For families experiencing homelessness, finding a safe place to stay can change everything.
On Thursday, the El Camino Homeless Organization (ECHO) unveiled a new family wing to help more parents and children find stability.
While a ribbon-cutting is typically packed with friendly smiles, clapping, and laughter, ECHO’s big reveal of its new family wing was also filled with plenty of tears.
“Seeing the faces of people we are serving now, or have served, coming out and knowing what it will mean for them – that’s probably the most important part that got us really emotional, is what it’s gonna be able to do, and the positivity that is going to happen in this family wing,” said ECHO CEO Wendy Lewis.
For former residents, like Tyra King and Marcella Ramirez, who know all too well how families will feel stepping foot inside ECHO for help, seeing the new space hit home.
Something as simple as a new bathtub brought back memories of the days King and her three little ones found safety within ECHO’s walls.
“We didn’t have baths, it was just showers, so I took the storage tubs, and I would fill them up for each three of my kids - I had a single one - and that would be their own little personal bath,” King said. “That’s a way of, you know, figuring it out, so now seeing that they’re accommodating people, but to be able to see it in person, with my own two eyes, it’s so exciting to see.”
The 7,200 square-foot, two-story expansion is called The Balay Ko Family Resource Center. It’ll add 30 more much-needed beds for more families to rest their heads and comes equipped with its own laundry room - something ECHO Atascadero never had. There is also a kids’ playroom, and beds donning ECHO-kids-requested bed sheets and pillowcases that each child gets to keep – something Ramirez remembers too well.
“It’s been a few years that we’ve been housed, and to take them home to a home of our own, it just touched my heart,” she said.
King, who has been housed now for almost a year, says ECHO changed her entire life. She feels like she can finally hope and dream again and says she’s sure the new family wing will do the same for so many others.
“Every single one! Anybody that walks through the door,” King said. “Any family that walks through the door, it’s going to impact. Every single one.”
According to ECHO, the Balay Ko Foundation funded a large portion of the $3.6 million family wing.
The non-profit has reached 90% of its goal. If you'd like to help out, you can donate on their website.
