1. St. Vincent’s Responds To Call for Emergency Shelter
2. Village Clients Prepare for Careers In the Culinary Arts
3. Serving Up Success: Program Stirs Up New Hope for Village Clients
4. Education Continues for Children Despite Family Transitions

St. Vincent’s Responds To Call for Emergency Shelter

By Mark Tsuchiya

   Under the watchful eyes of St. Vincent de Paul Village staff, government officials, news cameras and dozens of new clients, Father Joe Carroll opened a temporary winter shelter program for the second year in a row in San Diego’s East County.

   The site, located just 20 minutes from downtown San Diego, was identified by city officials months after homeless advocate Father John Conrad of St. Alban’s Episcopal Church in El Cajon began a battle with them to address the growing need for emergency winter shelter in the town. A portable sprung structure was erected by St. Vincent’s that has provided respite from the cold weather.

   Family members and single adults totaling 150 people sleep in the facility nightly and have access to Village services designed to help them find permanent housing.
“Many of the people utilizing the shelter are employed, but have been upended by San Diego’s rising cost of housing,” says Tony Sterzinger, St. Vincent’s seasonal shelter manager. “With that in mind, we’ve focused our efforts on finding these individuals stable affordable housing and livable wages by holding housing and job fairs at the facility.”

   “We also understand that other issues can and do contribute to homelessness, like drug addiction, domestic abuse and failing health,” he says. “To address those and other complex issues, case managers visit our clients regularly to make sure specific problem areas are identified and treated.”

   St. Vincent’s has also worked closely with area social services agencies such as Crisis House, Home Star and San Diego County’s Homeless Outreach team to identify transitional housing options for those clients not yet prepared to enter permanent housing.

   While the winter housing kept hundreds of homeless out of the cold, it is only a stopgap, says Father Joe, adding the March 31 closing date is only days away.

   “People are homeless year-round and there needs to be a year-round solution,” he says. “The obvious answer is a permanent homeless services facility in the East County modeled after St. Vincent’s downtown San Diego facilities.”

   Those downtown facilities provide housing, medical care, job training, counseling, children’s services and food to thousands of the county’s less fortunate annually.
Father Joe says if a permanent location in San Diego’s East County could be identified he would help design and possibly manage the facility and its services.

   “We’ve established locations in other areas before, including La Mesa last year, and if we can find the support and cooperation of the community and its government leaders, we’d be open to doing it again.”