Bill May Provide Money for Program : Houses for Homeless Haven’t Found a Home

Four buildings donated to serve as shelters for North County’s homeless are still without homes themselves, despite the efforts of a task force that has spent the last three months beseeching local governments, businesses and charitable agencies for assistance.

The buildings--three houses and a duplex--were donated to the North County Task Force on Homelessness in June. However, the search for land on which to put the buildings has thus far been fruitless, though there may be cause for hope in a bill that is being considered by Gov. George Deukmejian.

The Assembly bill, co-authored by Assemblyman Peter Chacon (D-San Diego), would allocate $3 million for a pilot program in San Diego County to establish alternative sources of shelter for the homeless. If successful, the program would serve as a blueprint for other counties to follow.

“Basically, it’s a program to come up with creative ways to deal with the problem that haven’t been addressed before,” said Irma Munoz, an aide in Chacon’s San Diego office.

The bill, which enjoys support from Assemblymen and senators of both parties, went to Deukmejian’s desk Aug. 28, Munoz said. The governor has until Tuesday to veto the measure or it will become law, she said. A spokesman in Deukmejian’s office said Wednesday that the governor has yet to take any action on the matter and has not indicated whether he favors the program.

Should the bill become law, Kristen Meyer, a co-founder of the North County task force, said she believes her group has exactly the kind of innovative approach to helping the homeless that the bill seeks to support. At the very least, the North County shelter would provide housing for homeless families, Meyer said, and it could be expanded to include transients and other types of homeless people.

“We’ve got some real questions to answer as to what kinds of populations we would shelter,” Meyer said. “Our first priority would be to keep family units unified and together. We might also have a rotating system where different church groups could provide shelter for homeless men.”

All such considerations, however, are moot until the task force finds land for the buildings, which were donated by Temple Adat Shalom, the Trinity Episcopal Church and an anonymous local philanthropist. With the Chacon bill still in legislative limbo, Meyer and task force co-founder Suzanne Pohlman have been beating the bushes for benefactors.

“We’ve got to either get land donated or have money donated for land to be bought,” said Meyer, adding that the task force has applied for help from the county Board of Supervisors and several North County city councils but has received nothing so far. “We don’t really have support from any regional branch of government. . . . We’ve been trying to approach the business community, but that is a longer process.

“It’s discouraging that it’s taking so long to get something put together, but you’ve got to realize we’re starting with nothing . . . We can get people to donate ‘in-kind’ services and donate things easier than we can get them to donate money or land.”

However, Pohlman, who is also the director of the North County Interfaith Crisis Center in Escondido, is optimistic that the task force’s search for a home is nearing an end. While declining to be specific, Pohlman said the task force “will probably be making an announcement (regarding the shelter) in the next couple of weeks.”

Pohlman would not say whether this announcement hinged on enactment of the Chacon bill, but she described the measure as “a separate but related issue.”