People know whether or not they can succeed as a staff member at the Neil Good Day Center in under a week said manager Paul Sheck. Some do not even need a full day. Sheck has brought candidates to tour the Day Center during interviews who have looked at the center going full blast and said immediately they did not want the job.

“This is a difficult environment to work in. They always say if you can work at the Day Center, you can work anywhere in [Father Joe’s] Village,” Sheck said.

The city-owned Day Center building located on CalTrans land and operated by Father Joe’s Villages provides basic humanitarian care to people living on the street as well as case management for those hoping to get off the streets. The Day Center offers stop-gap services amid a shortage of shelter beds and permanent housing.

In 2022, nearly 6,000 unduplicated people walked through the gates of the Day Center and received 75,000 services such as free laundry, clothes, showers, bathrooms, storage, mail services, gathering documents and system navigation. Registering with the Day Center also gives clients access to some services at other Father Joe’s locations, like the meals, computer lab and medical center down the street.

“We provide the services that we provide, but our main focus is on building relationships with people and breaking down whatever barriers that they might have and then ultimately get them housed, get them into shelter,” Sheck said.

Often crowded, fast-paced and facing overwhelming levels of need, staff need to be able to efficiently manage an array of services for hundreds of people per day in a squat building with a shed, patio and grassy hill making up the small property.

For those who are capable of working at the Day Center, Sheck said there is little turnover except when promoted to other jobs, often at Father Joe’s.

“Whether I’ve been lucky or whether it’s just the culture we’ve built here, we’re all kind of close. So we don’t leave somebody standing over there by themselves, especially if something’s just happened or they’re struggling,” the manager said.

Sheck has worked at the Day Center for the past 13 years. After a career cleaning pools, Sheck graduated from college in the uncertain economy of 2009 and took a weekend job in the mail room. Within five years, he was a dedicated manager at the Day Center and has stayed in the position since.

His friendly and down-to-earth demeanor is one of the reasons he has succeeded in a tough job. In the short walk between the Day Center and Father Joe’s main buildings, Sheck could not go half a block without being approached with questions about services. He called staff to get a bus pass ready for a man who needed to get to the DMV. He strategized with a woman seeking shelter on the best way to meet outreach workers the next day. He greeted some of those lining up to talk to him by name.

For the newly homeless, the Day Center may be the first place they go to find services. The Day Center has connections with all the different services in town — and also knows their limits — which means staff sometimes have the regrettable job of informing newly homeless people that there are not enough shelter beds available for them right away.

“When you’re newly homeless, you want to get off the street. [No one is] like hey, ‘let’s go pitch a tent over here,’” Sheck said. “And without having shelter beds available, it’s a challenge. You have to keep encouraging them.”

He promotes a compassionate approach to interacting with clients. He instructs staff to treat everyone who enters the gates of the Day Center as if it is the most traumatic day of their life.

“You have to have the mindset here of every day is a new day,” Sheck said. “If you’re sleeping on the street, every day can be your worst day. So you’re gonna receive the wrong end of people’s feelings sometimes.”

Clients have even come back to apologize for how they treated staff, which is part of why Sheck said it is so important to give everyone a clean slate each day.

This understanding approach extends to case management. In other places, clients are required to meet with social workers in order to receive services. Instead of using threats or ultimatums, visitors to the Day Center can access any service they want and only meet with a case worker if they choose.

This elective way of forming relationships has helped staff members build trust with people who have lived on the street for decades and get them housed – a special focus of Sheck’s.

The Day Center has faced many challenges: COVID-19 restrictions on gathering, budget cuts that affected services and hours, and most recently, a Tuberculosis exposure affecting staff and clients.

One of the biggest disruptions from the budget cuts clients have complained about is the mail room closing on weekends.

For thousands of people, 299 Imperial Ave. is the permanent address that lets them apply for jobs, receive government identification and food stamps. In an average month, there are 2800 mail pick ups processed through two windows at the front. So much mail is received the center cannot hold someone’s mail for longer than two weeks.

In addition to treating clients with dignity and compassion, Sheck also breaks down stereotypes about homeless people. He noted that the public does not really think of unhoused people working weekday jobs, but the demand for weekend mail and showers each weekday morning demonstrate this segment of the population exists. On a tour of the laundry and bathroom facilities, Sheck said he has found that being clean is quite important to homeless people – the opposite of the perception.

What keeps Sheck going is the success stories. Previous clients drop by the Day Center to show off their keys — with help along the way, they are finally housed.

“That’s why I do this, because there’s a lot of suffering going on out there. And right here, we can offer a little bit of hope and help them get to where they really want,” he said.