The exterior of Los Alamos Group Home at 2056 Peach St. Courtesy photo
The interior of Los Alamos Group Home. Work is underway to raise money to replace the floor. Courtesy photo
By KIRSTEN LASKEY
Los Alamos Daily Post
[email protected]
For more than 40 years the Los Alamos Group Home at 2056 Peach St., has served adults with developmental disabilities. It does far more than just offer residents a roof over their head; the home provides a close-knit family environment – one to celebrate holidays with, attend outings together and live independently. Now, the group home hopes the community can pitch in with assistance.
The Los Alamos Group Home needs to replace the flooring in its common areas: the living room, kitchen, support staff’s office and laundry rooms. It is teaming up with Mesa to Mesa, an organization that offers home repairs to low-income homeowners, to coordinate the work. The project involves ripping out the 40-plus year-old cracking and peeling laminate tiles and replacing them with new laminate and heavy duty-industrial carpet squares.
Mesa to Mesa Executive Director Jon Bulthuis said the plan is to approach various organizations such as 100 Women Who Care for financial assistance and apply for grants, but the hope is that individuals will want to contribute, too.
“We have volunteers that can help in certain situations … to keep the costs down,” he said. “I hope we can all work together to make the needed improvements to the common areas of the home.”
Los Alamos Group Home Board President Bobbie Riley said an estimate was received in September for the work, which totaled nearly $25,000.
She emphasized that supporting the home is a worthwhile investment in the community.
“If people could see in and look at the energy in there, it is such an amazing place,” Riley said.
Bulthuis agreed, saying the Los Alamos Group Home “fits a niche that no one else in Los Alamos does.”
The Los Alamos Group Home is a nonprofit 501-3c, Riley explained, and it was specifically built for adults who have developmental disabilities. The home can accommodate up to eight residents. There are five people living in the home now and three of these individuals have resided there for 30 years.
While not a requirement to live in the home, some residents do have jobs in the community, Riley said. Qualified residents can live indefinitely in the home and should be 18 years old or older.
She added that the Los Alamos Group Home partners with Las Cumbres Community Services in Española, which staff the home to offer residents 24-hour, seven days a week supervised and supportive living care: meals, transportation to day-out programs, day to day living support, social services, etc.
“They do a great job keeping the residents happy, healthy and engaged in the community,” she said.
Los Alamos Group Home is certified under the Housing and Urban Development department, so residents do qualify for rent assistance, Riley said.
If interested in supporting the home’s floor project, tax deductible donations can be mailed to either The Los Alamos Group Home Board at PO Box 1093, Los Alamos, NM 87544 or to Jon Bulthuis at Mesa to Mesa, PO Box 1008, Española, New Mexico, 87592. Please make a note that the donation is for the flooring project. For more information on the project or about Los Alamos Group Home, call Riley at 575.207.7658.
