The group El Camino Homeless Organization, also known as ECHO, just unveiled a new wing of its Atascadero campus that will be dedicated to families with children.
ECHO provides food and shelter to people who are experiencing homelessness, and also helps connect them with permanent housing.
Currently, families and children staying at the Atascadero campus share rooms with other residents.
“But in the new wing, each family will have their own room, their own space to come home to after long days,” said Wendy Lewis, ECHO’s CEO. “It's just a better way, an enhanced way, for us to provide the services we do for families that are unhoused in our community.”
ECHO partnered with the Balay Ko Foundation to create the two-story extension.
Lewis says it was built using modular, pre-fabricated components.
Using that method helped both reduce the cost of the project and shorten the time needed to build the space — the construction was ultimately completed in less than a year.
Lewis said the speed of construction was critical, because there are currently 300 people on ECHO’s waitlist.
Families with children will begin moving into the new wing in early September.
