Refuge of Seamen Becomes Haven for Homeless Hungry

For more than 55 years, it was a place of respite for weary sailors, a sturdy brick building whose roomy interior offered a shower, a sandwich and a television set to those who had spent too much time away from home.

But on Wednesday, 440 N. Avalon Blvd. began providing refuge for those with more basic troubles. Indeed, many served in the modest harbor-area quarters have no job, no home, no food--and nowhere else to go.

The former Catholic Maritime Club has become St. Joseph’s Table, the South Bay’s second soup kitchen and what local social service workers call a long-awaited response to Wilmington’s increasing number of homeless and destitute.

Seen As a Lighthouse

“I see it as the lighthouse for the harbor area,” said Mike Larranaga, director of the center, launched by Catholic Charities with help from other churches. “From here we can be the center point for helping the needy.”

To start, St. Joseph’s is providing a free lunch--like Wednesday’s lamb stew, rice, tossed salad and buttered bread--Monday through Friday between 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. St. Joseph’s officials say they expect to serve about 180 people a day, close to the 200 or so people that are homeless or living in run-down hotels in Wilmington, according to local estimates.

St. Joseph’s opening lunch Wednesday drew 101 people, including six children, but Larranaga said he expects the number of patrons to increase continuously as word of the facility spreads throughout the community.

But Larranaga and others expect that the number of people depending on St. Joseph’s may grow for other reasons as well.

In the next several months, St. Joseph’s plans to supplement its daily meals with a food pantry and a social services referral program.

Sacks of Groceries

The pantry will provide free sacks of groceries for Wilmington families that are at or below the poverty level of $10,990 a year for a family of four. They represent 16.8% of the community’s nearly 40,000 people, according to the most recent U.S. Census statistics, compiled in 1980.

The referral program would direct the needy to government and nonprofit agencies that may provide permanent solutions to the poverty cycle through job placement and training, housing programs, legal aid, medical assistance or other counseling.

“This should be more than a quick fix,” said George Wilson, a member of St. Joseph’s community advisory committee and pastor of Calvary Presbyterian Church in Wilmington. “This should also be a way out. . . . Maybe there’s someone who can get out of this rut of poverty; maybe we can help a few people. But no one, no one, should go hungry.”

That problem is particularly acute in Wilmington, said Catholic Charities officials, who said they have moved their maritime services to San Pedro, where there are more sailors.

According to St. Joseph’s statistics, unemployment is twice as high in Wilmington as it is in surrounding South Bay communities. About one-third of Wilmington’s households are overcrowded, compared to a South Bay average of one-tenth.

Worked for Nine Months

Members of the advisory committee and officials from Catholic Charities have been working for more than nine months to come up with a way to help, they said.

“While the churches have individually been working on giving out food, they haven’t been able to meet that need alone,” said Joanne Bell, hunger networking coordinator for Pacific Presbytery, who works with food distributions programs countywide and is a member of the committee. “St. Joseph’s is very important to Wilmington.”

Carolyn Valles, a Wilmington senior citizen who, with her husband, Gilbert, helped prepare the first meal served at St. Joseph’s Wednesday, agreed. “I think it’s a very good idea,” she said. “Those people are hungry and they need to eat. They live on the street. They need help.”

St. Joseph’s has drawn strong support for the kitchen from 62 other community volunteers, as well as from most of Wilmington’s churches, several businesses and some local social service agencies. The center’s paid staff includes only Larranaga and a cook.

For example, Calvary Presbyterian has collected money for the center, among other things, and a food co-op run by Holy Family Catholic Church has offered some of its extra staples.

Joined Forces

And some have joined forces with St. Joseph’s. For example, the organizers of Wilmington’s One at a Time Ministries have halted their food program and are instead helping to launch the soup kitchen, said leaders Terri Odum and Brenda Fiscus. The program, a mobile hunger relief service that provided curbside meals at Wilmington’s makeshift camps of the homeless, has become unnecessary with the creation of the permanent quarters, the women said.

“This is a community affair,” said Larranaga. “I see the total community here, rich and poor, coming down here and making this effective. Without the help, we could not operate.”

If one part of the community has been noticeably absent in the undertaking, Larranaga said, it has been the business community--to whom the center is looking for what it says are much-needed contributions.

“I am a little disappointed there hasn’t been more response,” said Larranaga, who said he has sent about 2,000 letters to South Bay businesses since April 1 requesting donations. “Even most of the oil companies haven’t responded. . . . Sometimes, I guess, too many people are asking at once.”

Needs $40,000 More

Larranaga said he has raised about $10,000 mostly from individual contributions, but needs at least $40,000 more to simply continue to operate the soup kitchen. More will be needed to subsidize the food pantry and referral service, he said.

The initial program has been launched mostly through funding provided by Catholic Charities, which has contributed $20,000 and use of the building, said Dick Langevin, a regional director for Catholic Charities. St. Joseph’s also has received several city and county block grants, he said.

Although money has not come pouring in, neither has the residential opposition that typically surrounds the location of such facilities as soup kitchens.

Some merchants in Wilmington’s business district have voiced complaints that the facility may further depress sales in the declining commercial area by attracting “undesirable elements,” said Wilson, the committee member.

St. Joseph’s is located three blocks from the heart of Wilmington’s business district, in an area of industrial sales operations, small bars and restaurants and littered vacant lots. It is about six blocks from Los Angeles Harbor.

No Position by Chamber

The Wilmington Chamber of Commerce has not officially taken a position on the opening of the center, a spokeswoman said.

But while St. Joseph’s hopes for more moral and financial support, many involved in the center say their goal is to provide hope for Wilmington’s needy. Ultimately, Larranaga said he would like to see St. Joseph’s provide not only its lunch service but also dinner and breakfast seven days a week.

Wilmington currently has several other assistance services including a food pantry at St. Peter and Paul’s Catholic Church, the food co-op at Holy Family and shelter and evening meal program at the Beacon Light Mission, just two blocks from St. Joseph’s.

The South Bay’s only other soup kitchen is the House of Yahweh in Lawndale, said Bell, the food distribution program coordinator.

“If we can help 1% out and put them back in the mainstream, that would be a tremendous thing,” Larranaga said. “It’s a blessing that we have this place, the volunteers, and hopefully the contributions. But it is a shame that we have the Skid Row, the homeless.”