*****UPDATE as of October 15th*****

100% of our residents had to be moved to the hotel because of continued positive cases and staff shortages caused by the pandemic!!! Our costs have increased to over $75,000 per month and we need your help to sustain!!!!

Watch the latest update from Executive Director, Julie Jeppson

The pandemic has affected us all, one way or another, and over the past two weeks, Stepping Stone has seen a dramatic increase in the number of positive cases among residents and staff. Despite our ongoing vaccination clinics offering 1st, 2nd and booster shots as well as ongoing testing, cases continue to rise in our small congregate living environment. Our response to this has been swift, unprecedented and costly.

We are incurring $50,000 of additional expenses each month to shelter half our residents at a local hotel. We only have three months of funds to cover this added expense.

Initially, quarantining those residents who tested positive and sending home staff who tested positive, seemed like it would be effective. However, with 66 residents, and the small footprint of our shelter, we just couldn't create enough distance between everyone. So, on October 1st, the decision was made to move our male residents into a local hotel to help curb the spread.

As you can imagine, moving this number of people, several of whom do not have their own transportation, from one location to another, was extremely difficult. Adding to the difficultly, from the residents' perspective, is the fear of this virus and the uncertainty of their housing as they are asked to pack all of their belongings and move. The mental toll of this crisis is immense.

Along with the expense of sheltering the residents at the hotel, we've had to move to providing individually packaged meals to each resident and with our staff shortages, that required us to order meals from local businesses.