{"id":237157,"date":"2014-09-05T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-09-05T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/one-life-at-a-time\/"},"modified":"2014-09-05T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2014-09-05T07:00:00","slug":"one-life-at-a-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/one-life-at-a-time\/","title":{"rendered":"One life at a time"},"content":{"rendered":"

St. Vincent de Paul\u2019s remains at the forefront of helping those in need<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dave Schwab<\/p>\n

A \u201chousing first\u201d approach is being touted by officials these days as the first and foremost path to pursue when attempting to combat homelessness.<\/p>\n

\"Outside<\/a>
Outside view of St. Vincent de Paul\u2019s just east of Petco Park. (Photo by Dave Schwab)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s a road St. Vincent de Paul Village in Downtown San Diego has trodden for more than 60 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were doing housing first before it was cool,\u201d said Ruth Bruland, executive director of Father Joe\u2019s Villages, the managing partner of St. Vincent de Paul\u2019s.<\/p>\n

The agency provides permanent housing and nearly 900 transitional housing beds nightly for the local homeless, including families, women, men, teens and veterans at St. Vincent de Paul Village, Josue Homes (for those affected by HIV\/AIDS) and the Toussaint Academy for teens.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have almost as many people in permanent housing as we have in transitional housing,\u201d Bruland said, a little-known fact about St. Vincent de Paul\u2019s in her opinion.\u201cTransitional housing has been around for decades and has helped a lot of people escape homelessness,\u201d said Tom Theisen, board president of the Regional Task Force on the Homeless.<\/p>\n

Theisen is presently involved with a project seeking to effectively house and retain 150 veterans and 100 chronic homeless individuals Downtown by Sept. 17.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe recognize that in the past, San Diego has invested heavily in transitional housing, and we would like to find a way to utilize this resource, at least to some extent, to help end homelessness here,\u201d Theisen said.<\/p>\n

St. Vincent\u2019s also serves between 700 and 900 free lunches daily \u2014 300,000 annually \u2014 to Downtown\u2019s homeless and hungry.<\/p>\n

The free lunch program was one of the first services provided by Father Joe\u2019s beginning in the early 1950s at St. Mary of the Wayside Chapel in East Village. Since then, the institution has evolved into a homeless one-stop shop.<\/p>\n

Part shelter, part employment center, part health clinic, part classroom, part dormitory and all heart, St. Vincent de Paul Village has served as an inspiration \u2014 and model \u2014 for battling homelessness for decades.<\/p>\n

St. Vincent de Paul Village\/Father Joe\u2019s Villages at 1501 Imperial Ave. just east of Petco Park is a one-size-fits-all campus intended to address all the rehabilitative needs of the homeless: everything from providing meals to temporary and permanent housing, child and health care, case management, even family literacy and parenting instruction.<\/p>\n

A range of clinical services are also offered in-house, including assessments, addiction treatment, and mental health services for individual, group and children\u2019s therapy. An on-site health clinic offers medical, dental and psychiatric care and there is a chaplaincy program as well.<\/p>\n

St. Vincent\u2019s Career & Education Center teaches participants job skills and computer literacy, and partners with a community college to provide on-site adult education and GED prep.<\/p>\n

\"Ruth<\/a>
Ruth Bruland, executive director of St. Vincent de Paul\u2019s. (Photo by Dave Schwab)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The mission of St. Vincent de Paul Village is to end homelessness \u201cone life at a time.\u201d Its multi-dimensional approach of housing people first, before dealing with their problems, helps do exactly that.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause of our size, people have a hard time wrapping themselves around the fact that we really do look at it individual by individual,\u201d Bruland said. \u201cWe break up our services by teams. That helps us to be more individualized in our approach.\u201d<\/p>\n

Addressing the issues surrounding homelessness is all about getting back to self-sufficiency at St. Vincent\u2019s.<\/p>\n

A supported income team, for example, focusing on employment with a job developer and job-seeking skills classes, helps match clients with available services. Another team concentrating solely on housing aids the homeless in finding lodging.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything here is about income and housing,\u201d Bruland said. \u201cWe want to know what\u2019s\u00a0 the best housing for you. We want to know what kind of barriers there are to you saving enough money to do that [security] deposit.\u201d<\/p>\n

The formula St. Vincent de Paul\u2019s has used for decades works.<\/p>\n

\u201cNinety-two percent of the people we\u2019ve helped place in permanent housing is unsubsidized housing, so taxpayers do not pay any money,\u201d Bruland said, adding that the transitional housing provided by St. Vincent de Paul\u2019s \u201chelps street people get back on their feet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bruland said people taken off the street and given transitional housing who are unable to pay rent due to various personal issues get federally funded housing vouchers. Others with less complicated issues who are more job-ready receive temporary rental vouchers which pay their rent for several months until they become self-sufficient.<\/p>\n

Recently, Bruland led a walk-through of St. Vincent de Paul Village\u2019s four-block campus in Downtown San Diego\u2019s East Village neighborhood. Walking through the facility\u2019s health clinic, the group filed past a poster board titled \u201cWall of Smiles,\u201d where before-and-after photos of St. Vincent residents who\u2019ve received complete or partial dentures are displayed, chronicling their journeys back to self-sufficiency.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a dispensary here, not a pharmacy,\u201d Bruland said. \u201cThat allows seamlessness. You don\u2019t have to send someone out to a pharmacy and they never get their medications for a plethora of reasons.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bruland\u2019s walk-through returned to an outdoor courtyard in the complex where residents line up for lunch on a meandering, red-hued sidewalk leading into the cafeteria.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe provide a free lunch for anybody in the community seven days a week,\u201d she said. \u201cWe are dedicated to it because we think it cuts down on panhandling. We think it\u2019s the right thing to do \u2014 being a good neighbor.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the biggest \u201cpatron saints\u201d of Father Joe\u2019s Village\u2019s good-neighbor policy is Qualcomm co-founder Franklin Antonio, whose $2 million gift is paying for five years of free lunches for those in need.<\/p>\n

Bruland said 37 percent of St. Vincent\u2019s funding comes from grants, which she deemed \u201cvery important.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c[But] undesignated donations are what allows us to really respond to the community\u2019s needs,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Back on the guided tour, Bruland threaded her way through a high-rise building, one that offers permanent housing for those with serious mental illness, as well as child and family services.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis building wasn\u2019t even here five years ago,\u201d she said. \u201cA lot happens in this building other than just cute kids taking naps.\u201d<\/p>\n

St. Vincent de Paul\u2019s family therapy center has psychiatrists aiding parents by helping them to \u201cwork through targeted interventions helping their child overcome a [developmental] delay.\u201d<\/p>\n

Due to safety reasons on the street, Bruland said that homeless children spend an inordinate amount of time in strollers. This can cause them to fall behind in their coping skills, which then need to be developed later in order for them to become well-adjusted adults.<\/p>\n

St. Vincent de Paul\u2019s has a staff of nearly 350 and even more volunteers who selflessly give of their time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe could not do what we do without volunteers,\u201d Bruland said.<\/p>\n

Those who find themselves homeless can apply for residential services at St. Vincent in-person at the front desk in the Joan Kroc Center from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays, excluding some holidays. The first scheduled appointment following the in-person will be a housing assessment. Applicants are then placed on a housing placement list, with wait times varying from as little as two weeks to as many as four or more weeks, depending on demand.<\/p>\n

For more information about the organization or to volunteer, visit svdpv.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u2014Dave Schwab came to San Diego 30 years ago with a journalism degree from Michigan State and has freelanced for numerous dailies, weeklies and other regional publications. He can be reached at dschwabie@journalist.com<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

St. Vincent de Paul\u2019s remains at the forefront of helping those in need Dave Schwab A \u201chousing first\u201d approach is being touted by officials these days as the first and foremost path to pursue when attempting to combat homelessness. It\u2019s a road St. Vincent de Paul Village in Downtown San Diego has trodden for more […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":237158,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"One life at a time","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11547,11551,11600],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-237157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-news","category-sdnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}