According to the 2009 Homeless Enumeration Report performed by the Homeless Services Coordinating Council (HSCC), on any given day in San Luis Obispo County 3,829 people are homeless. The homeless shelters are brimming with newcomers while county officials work together to build new homeless campuses to house the 1,500 more homeless than were reported in 2006.
Working as partners with the San Luis Obispo County Board of Directors, the Homeless Services Coordinating Council began meeting monthly in October with two purposes: homeless awareness and oversight. With representatives from every city, the council is currently focused on a plan developed in 2007 by more than 100 people from different agencies called, “A Path to a Home: A Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness.”
According to Dana Lilly, a member of the advisory council from the San Luis Obispo County Planning Department, this “Ten Year Plan” includes constructing a new all-hours homeless campus in San Luis Obispo. The way the system works now, a homeless person can go to the Prado Day Center during the daytime and bus two miles to the Maxine Lewis Memorial shelter at night.
“The current centers are old modular buildings that are just worn out. We need a one-stop shop that has both centers,” Lilly said.
The Homeless Services Coordinating Council hopes to get the new shelter approved by the Airport Land Use Commission this year and to start building in 2011. Facilitated by Architecture Instructor Charles Crotser, Cal Poly students held a reception last year at the Prado Day Center displaying models for the new shelter in the form of senior projects.
Based on these models and occupying a vacant lot on the corner of S. Higuera and Prado Rd., this comprehensive shelter could house nearly 200 people, a substantial increase from the 49 spots available at the Maxine Lewis Memorial Shelter. Here, first-time members are guaranteed a bed for the first 30 days, and after that, beds are harder to come by.
There are roughly 20-35 spaces available in an overflow unit provided by the Interfaith Coalition for Homeless. This unit is reserved for families, children and women, but case manager Pamela Hughes said they are still turning people away nearly every night. Hughes works together with clients to aid in things like applying for social security and jobs or getting on wait lists for low-income housing.
“I used to be able to get them jobs,” Hughes said. “I could make a single phone call or trucks would drive by daily asking if we had anyone who could work. That’s just not happening now.”
Aside from an obvious increase of homeless individuals in the past year, Hughes points out the uncanny amount of the educated homeless coming through. She explained how up to 10 individuals have had master’s degrees, three have had doctorates, and many more have graduated from college with bachelor’s degrees.
When the sun rises, the Prado Day Center sees a constant flow of homeless as well. Serving breakfast and a hot lunch seven days a week in addition to providing laundry facilities, hot showers and donated clothing, the center has roughly 120-130 people coming though daily according to manager Darlene Mims.
“Almost every day we get newcomers,” Mims said. “We are seeing more families and more individuals in general. Many are victims of mental illness, some of domestic violence, and others are just passing through.”
The majority of the meals are prepared and served by local churches. Cristian Rojas, a recent Cal Poly graduate and member of the the Seventh Day Adventist Church, has been volunteering at the Prado Day Center since 2004.
“We go to the center the fourth Sunday of every month and serve lunch,” Rojas said. “Every time I volunteer, there’s a lot of people showing up.”
Due to the chilly winter months, the Prado Day Center recently extended its hours to remain open at night. Even with minimal sleeping accommodations, this should hopefully relieve some of the pressure on the nighttime shelter.
The city of San Luis Obispo has the highest percentage of homeless persons with 36 percent of the county’s homeless population followed by Paso Robles with 20 percent. Half of the homeless in the county have been without a place of their own for over a year.
The homeless community also has a high amount of social and family ties to the area. Twenty-six percent reported they have friends and family in the San Luis Obispo area and 38 percent are originally from the county.
On Nov. 24, a San Luis Obispo rancher by the name of Dan De Vaul was released from county jail after being arrested and fined in September for housing as many as 73 homeless people on his Sunny Acres ranch through a recovery and rehabilitation program he founded in 2001.
“A homeless guy asked if he could put a truck and camper on the corner of my property…He showed up a week later with a homeless friend who happened to be a classmate of mine from the class of 62′ at San Luis Obispo High,” said De Vaul when explaining the beginnings of his operation. The classmate still lives on the Sunny Acres property nine years later.
De Vaul’s sentence included two misdemeanor violations of building and safety codes.
Though officials and agency workers indicate a growing homeless community, comparisons between the 2006 and 2009 reports may be skewed because last year’s report had an increased number of volunteers and was recorded at a different time of year.
Not only focused on shelter expansion in San Luis Obispo, the “Ten Year Plan” includes the construction of three additional regional campuses, short-term housing subsidies, promotion of community volunteering and expansion of affordable housing.
Lee Collins, director of the San Luis Obispo Department of Social Services described it as an ambitious plan to not just reduce, but to end homelessness entirely.
“I want us to take the view that our work is not done until no one is homeless,” said Collins.