New Shelter Needs A State Inspection to Receive Guests

The North Strand Housing Shelter’s new building is dedicated but needs a state inspection so beds and furniture may be moved in for waiting veterans and families.

“We have veterans waiting to go in and we have families waiting to go in,” founder and director Dana Black says.

People in need of the additional capacity are sleeping in cars or in the streets, Black says. “We can’t occupy because we’re waiting on the state inspection.”

The new, two-story building has two family rooms on the right side of the first floor and a veterans wing on the left side that will accommodate up to eight. The second floor will accommodate men on one side and women on the other. The total capacity is 37, compared to only 16 beds in the one-story building operated as a shelter since December 2010.

The North Strand Housing Shelter story is remarkable and inspirational. The need for a shelter was clear to many residents of North Myrtle Beach and Little River; nevertheless, when Black first announced plans for a shelter as part of Worldview Ministries, folks wondered how it could be done. In a relatively short time, Black, her husband Michael Bolch and scores of supporters and volunteers acquired a former women’s shelter on S.C. 9, remodeled it and opened NSHS in December 2010.

A few months after it opened, the shelter was turning away people. Also, a pressing need for shelter for families became evident. In 2012, for example, the 198 people housed included 29 children. One of the “Faces of the Shelter” stories, displayed Monday in the new building during the ribbon-cutting ceremony, was about a couple and their four children who stayed at the shelter while dad and mom looked for work. Then the family moved to its own place, and after several months returned to their previous community in another state.

The building “is set up family-style,” Black says. “We want them to feel comfortable, not in an institution that’s cold.”

“It’s all about the stories,” Bolch told the ceremony audience, in answer to those who may ask, “Why do you do this?” He noted that a now-married couple met at the shelter and the man is a chef at a resort. Bolch read the Bible passage in Matthew [Chapter 25] where Jesus says if you have fed the hungry and cared for people in need, “… whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”

Pointing to his wife, Bolch said, “She has been the vision and the passion.” In her remarks, Black revealed she has had people tell her, “You shouldn’t have done that [start the shelter]. That was wrong.” For their part, the Bolchs and their many supporters feel quite the opposite. “The Lord has blessed us and this shelter,” Bolch said.

About $30,000 is owed on the approximately $700,000 building, Black says, but she is “more concerned about operations. Monday, she noted the importance of fundraisers. The shelter receives no government funds for operations. The only paid person will be the new house director, Christina Nelson of Longs.

“We always are looking for volunteers. We can’t tell you enough how much we appreciate the volunteers,” Black said. More will be needed – to answer the phone, serve as shelter office sitter, drive a van, be advocates for veterans and families – as the North Strand Housing Shelter opens its handsome new house.

This story was originally published April 21, 2015 at 2:28 PM with the headline "New Shelter Needs A State Inspection to Receive Guests."