‘A Glut of Good Will’ : As Homeless Coalitions Rush to Aid, Princely Intentions Pauperize Results

Organizers had expected more than 1,000 people for the rally, scheduled to start at 9 a.m. Two hours later, only about 100 had bothered to show.

Ken Berquist is no mathematician, but even he could figure out that the numbers didn’t add up.

Berquist, 27, was listed officially among The Homeless, for whom the get-together was held. The purpose: to protest the decision by the city of San Diego to tear down the buildings that once constituted the Navy Hospital in Balboa Park.

The Coalition for the Homeless, which organized the rally held several weeks ago, had hoped for an army, to hear speeches and maybe coerce the city into saving the buildings as a shelter for the homeless.

No such luck.

Still, the morning was not without revelation or impact. Berquist was one of many who seized the obvious. He took a quick look around and smiled.

“These helpers of the homeless seem to have us outnumbered three to one,” he said. “At some rallies, I’d say it’s more.”

Problem Is Lack of Focus

The problem of homelessness is by now no secret in “America’s Finest City.” Unofficial estimates put the number at 5,000 and rising. One of the big problems now, experts say, is who to trust for help.

The leaders of established agencies, such as the Salvation Army, call the problem one of leadership and focus--mostly the lack thereof. Into the void have come a flock of Samaritans, offering everything from meals dished out of pickup trucks to their own brand of fire-and-brimstone salvation.

Nowhere was the problem more apparent than at the rally. Berquist--who came here from Boston after hearing that California was “the golden land, the land of limitless opportunity”--said he attended the rally hoping for a meal. But after six months of wandering through the labyrinth of San Diego’s homeless politics, he said he also came “knowing to expect nothin’ more.”

Pat Brogan was also at the rally. Brogan, 45, with long, flowing hair and a bounteous beard, represented Union for the Homeless, an organization with neither an address nor phone number.

Asked what the group had done, Brogan said: “We been to the (city) council a couple of times.” He didn’t know how many members were in the group.

George Fraser said he was pastor of the United Church of Mission Village in San Diego.

“We seek to help the homeless through the power of the Lord Jesus Christ,” Fraser said, noting that he lives in San Bernardino, not San Diego.

“I have others locally who can help out,” he said.

Among Many Such Groups

Coalition for the Homeless is one of many groups that have sprouted in the last six months, representing themselves as guardians of Berquist and others like him.

Late last month, its weekly meeting ended in a shoving match between board members. At issue was the wording of a press release and flyer promoting a 24-hour vigil the Coalition held Aug. 1 at the Community Concourse downtown. The offending passage referred to Mayor Maureen O’Connor “searching for art in Russia, while the homeless search for food and shelter.”

Pete Pearlman, one of two co-chairmen involved, has since left the coalition, taking with him five other members. About 15 remain. Pearlman felt the passage itself was irrelevant, since O’Connor’s trip to the Soviet Union was over.

“I thought there were better ways for pointing out the plight of the homeless,” he said.

Pearlman called the incident a “crisis . . . a catastrophe” and said the future of the group is “in serious doubt.”

But Norma Rossi, a member of the Coalition’s executive board, disputed Pearlman’s contention. She said the Coalition now numbers 43 and that her husband, Bruce Rossi, is currently chairman.

“There is no problem with the Coalition,” Mrs. Rossi said. “The Coalition is as cohesive as it ever was. The only thing is, Mr. Pearlman is no longer with us.”

But there appears to be little cohesion concerning the homeless. Everyone seems to “want a piece of the homeless,” in the words of a local spokesman, with no one having a clear idea about the future.

The spokesman is Charles Hansen, who works for the Salvation Army. The army has been feeding and caring for the homeless since the turn of the century. But Hansen said it sometimes seems as if the problem were invented yesterday.

The Thing to Do

He called it “quite fashionable” to help the homeless in the ‘80s. And while many groups are well-intentioned, even commendable, efforts as a whole, he said, constitute “a glut of good will.”

The glut, he said, is getting to be The Problem.

“Most of the time, efforts are very well-intentioned, but overkill is a growing concern. Sometimes, assistance is utterly inappropriate to what is actually needed. For instance, homeless people don’t need four meals on a given night. In some cases, they’re getting more,” he said.

Hansen is “in favor of people getting involved, but often duplication of effort is a problem. Assistance becomes sloppy, haphazard.”

Frank Landerville heads the Regional Task Force on the Homeless. Landerville’s group is sometimes criticized by militants as being a puppet of Mayor O’Connor, who did not appoint its members. The task force was conceived and appointed by former Mayor Roger Hedgecock in 1985. It studies, among other things, housing, day services, agency funding, emergency shelter and employment. It acts as an advisory--not a legislative--body.

Landerville observes that in San Diego the political climate for the homeless “isn’t like Washington, where Mitch Snyder has made such an impact, or New York, where a guy named Bob (Robert M.) Hayes has changed lives, just by knowing the law. Nor is it like other cities--such as Los Angeles--where groups have divided the disenfranchised, and done more harm than good.”

Target of Exploitation

Still, Landerville warned that San Diego’s homeless, like any other suffering group, are subject to exploitation. He said that more than 100 agencies now aid the homeless in San Diego but that “grass-roots efforts” are multiplying as fast as--and often in the manner of--weeds.

“In my three years, I’ve seen many such efforts, and most have been sporadic,” he said. “Such groups usually don’t last, because they’re so unfocused. They lack tangible goals. Many--such as the Coalition--seem focused on obtaining a building, with no credible program to follow. I’d say in nine out of 10 cases such groups lack a focus, and as a result, fall by the wayside.”

Hansen agreed, characterizing many of the programs as “totally hit or miss. They rise and fall on the basis of donations. They need definite goals, well thought out, consistent in application. Most don’t have a clue.”

Both Hansen and Landerville see low-cost, long-term housing as the No. 1 need of the city’s homeless.

“Any approach that takes into account only one element--the bed--is doomed to a revolving door kind of problem,” Hansen said. “We have to look at this thing in terms of the big picture. The Band-Aid approach isn’t working.”

Hansen termed “lack of leadership and focus” as the biggest overall problem. “A focused leadership is not coming forth, saying, ‘This is the problem, and here’s the solution.’ ”

Appointed, Not Elected

Has Landerville’s task force made a difference?

“I can’t say,” Hansen said. “I haven’t attended their meetings. The problem is, they’re appointed, not elected. Until the elected provide meaningful leadership, I don’t see change. . . . I don’t see improvement.”

Landerville said many organized religions offer “quality” help. He mentioned the Lutherans, the Roman Catholics, the Episcopalians and Life Ministries. He cited the Joan Kroc St. Vincent de Paul Center, saying its acquisition of an $11-million building is buttressed by a $1.8-million-a-year budget.

“Say a lot of these groups get a building,” he said. “Are they then willing to pony up that kind of money? What kind of help will they offer?”

Landerville said some smaller organizations, such as God’s Extended Hand, which runs a daily feeding program in Balboa Park for 100 homeless people, do “wonderful work.” But many “fly-by-night” efforts are manned, in his words, by “circuit riders” who do more harm than good and often seem plagued by corruption.

For example, he noted that a couple of years ago a Los Angeles-based group moved into a building and by the second night was housing almost 400 people.

“The owner of the building (who had donated the property) ended up coming to the city and begging for help,” Landerville said. “He wanted them out of there. You had people doing drugs, carrying concealed weapons. . . . This is just the sort of thing we’re concerned with: Is it a safe environment? Is it manned by professionals? Is what’s going on healthy and productive?

“Many of the people interested in getting a building are not interested in coming to meetings or in working with experts who have struggled with the problem for years. Usually, the motivation is princely--whether socially or spiritually based. But what they often don’t have is an understanding of the complexity of the problem. We’re talking here of an enormous social problem.”