July 14, 2006

City’s Project Homeless Connect aims to help downtrodden with life skills

Duel fundraiser events to spark community awareness

By Justin Petersen
Staff Writer

San Jose will not rest before more than 1,600 citizens who sleep in the streets are housed, according to the city’s Department of Housing and Project Homeless Connect Coordinator Alicia Barraza.

A group signs in with Project Homeless Connect volunteers. San Jose Department of Housing officials hope to enlist 1,000 volunteers this year.

Barraza will head the third annual Homeless Connect event to be held December 7 at Parkside Hall downtown, in her first year working for the Department of Housing. As an initial momentum splash, she has arranged two fundraising activities to take place within the next month.

“We’re hoping to let the community know about our events early,” said Barraza. “Our goal isn’t just to get a parade of people on the day of (the event). Though it is just a one day event, we have to start getting volunteers and contributions.”

On July 18, 25 percent of all revenue generated at Pizza Chicago downtown will be donated toward the project, as will an equal share from door money earned August 3 by Angel’s Ultra Lounge and Cabaret on First Street.
Barraza hopes to begin generating cash flow to support more than 1,000 homeless the city expects to serve in December with the events.

“Homelessness is such a common issue,” said Barraza. “There are 12,600 homeless annually in San Jose. It’s a bigger issue and a more common issue than people are aware of.”

Many families, who never before considered the plight, were faced with a bleak reality just a few short years ago when the stock market saw its share of struggles and job security for many evaporated, said Barraza.

“Even though we are in Silicon Valley, the big loss of jobs a couple years ago, that really escalated the scale of homelessness,” said Barraza. “If 30 percent of your paycheck goes toward mortgage, that’s an at-risk homeless person.”

Barraza said that a disproportionate number of workers in Silicon Valley became wedged between a rock and a hard place, when forced to make a decision between eating food and living in a home.

However, 25 percent of homeless questioned in interviews posed by San Jose State University students in conjunction with the Department of Housing’s project, claimed to suffer from problems associated with substance abuse. Barraza said that a huge misconception in the general population is that most homeless choose to be homeless, preferring live on streets.

“Our current goal is to tailor the programs and meet special needs of the population within the homeless in our city,” said Barraza. “We’re trying to get to know them for awhile, [and] they try to get to know us, but what we are giving them is the opportunity to have stable, healthy living—even onsite job employment.”

The event is part of a national program initiated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Chair, Mel Martinez, who called for the abolition of homelessness in the country within 10 years of the U.S. Conference of Mayor’s Resolution in 2003, according to Barraza.

“It is our goal to connect them to medical housing, social services and legal information,” said Barraza. “We consider anything really to display services that could benefit them.”

Homeless who attend will receive free medical advice, assistance with grooming, a hot plate of food, and the opportunity to interview by potential employers. Barraza said that one great scenario would be if the city connects homeless with transitional homes, based on interaction with them at Homeless Connect, ideally leading to permanent residency.

While many programs foster care for poverty stricken members of society, Homeless Connect is especially strong, thanks to statewide and national support. San Francisco, for example, holds the event every month.

Its aim to equip homeless with tools to correct their current state is helpful and rewarding thanks to the participation of local small businesses, according to Barraza.

“As of right now, we have Camille’s sidewalk café, who will attend,” said Barraza. “The manager is super interested in hiring people who have struggled but really want to get on their feet and need the opportunity. Other restaurants in the area are interested in doing the same thing.”

San Jose’s Department of Housing hired Barraza based in part on experience she built living in Ecuador for eight months.

“I worked at a dump site, where people actually lived in the dump, and there was actually status within the dump, whether you ate there or whether you ate and slept there,” she said. “We may share familiar problems, but America has the tools to create stable living conditions more so than what I experienced in other countries.”

Barraza is complementary of San Jose’s efforts to assist the less fortunate.

“We have enjoyed a really great turnout over the past two years—we hope to reach 1,000 volunteers this year,” said Barraza. “Last year the number of volunteers was just over 200. We’re really encouraging community participation and involvement. Our job is to find people who are going to bring awareness to build a long term solution that can happen.”