FULLERTON : New Quarters for Homeless to Open

Two more homeless families in Orange County will have a place to stay today with the opening of a building at the New Vista Shelter.

The building will open this morning after a ceremony expected to be attended by volunteers who made the addition possible, as well as Orange County Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez and Fullerton City Councilman Don Bankhead.

Expansion of the shelter came via an all-volunteer effort by the Building Industry Assn. of Southern California and area contractors and suppliers. The added living area, built over a new garage, will allow the shelter to house eight families at a time instead of the current six.

Volunteers donated all the building materials and labor and furnished the two new bedrooms, bathrooms and kitchen, said Barbara Johnson, executive director of Fullerton Interfaith Emergency Services, which operates the shelter.

“They’ve really gone first class,” Johnson said. “They’ve gone all-out to make it really nice.”

The donated value of the labor and materials for New Vista Shelter is about $105,000. The largest contributor was Superior Framing Systems Inc. of Yorba Linda, which donated $15,000 worth of labor.

New Vista provides shelter to temporarily homeless families, allowing them to save money for an apartment.

Expanding the shelter is the third of five projects by the Building Industry Assn. in Orange County to increase the number of beds for the temporarily homeless.