Medford, Ore. — Hope Village in Medford has been open 64 days, and already its making progress in the local homeless community. According to Rogue Retreat – since opening, eight residents have gotten jobs, and one resident has moved into his own home.
Case management at Hope Village told NBC5 News the project is already a success.
“When we forget to take care of the people who are in need, we’re actually forgetting to take care of ourselves because eventually that could be us,” said John Valladao, a resident at Hope Village.
“The people are polite and they’re quiet. They treat each other with respect, and that’s important,” he said.
He’s been dealing with homelessness for a while now, but feels lucky to be a Hope Village resident.
“I would love to see it succeed so that the city council will be able to see that – hey, look this is working. Let us go ahead and help others and make more of these places that are available for the people,” he said.
He said it’s something our community desperately needs.
“It’s really tough especially for people who are unable to get employment,” he said.
Valladao said he’s on social security, so he has income – it’s just not enough.
“But try saving up on a fixed income, enough money to be able to pay your first and last and security deposit,” he said.
Much less anything else, like food.
“I make too much money according to the state of Oregon to get any more than $16 in food stamps. And the way I look at that – that’s four gallons of milk,” he said.
But it wasn’t always this way for Valladao. He said he never thought in his life he’d be homeless.
“I made $32 an hour driving and hauling gas for chevron in southern California,” he said.
He says homelessness can happen to anyone. Though things could be better for him right now, he’s not complaining.
“Loved everything I done. Been a great father, I was a single dad of two kids, put my daughter through college, so I feel quite a bit of success,” he said.
He just wishes the public would open their eyes to the homeless community.
“What they see is they probably see the one percent of the homeless, which are the ones who are strung out on drugs,” he said.
He says that’s far from the truth.
“I think the failure is society for forgetting that it’s only as great as it treats its weakest link,” he said.
Which is why he’s pleading to the public.
“Give this place a chance, let it grow, and if it’s successful – let them repeat it because success repeated is always successful,” he said.
Hope Village is continuing to finish parts of the village, like the shower and restroom area. Rogue Retreat is also working to continue to find more ways of moving homeless people into independent living through the Kelly Shelter. It opened Monday at a church in downtown Medford.
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