Homeless Services Increase In Contra Costa County

CONTRA COSTA COUNTY — Tom Grabowski came to the parking lot across the tracks from the Martinez Amtrak station Friday morning for a breakfast burrito, some coffee and, most importantly, a shower. Located there every Friday morning is a trailer containing mobile showers and tents offering food and clean clothes.

All around are volunteers willing to help in myriad ways. On this cold, foggy morning, Grabowski was talking with Bill Long, who operates a ministry that reaches out to the homeless. Grabowski told Long he needed some new shoes; Long wrote that down on a notepad.

"It's amazing how hard it is to get a shower, or to find someone willing to let you use one," said Grabowski, a onetime corporate trainer whose divorce triggered a downward spiral that has left him on the streets for three years. A simple shower, he said, "is about personal self-respect, you know? If you look good, you feel good; if you're freshly showered, you don't look so homeless."

This Friday morning outreach is the product of the work of various city and county officials, as well as faith-based groups and other volunteer organizations.

And according to those who routinely work with the homeless, that collaboration of governmental agencies, nonprofits, faith-based groups -- sometimes partnerships of all three -- have increased levels of service to all segments. Most notably, the numbers of homeless veterans have been dropping -- by 11 percent over five years -- thanks to improved outreach to that specific group.

Jaime Jenett, a community engagement specialist with the Contra Costa County Health, Housing and Homeless Services, also said the numbers of homeless families and transition-age youth, ages 16 to 25, have dropped by 16 and 25 percent over the past five years, respectively, according to a report from Contra Costa Health Services.

"The cities have all really stepped up, and we're seeing much more collaboration," Jenett said. "They see it will take partnerships to make a dent in the problem."

The downside is that, in Contra Costa, overall homelessness was up 3 percent in 2019 over the previous year, with observed increases in (and aid responses to) homelessness among adults with disabilities (22 percent), single adults and, particularly, adults over age 62 (up 97 percent over the
past five years). These findings, Jenett said, reflect regional and national trends.

"Seniors tend to be price-sensitive, and when rents go up, they don't always have the capacity to fill that gap," she said. Combined with seniors being an increasing proportion of the overall population, Jenett called this a "silver tsunami."

Trinity Center, Walnut Creek
Marjolein Daas, associate executive director of Walnut Creek-based Trinity Center, a nonprofit serving homeless and "working poor" adults, said the center had 66 "intakes" into its program in November, up from 48 in November 2018. Most new clients, she said, are seniors. And all 10 spaces in Trinity's "Safe Parking Program" allowing people who live out of their cars to park safely, are currently occupied by seniors, Daas said.

"Seniors often can't afford to rent around here ... The rents are going up each year, and they're usually on a fixed income," Daas said.

Though home values have risen only very slightly in the past six months, the average entry-level home in the San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward area is still $478,000, according to the American Enterprise Institute Housing Center. And Rent Cafe says studio apartment rents in Oakland start at
$1,500 a month and go up from there; ForRent.com shows 1-bedroom apartments in Contra Costa County starting at about $1,500 a month, with many over $3,000.

A key tool in addressing homelessness countywide is the 12 Coordinated Outreach Referral and Engagement (CORE) teams, which include two outreach specialists and, in various instances, a benefits social worker, a nurse or primary care physician, a psychiatrist, a behaviorist and/or housing navigator. These are the folks who go to the homeless encampments and offer
everything from basic supplies to getting people in touch with service providers, including those who can find them shelter, jobs and permanent housing.

One of the earliest CORE teams in Contra Costa was formed to help the homeless in Pleasant Hill and Martinez. That team, along with Martinez city officials, homeless aid groups, police, Loaves and Fishes and the Bay Church, has been involved in an operation that started in September that
provides showers and meals for the homeless, many of whom live in and near Radke Martinez Regional Shoreline Park, north of downtown. The mobile showers are set up from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. each Friday; City Councilwoman Noralea Gipner said that 34 homeless were served one recent Friday.

"I had to convince my city manager to pay for water, and to give us a good location," Gipner said. "And it was hard to get the (East Bay Regional) Park District to sign off."

But two months after startup, Gipner said cooperation has improved, help from nonprofits has been great, and that their efforts seem to be making a difference.

"Unless you have someone at the city level to push things forward, it is just not going to happen," Gipner said. "We need to find more people in the various cities to kick butt and make things happen."

In Walnut Creek, Trinity Center is in a temporary facility awaiting completion of St. Paul Commons, a 44-unit apartment complex of low-income units west of downtown being built by Resources for Community Development. The first families could move in as early as late December, Daas said.

Trinity Center is also hosting its "Evening Program" again this winter, using the local National Guard armory building to give at least 38 homeless people in the Trinity Center program a warm place to sleep. That begins Dec. 9 and goes through March.

The Walnut Creek Police Department has started its own Homeless Outreach Team, and in October, the Antioch City Council approved starting work to help the homeless by providing more portable toilets, dumpsters, showers, warming centers and other services, as well as safe parking lots for those living in vehicles.

As homelessness has become more pervasive in the Bay Area and elsewhere, it has also touched more people personally. Friday morning, several outreach volunteers said they were either once homeless themselves, or have loved ones who were, or are now.

"It's the people who have caused this to happen," said Lian Busby with the group Passion To The Streets, which reaches out to homeless students and their families.

Grabowski is grateful for what the Martinez collaborators can give. "I'm starting to feel human again — I'm getting over that hump."

Written by Sam Richards | Copyright 2019 by Bay City News, Inc. —Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.