Nonprofit struggles to house fire victims

A local nonprofit organization is struggling to find new homes for several Sonora residents of an apartment building destroyed by fire last week.

Six of the residents were participants in the local chapter of a National Alliance on Mental Illness housing program, which used federal grant money to rent seven studio apartments in the building.

 Mental health advocates running the program say funds through the Amador-Tuolumne Community Action Agency are helping provide the six people with hotel rooms for at least the next month, but securing permanent housing has proven difficult.    

“It’s just not happening,” said Mary Leamy, program director.    

The program provides housing for homeless and mentally ill people, but they must follow certain guidelines such as spending three days each week working, volunteering or going to school, according to Leamy.    

“It’s a program to get people off the street and use the community’s resources to make a better life for themselves,” Leamy said.    

The organization used a federal grant to rent the apartments in the building at 489 S. Stewart St. It was getting prepared to rent its eighth apartment before Tuesday’s fire destroyed all the units.    

It was easy for NAMI program participants living in the building to meet their commitments to work, school or probation because it was in the downtown area, Leamy said.    

“The location of that building was everything,” she said.   

Clothing and food has been relatively easy for NAMI workers to gather for participants displaced by the fire, but specialized items such as glasses, medication and school textbooks have been more difficult to replace, Leamy said.   

Three of the six NAMI program participants are enrolled at Columbia College and planned to return to classes Monday, Leamy said.    

She said many are struggling with the situation after losing both their belongings and their community.    

“These people were homeless when they came into our program,” Leamy said. “They thought they were OK, and now they’re back where they were before.”    

Seven people not in the NAMI program who were living in the building have been assisted by the American Red Cross with needs including shelter, food and clothing, according to Red Cross spokeswoman Debbie Calcote.   

Fire crews were not able to stop the blaze before the 14-unit apartment building and most of its contents became a “total loss,” according to Sonora Fire Chief Michael Barrows.   

Barrows determined the fire was accidently caused by maintenance workers soldering copper water pipes on the outside of the structure.    

Craig Cesarin, a fire investigator for Fire Cause Analysis, who was representing the building’s owner, said he came to the same conclusion as Barrows.    

The fire likely started inside the walls from the heat of the welding torch and traveled into the attic, Cesarin said.