Coastal Center for Hope and Healing reports rising demand, announces donated transitional home

Donnie Brooks, president of the board of the Coastal Center for Hope and Healing, briefed the board on rising service demand and announced a donated, move-in-ready house in the New Bern area that the shelter plans to use as transitional housing, to be called Courtney's Home for Hope.

Brooks gave counts intended to demonstrate service volume: he said the shelter answered roughly 1,600 calls in the fiscal year and more than 1,000 crisis calls so far this fiscal year; staff provided hundreds of counseling hours and logged thousands of shelter nights. “Every dollar invested in our organization is possibly a life saving,” Brooks said, and he described planned fundraising and grant-seeking to sustain the transitional-house program.

Amanda Delgado, who followed Brooks at the microphone, answered commissioners’ operational questions. On who could live in the donated house, Delgado said, “There are 2 bedrooms in the home, and, yes, children will be able to stay in the home with their non offending parent.” She described the program sequence: emergency shelter stays of up to three months, with the option of up to three additional months in transitional housing while residents seek permanent housing. She said the shelter hopes to open the house by April.

Commissioners thanked the presenters and asked follow-up logistics and timeline questions. Brooks praised current community partnerships and asked the board to continue supporting the shelter’s operational funding and outreach work.

No formal funding vote for the newly donated house was recorded during the presentation; the briefing was presented as an update with requests for ongoing partnership and support.