Yvonne would like everyone to know that you too may help support
the shelters. The NCCS annual fundraiser is August 20 at Hoot Owl
Vineyard in Alexander Valley. It includes a BBQ lamb dinner with
wines poured by the Board members and Floyd Latimer’s bluegrass
band with dancing. Please contact St. Paul’s at 433-2107 for more
information.
Thanks for everything you do for Healdsburg, Yvonne and NCCS
Board and volunteers.
Shonnie Brown is a local author and memoirist who is
interested in fostering connections between people and their
community. Shonnie writes personal and family histories through her
business, Sonoma LifeStories, and is also a licensed Marriage and
Family Therapist. She can be reached by e-mail at sh*****@so***.net
or on the web at www.sonomalifestories.com.
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