Changes implemented include more responsibility for chores
levied on the homeless
San Benito County Homeless Shelter is ready to open its doors
again to those in need of refuge from the elements, even if just
for a night.
There is no clear idea how many people the shelter will serve
this year, but volunteers want to be ready when they do come.
Changes implemented include more responsibility for chores levied on the homeless
San Benito County Homeless Shelter is ready to open its doors again to those in need of refuge from the elements, even if just for a night.
There is no clear idea how many people the shelter will serve this year, but volunteers want to be ready when they do come.
The shelter opened for the first time last December and is modeled after Gilroy’s shelter. Six dorm rooms from the migrant camp property off Southside Road have been converted into one large room for the shelter, which has been furnished with bunks. The shelter is open from dusk to dawn. Visitors check in at 6 p.m. and the shelter keeps its doors open until 9:30 p.m. – 30 minutes before lights out. In the morning guests are fed and bussed back into town at 6 a.m.
The shelter will operate this way from now until mid-March when it will close its doors again and return to use for the migrant camps in the spring.
The shelter has space for up to 24 people, though shelter manager Leigh Dietz said numbers will likely be smaller to start, but as the winter wears on, the numbers will grow.
Last year 77 people used the shelter at one time or another, the vast majority of them local. Estimates indicated that 75 percent of visitors were male in their 40s. In order to qualify for certain grants, the shelter is not allowed to take anyone younger than 18 years old.
“There was never a day when we didn’t have somebody here. At the same time we never reached full capacity where we had to turn anybody away,” Dietz said.
Some of last year’s clients were able to use the shelter’s services to find apartments or alternative living situations, so the shelter has a notion that those residents will not be back this year. At the same time, there are other residents that are newly homeless.
One of the greatest needs for the shelter is a permanent location where the facility can keep its doors open year-round, instead of just in the winter. Three homeless people died during the summer.
But there have been some changes already.
One is requiring more responsibility on the part of the homeless themselves, said Kathy Ruiz, homeless task force chair, including a push to institute chores for the shelter’s users.
Last year many of the volunteer organizations that supported the shelter had to bring cooked meals to the shelter, but this year organizers say they will be able to use the kitchen, so they can cook onsite.
The shelter will offer free medical and dental services in addition to the free behavioral, health, substance abuse and veterans’ services the shelter offered last year.
In the future the homeless task force hopes to establish transition housing, similar to a program currently used in Gilroy.
Transition housing allows homeless people to stay at the site longer and helps them to get back on their feet by offering language and job skill classes that help make it easier for the people to find jobs and earn a living.
The shelter is still looking for goods and volunteers. The biggest needs currently are paper goods and other disposable items such as toilet paper, paper towels, garbage bags, aluminum foil and sandwich baggies. Volunteers are also needed to help prepare and serve meals.
For more information, or to volunteer or donate call Dietz at 801-9531.
Patrick O’Donnell can be reached at [email protected].
