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ISN Celebrates the EL Nido NestBuildersHigh Tea Held

ISN kicked off the month of March with a very special “Thank You!” to some

of El Nido’s extra-special supporters – the caring members of ISN’s new

monthly giving program, NestBuilders.

The March 1 event was hosted by the El Nido NestBuilders committee; Olivia

Dorman, Diane Hazard, Maryanne Johnson, and Claudia Allen. The gracious

affair included a selection of gourmet teas and savories.

On hand to help celebrate them and El Nido’s 20th year of operation were two

former executive directors of ISN; Mary Niez and Rosemary Johnston. Niez

explained to the crowd how the program came into being in 1997; making the

switch from general transitional housing to domestic violence.

“It’s so important that women and children recovering from abusive

relationships have a place from which to rebuild their lives,” Niez confided.

“El Nido gives them a foundation that allows them to soar.”

Rosemary Johnston spoke of the unity of purpose behind El Nido and the

many organizations that support it. The Transitional Living Continuum (the TLC)

was founded with the program to provide community support and involvement.

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SHELTER MATTERS is published three times a year

by Interfaith Shelter Network of San Diego,

3530 Camino del Rio N. Suite 301,

San Diego, CA 92108.

EDITORNancy Petitti

CONTRIBUTORTrisha Brereton

The Interfaith Shelter Network is funded in part

with Community Development Block Grant (CDBG)

Program funds provided by the U.S. Department

of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

Please consider putting Interfaith Shelter Network

in your will.

Interfaith Shelter Network:

www.interfaithshelter.org

Client Story: George & Isbel SantillanQ: How does a family become homeless? A: Things happen…We asked recently re-housed, ISN client, George Santillan that same question.

It turns out that his family landed on the street after a row with the friends theywere staying with. New to San Diego, with only his wife Isbel employed and himstill job-hunting, and two young sons (2 and 5 years) to take care of, they hadlimited income and few options.

Never having been homeless before, they went to a hotel, where they quicklyran through their small income. Realizing that they would never be able to saveenough to get a permanent place at that rate, they searched for other options.

Desperate calls to 2.1.1.San Diego resulted in the news that San Diego’s few shelters that take whole familieswere full, so they opted to sleep in their car. For thechildren’s sake, they tried to make it into an adventure.While Isbel continued to work, George took care of thechildren. Setting up camp at Mission Bay, he bought a grill and cooked healthy food for them. Taking advantageof San Diego’s many free attractions, he took them tobeaches, libraries, and parks.

Meanwhile, he continued to make calls daily, until he heard back from ISN’shousing case manager, Abby Shrestha, with the welcome news of an opening inISN’s Rotational Shelter Program. Once in the program, things began to turnaround for the family.

George found a job that allowed him to work around his wife’s schedule, sothat they could share their parenting duties. Shrestha urged them to apply for anavailable apartment and accepted the family into ISN’s Rapid Re-Housing Programto help them overcome the financial burdens of moving.

Three months later, George’s job has evolved into a full-time position and thefamily is happily settled in to an apartment they love in a nice neighborhood.

“Thanks to our time in the shelter and the Rapid Re-Housing money, we have

been able to get back on our feet financially. Things happen (in life). Lots of people

just give up; not just drug addicts, either.”

What he wants us to know: “Anybody can do anything. Anything is possiblewhen you put your mind to it.”

The TLC today continues to playan important role in the lives of the El Nido families; most notably byproviding furnishings and householditems for each apartment, and byhosting special events that help buildfamilies and a sense of communityamong the El Nido participants.

Rosemary Johnston praised the ElNido support group. “El Nido is ashining example of how people of faithwith differing beliefs can work togetherto create a better community whereeveryone can thrive.”

The NestBuilders campaign hasraised one-third of its $100,000 annualgoal. Members fulfill their annualpledge monthly, quarterly, or bi-annually; using the most convenienttime frame for them. NestBuildersreceive invitations to special eventsand regular updates on El Nido.

For information about becoming apart of NestBuilders, please go towww.interfaithshelter.org/nestbuildersor call 619.702.5399.

ISN CelebratesC O N T I N U E D F R O M F R O N T PA G E

Financial SecurityA young shelter guest rests while hisparents attend ISN’s Budgeting Workshop.Banking, budgeting and saving arediscussed. Assistance with householdbudgets is provided. The workshops areoffered to all Rotational Shelter Programguests. These volunteer-led workshopshave been increasing the financial securityof ISN’s clients for more than 20 years.

Contentment after one of ISN’s informative and stimulating Budget or Employment workshops.Every kid should have his or her own bedroom.

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As more tents go up across San Diego, more San Diegansare talking about homelessness – and many of the same mythskeep circulating.

We’ve all heard them: Most homeless folks are mentallyill. They don’t want our help. They’re moving here in droves.

None of those statements is entirely true.

But perhaps they serve a purpose. All are convenientcrutches that make it easier to avoid confronting the hardwork necessary to aid the homeless, especially those whoseem hardest to reach.

Some of them involve placing blame or making excuses,which are easier to do than having the tougher, solutions-oriented conversations about whether we’re doing enoughto help the homeless and whether the resources we’reoffering them are working.

Here are the facts on three of the most persistent anddistracting myths about the homeless in San Diego.

Myth: Most homeless people have serious mental illnesses.

The most memorable encounters many of us have withthe homeless are with those who seem to be mentally ill andthat can lead to some faulty conclusions.

For that reason, there’s a tendency to link homelessnessand mental illness – and to suggest it’s a major roadblock toeradicating an overwhelming social problem.

In recent interviews with political candidates, the Union-Tribune’s editorial board repeatedly suggested it wouldn’tbe possible to end homelessness in San Diego because that“would mean ending mental illness.”

Yet only a fraction of San Diegans who live on the streetreport having serious mental illnesses.

This January, volunteers surveyed hundreds who live onthe street and used the responses they received to gauge thelikely percentage of the unsheltered population consideredmentally ill.

The Regional Task Force on the Homeless, which conductsthe count, estimated just 14 percent of the unshelteredhomeless in San Diego have a mental illness.

Since those stats do rely on self-reporting, I did moreresearch and found this conclusion by University ofPennsylvania professor Dennis Culhane, who’s doneextensive data-crunching on mental illness among the homeless.

Here’s what he wrote in a 2010 op-ed for The Washington Post:

In my own research, I have calculated that the rate ofsevere mental illness among the homeless (including familiesand children) is 13 to 15 percent. Among the much smallergroup of single adults who are chronically homeless, however,the rate reaches 30 to 40 percent. (The Task Force estimates22 percent of the county’s homeless population is chronicallyhomeless, which means they’ve been homeless for more than ayear or had multiple stints of homelessness.)

Culhane told me he stands by that national estimatetoday, though he believes the percentage of chronicallyhomeless adults with serious mental illness is probably closerto 30 percent.

Iain De Jong, a Canadian consultant who helped create asurvey used in regions across the country to pair the homelesswith services, also rejected the mental illness myth – andwanted to clarify another thing.

“To say mental illness is a cause of homelessness is agross overstatement,” De Jong said. “It’s not borne out withthe facts that most homelessness is a confluence of events,not one event.”

Myth: Most of San Diego’s homeless moved herefrom elsewhere.

Anyone who lives in San Diego knows we’ve got a mildclimate with fewer cold nights than other parts of the country.This helps fuel the assumption that much of San Diego’shomeless population came here from one of those lesscomfortable places.

This Business Insider piece, for example, chroniclednomadic folks who “seek refuge from colder climates on thewarm beaches and bays of southern California. Here, theyregroup, reconnect, and plan ahead for their next move” –reinforcing the idea that outsiders comprise a large share ofSan Diego’s homeless population.

Even Alpha Project CEO Bob McElroy, whose nonprofitaims to combat homelessness locally, has sometimesseemed to imply San Diego’s weather could be drawingthe homeless here.

“Smart homeless people are in San Diego, dummies areon 12-foot snow drifts back east somewhere,” McElroy toldKUSI last year.

But data that’s been collected about such movementsdoesn’t support the theory that there’s massive migration toSan Diego.

Three Myths About San Diego’s Homeless PopulationBy Lisa Halverstadt | Voice of San Diego | June 13, 2016

We’ve all heard tales of the homeless migrating to San Diego or heard someone suggest most homeless people don’t want to leavethe streets. None of that is entirely true.

The latest point-in-time count survey included a questionthat aimed to address whether homeless folks were migratingto San Diego.

The Regional Task Force on the Homeless has sinceestimated that 70 percent of San Diego’s unshelteredhomeless population became homeless in San Diego andthat just 24 percent became homeless elsewhere beforecoming here.

Dolores Diaz, who leads the Task Force, has noted thatmigration within San Diego – particularly, to downtown SanDiego – is far more common.

Tales of the homeless folks migrating aren’t unique toSan Diego, so the Veteran Affairs’ National Center onHomelessness Among Veterans took a look at suchmovements for a national analysis published last fall.

The VA think tank tracked more than 113,000 veteranswho accessed the agency’s homeless services and found just15 percent moved across large geographic areas during atwo-year period.

“The converse of this is that over five-sixths of this studygroup were stationary or moved only in a local context,” theanalysis says. “Even when looking only at those veteranswho were homeless for extended episodes, migration ismore the exception than the norm.”

The net result for the VA region that includes San Diego,other parts of southern California and southern Nevadafurther drives home the insignificance of homeless migration.

Researcher Stephen Metraux found 14 percent of thosewho utilized VA homeless services in the region moved outand 13 percent moved in – meaning there was actually a netloss of 107 veterans in the region.

Metraux also emphasized that there wasn’t a massivemovement to warmer weather cities like San Diego duringthe winter months.

“There was a modest seasonal migration effect from colderclimates to warmer regions,” he wrote.

Myth: Many of San Diego’s homeless aren’t interested in getting off the streets.

It’s a comment often expressed in exasperation when theconversation turns to ending homelessness in San Diego, agoal that can seem insurmountable after years of effort.

Many homeless people in San Diego don’t want help.They prefer life on the street, they say.

San Diego authorities do face big challenges as they tryto get the homeless into shelter but the truth is far morecomplicated than this myth implies.

For one, many people do want to get in shelter but canface weeks-long waits and seemingly complex sign-upprocesses to get into those beds. The latter can be enoughto discourage some people.

More crucially, shelters aren’t always inviting places forthe homeless. Many are uncertain the resources beingoffered will work for them.

Some shelters have rules that frustrate homeless people.They can’t drink or must abide by a curfew. Or they can’tsleep beside their partners or bring their pets. Forced tochoose between a roof and their closest companions, manychoose their companions.

Then there’s the fact that many of the folks who seem mostresistant to getting off the street aren’t apt to quickly trustthose who offer them a path. They may not view life on thestreet as the ideal option but they do see it as a safer option.

When I’ve pressed homeless folks who seem disinterestedin shelter, most have told me they haven’t found an optionthat works for them, or at least acknowledged they’d like toget off the street eventually. The right scenario might changetheir minds. They just haven’t been convinced that anexisting option could work for them.

Experts say it often takes weeks or months to persuade a person who’s been on the streets for years to take up theoffer of housing, let alone shelter.

“People need to understand that we’re dealing

with people that have experienced the trauma of

homelessness and other life traumas,” Diaz said.

“Something has to happen to establish trust

and open the lines of communication.”

When that happens, lives can change.

Exhibit A is Project 25, the collaboration between FatherJoe’s Villages and a handful of other entities. Father Joe’sinitially targeted 34 homeless San Diegans racking upsignificant emergency service bills and put them in permanenthousing with access to around-the-clock medical care andcase workers, saving more than $2 million in 2013 alone.

But getting folks to enter the program wasn’t always easy.

Project 25 director Marc Stevenson often talks aboutDouglas “Hutch” Hutchinson, who struggled with alcoholismand health issues on the street.

Before they could help Hutchinson, case managers had tofind him. Then they had to earn his trust.

“It took us four months to really engage with him andget him on board with what we were trying to do,”Stevenson has said.

Hutchinson was dubbed a Project 25 success story beforehis death in 2014.

http://www.voiceofsandiego.org

Three MythsC O N T I N U E D F R O M PA G E 3

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Save the Date!

Saturday,September 9, 2017

Revelers and awardees celebrating at the 2016 Celestial Nights event.

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