Season of sharing: Region preparing to shelter the homeless

(Second of three “Season of Sharing” stories.)

By Pat Kumpan

Coordinators and volunteers with the Interfaith Shelter Network are gearing up for two-week rotating shelters in Poway, Rancho Bernardo and in other communities as well.

Director Rosemary Johnston said this week that four facilities, three churches and a synaxgogue in the Poway-Rancho Bernardo area, have locked in their dates, preparing to welcome “guests” who have no place else to go.

Student Support Services Coordinator Cathy Kosich gives words of support to two homeless students at Abraxas High School. Photo by Pat Kumpan

Those who are homeless due in large part to the economy, must first be screened by Interfaith Community Services in Escondido.

During the 2010-11 winter season, 39 people were sheltered in Rancho Bernardo and Poway shelters, according to Johnston.

Faith-based volunteer groups are already prepared to take their turn by offering a shelter in the rotation schedule, which begins locally with Temple Adat Shalom on Sunday, Dec. 18.

The temple’s Executive Director Jeffrey Frankel said this is the second year his temple has provided space for cots and a place to sleep for about 12 people.

The Interfaith Shelter Network, which also coordinates rotation shelters in other areas of San Diego, provides cots and bedding to faith-based shelters, according to the nonprofit’s director, Rosemary Johnston.

The need, however, is for more faith-based groups to offer shelters, Johnston added. To help, leave a message for her at 619-702-5399.

Frankel said his facility has no showers, typically a prerequisite to host a shelter.

“We worked it out with Interfaith Community Services in Escondido,” he said. “We transported everyone (last year) to ICS for showers at their Escondido facility, while we do the rest — provide a safe place to be, bedding and meals here at the temple.

“These guests are wonderful people who have hit tough times,” Frankel said of those who come to shelters.

Instead of referring to displaced adults and their children as “homeless,” Frankel said he and others prefer calling them “guests.”

Temple Adat Shalom agreed to the first dates in the rotation, because “We wanted to allow the other faith-based groups to celebrate Christmas,” Frankel said.

As to meals, he said, “It’s up to us to decide what to offer.”

Those who stay in Adat Shalom’s shelter during Christmas will get a turkey dinner that day, pasta and meatballs and other meals on subsequent days.

“We break bread with them and get to know them,” Frankel added.

“I got so involved (last year), my family and I stayed over night,” Frankel said. “My kids loved it.”

Guests are assigned to a shelter with the understanding that it will be a two-week stay at each location in the rotation, during which time they must be fine-tuning their resume and actively looking for work, Johnston said.

At the Interfaith facility in Escondido, adults can receive counseling, information about jobs, bus tokens and food from the pantry, according to Mary Ferro, an Interfaith coordinator.

Ferro said that many who are homeless often tell her, “I thought no one cared at all.”

Overcoming that feeling of being worthless typically subsides as people get employment, or have a support system of family and friends, she said.

Ferro said her organization will keep mail for displaced workers, help them use the computer or hand out vouchers for various services, such as haircuts.

At San Rafael in Rancho Bernardo, which opens its pastoral center as a shelter Jan. 29, just in time for Super Bowl Sunday, coordinator Joe Larkin said last year’s volunteers were so appreciative of the effort to help those down on their luck that many are returning to help this year.

“This year, we’re hoping to offer manicures, haircuts, ways to help them find jobs to feel better about themselves,” Larkin said. “Hosting the shelter has become a labor of love, a rallying point of the congregation.”

Meanwhile, Poway Unified School District families are experiencing their own hardships, according to Youth in Transition coordinator Abby Davis.

“Currently there are homeless students at each of our high schools — and other schools too,” Davis said.

The Poway Unified School District had an estimated 101 homeless students in the 2010-2011 school year.

This year, roughly 53 students have been identified for the 2011-2012 school year, but that number is expected to jump to as many or more than last year’s total count, Davis said.

At Abraxas High School, at least three of eight students who are homeless now live with other families, according to counselor George Pantano.

“Students are considered homeless if they have been displaced and do not have a permanent home,” he added.

Three girls interviewed this week, said they cannot return to their families. Their names are not being used because of their ages.

One of the girls said her mom is homeless too. The girl has moved from one friend’s home to another, but has now settled in with a family that seems the right “fit” for her.

“My job is to see that kids eat, get to school and have transportation,” Davis said. “Sometimes I plug families into 2-1-1 San Diego — a free phone service with a live representative who answers need-based questions.

“Teachers and staff are my best eyes and ears,” Davis said. “Sometime families are too proud to say they need help.

“We’re seeing a lot of families who were doing well, have lost a house and are not doing well now,” Davis added.

She sees one of the solutions to help such families — get local churches and synagogues to adopt a family.

Help parents get jobs and find the services they need. That would also be extremely helpful, suggests Davis.

Gift cards from grocery stores, Wal-Mart and Target are also a great way to help PUSD families, she said. Davis can distribute such items to those in need. For more details, call her at 858-748-0010, ext. 2039.

Those who live in a shelter, car, hotel (not paid for by insurance), on the street, in an abandoned building, trailer, campsite, or other inadequate accommodations are considered homeless.

If they are doubled up with friends or relatives because affordable housing cannot be found — and that situation puts the family or students sleeping in some type of temporary situation or location, they are considered homeless.

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Posted by patkumpan on Nov 30 2011. Filed under Featured Story, Local News, Poway. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry