Connecting With The Homeless

Did you ever live under a park bench? I have. Have you ever-collected cans for a living? I have. Was your warmest/safest nights spent in a mission bunk bed surrounded by bad smells, drunks, and thieves? Mine were. Now I’m a member of the Homeless Care Network.


For a short time in 1983 I was homeless. How I got there is not important for this conversation, but why I stayed is very important. I had too much pride. I had family, friends, and services that I could have turned to, but didn’t. I didn’t want anyone that I knew to know about my shame. In order to correct my problem I had to get over this mindset. I had to reach out to my network of friends, family, and other contacts.


Riverside’s Mayor Ron Loveridge likes to quote Robert Putnam on his views on networking; they tend to share the same ideas about the value of social capital. Putnam says, "…that social networks have value. Just as a screwdriver or a college education can increase productivity (both individual and collective), so too social contacts affect the productivity of individuals and groups."


The City of Riverside has done a lot in dealing with the problem of homelessness. A few of their efforts center around direct outreach to those in need of more then just a place to lay their heads.


In forming partnerships with an eclectic group of government agencies, non-profit organizations, social service providers and faith-based organizations the City of Riverside has taken a practical move toward dealing with homelessness in our city. These groups are forming into a type of social network. Now let’s find a way of bringing the homeless into that network.


According to their website (http://www.riversideca.gov/devdept/housing/homelesshighlights.asp) “In June of 2003, the City of Riverside adopted the ‘Riverside Community Broad-Based Homeless Action Plan.’ Since its adoption, the City has aggressively pursued implementation of 30 action-based strategies within the plan including hiring a Homeless Services Coordinator, opening a new Emergency Shelter and Access Center program, expanding funding for community-based service agencies, allocating new funding for homeless prevention and rental assistance activities, and strengthening collaboration with faith-based service providers.“

That new Homeless Services Coordinator, Don Smith says, “The City of Riverside is taking an aggressive, pro-active approach to addressing the issue of homelessness. Through our Homeless Street Outreach Team and the Riverside Homeless Care Network, we are implementing an assertive intervention strategy in coordination with a wide range of community partners to engage people on the streets, assess their service needs and identify solutions to help people exit life on the streets.”


I think that his words are more then just lip service. In my outreach to the homeless I’ve discovered that we have so many resources, programs, and caring groups of individuals that no one has to be homeless. The main problems that we face are connecting the homeless to the resources, and overcoming the problems of drug addiction and mental illness.


In 1983 I made a friend, I will call him John (not his reel name), well John and I were/are about the same age, he being older by just a few years. We were among the youngest around at that time, which may have been our chief bond, that and the fact that we had attitudes about not reaching out for help, and we are both 6’5”.


John was a star forward for a big time college Basketball team. He hurt his ankle in a game, got hooked on painkillers, lost his scholarship, went into a downward spiral, and eventually ended up on the streets.


Together we signed into a youth program (18-21) at the Union Rescue Mission. They helped us get I.D. cards, Social Security Cards, jobs, and a direction in life. That particular program was heavy in memorizing Bible verses, which may be the reason that I became a missionary for a short time down in Oaxaca, Mexico.


Despite his joking, fun-loving personality, John had a problem doing what he considered work that was beneath him. I did my best to counsel him on this; I mainly lent an ear, and stroked his ego. Being a big time rising basketball star had gone to his head. I tried to lead by example, I worked in the kitchen, cleaning urine stained sidewalks, help check people into the overnight program, and a little bit more. Soon John started to get into the program and the work, but one day John disappeared from the program with no explanation.


About a month later John showed up in a crisp black suit and a long black limo. He had gotten a job as a limo driver from a contact that he made through one of the mission’s benefactors/volunteers. That volunteer was a big college basketball fan and knew who John was. He told John’s story to someone who gave John a job as a driver.


John had come back to tell me what had happened. We didn’t have cellphones back then. He thanked me for being there, and took me out to the best restaurant that I’d ever been to at that time in my young life. Now, in 2007, John owns a limo service and hires as many people as he can, many off the streets. He credits the people that he met along the way. The social capital that he had built eventually paid off.


I believe that we can build super networks that can do great good. In the nine months that the Street Outreach Team been around they have encountered over 500 homeless individuals on the streets and other locations not meant for human habitation in the City of Riverside. Outreach staff works with community partners to get people connected to shelter, housing, employment, benefits assistance, behavioral health services, transportation back to their hometown and other assistance they need. Some of the outcomes of these engagements include:


484 clients engaged for potential service provision;
239 clients assisted with entering into either emergency, transitional, service-based or permanent housing;
104 clients assisted with employment placement;
22 clients assisted with transportation home to family or service-providers;
44 clients assisted with enrollment into mental health services;
32/245 clients assisted with enrollment in residential treatment for substance abuse.


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