By Jon Wiener
Seventeen years after local churches came together to create it, the Community Services Agency is closing the doors to its unique Alpha Omega homeless shelter in early March.
The nonprofit’s board of directors decided in early December that shrinking revenue would force them to eliminate the rotating shelter program, but they stressed they were only doing to so to further their ability to serve the homeless.
“This decision is a very hard one, because we all love the program so much, but we know it’s time for it to go,” said CSA executive director Tom Myers.
CSA allowed homeless clients to stay in Alpha Omega for as long as 180 days in exchange for cooperation with case managers, who would try to address the root causes of their homelessness. The program moved to a different church each month, where the congregation would work with outside volunteer groups to provide food and other services.
Heartwarming stories have never been hard to come by at Alpha Omega, from the couple that got back on its feet at the shelter and bought a mobile home to the high school students who’d cook dinner for the homeless residents and sit down to eat with them.
Gisela Daetz is the Alpha Omega coordinator for Emmanuel Lutheran and the chair of the program’s steering committee. Every November evening for the last eight years, she would open the doors to the Los Altos church to welcome homeless clients as well as the volunteers there to help that night.
“It put a face on the homeless population,” Daetz said. “I met homeless people who were Stanford graduates and others who were high school dropouts.”
But problems began to mount in 2001, when foundations shifted their funding from rotating shelters in favor of “bricks and mortar” facilities. A year later, the county followed suit.
A year ago, CSA eliminated a half-time position dedicated to pre-screening applicants, which meant that instead of serving 15 individuals, the shelter could fit no more than eight at a time.
“What it boils down it is, ‘Are we serving the most people in the most efficient way possible?'” said Myers.
More work to be done
CSA associate director Maureen Wadiak credited the program with removing stereotypes about homelessness, but said the agency could reach more people by offering its homeless case management services to people throughout the area, regardless of whether they are in a shelter.“Especially in this Valley, many people are one paycheck away from being homeless,” said Wadiak. “All it really takes is an illness, one bout of depression, the loss of a job.”
Homeless populations are difficult to count because of their transience, but estimates of the number of homeless in Mountain View, Palo Alto and Los Altos range from 50 to 250. Wadiak said CSA staff and volunteers would be going out to local creek beds and underpasses to talk to residents about services the agency offers.
CSA will hold a celebration March 8 to thank its partners for their involvement in the program and hopefully motivate them to continue as the model shifts from a rotating shelter to more case management.
For Daetz, the grieving period is already over. Now it’s time to move on and throw more energy into addressing homelessness. She’s hoping that others will join her, even if the shelter’s closure means reduced visibility in the community.
“What I loved about it is that you got churches of various denominations actually working together,” she said. “Rallying together to do something worthwhile and good for someone else. That’s when faith communities are at their best.”
E-mail Jon Wiener at jwiener
