Foundation Houses Homeless in Dwellings Leased From HUD

As the holidays and cold weather approach, more wallets and shelters are being opened to the homeless, but there is a man in Ontario who opens doors to them all year long.

He is the Rev. George Spaicia, executive director of Questward Foundation, an interdenominational, Protestant-based storefront operation in Ontario, which he founded in 1969. He has been focusing, through his foundation, on the homeless for only a couple of years.

That is when he discovered a government program that has been in effect since 1985 but has not been widely used.

Only 25 Homes Leased

Administered by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, the program enables nonprofit groups, considered “homeless providers,” to lease houses, which HUD has taken back through foreclosure, for $1 a year.

Since the program became effective in 1985, only 25 of these houses have been leased in Los Angeles County, though HUD sells as many as 30 foreclosed properties in the area to the general public each week.

It is a footrace sometimes, Spaicia admits, to lease a HUD house before it is sold, but it is an avenue, he figures, that more so-called “homeless providers” should explore.

So far, he has had good luck with it. He took possession of his first HUD residence, in Ontario, about 18 months ago and just got the go-ahead to lease three more: a house and a condominium in Pomona and another house in Ontario.

Home Houses 19 Men

“We’ve signed leases on all. Now it’s just a matter of making them livable. That depends on the funds that are available,” he said, explaining that he depends on private donations. “I’m trying to open the new one in Ontario by Christmas and the ones in Pomona the first part of the year.”

The home already operated by the Questward Foundation houses 19 men. Spaicia hopes to house women and children in one or more of the residences he just leased, and he aims to place a family in the newly leased Ontario house.

“We could get more use out of it than for one family, because it has five bedrooms,” he said, “but the city makes us comply with the R-1 (single-family residence) zone (in that part of the city).

“If HUD would make 50 houses available to me, I’d probably take all 50.”

Transitional Housing

He dreams, and even has a rendering of a prototype, of a community in every county where the homeless can live and learn job or other skills needed to return to society.

To Spaicia, a HUD house is not a home. He views it as transitional housing.

“But I am totally opposed to a shelter that just shelters with no rehabilitation, because rehabilitation can take the homeless off the welfare rolls and the streets,” he said.

There are only 150 to 200 homeless people living in Ontario, by city estimates, but there is a steady population of homeless, besides transients, of about 12,000 in San Bernardino County.

Learning a job skill is not always the answer for the homeless, Spaicia says, “because work may not be the bottom line. Many of the homeless have jobs.”

‘Project Restart’

Problems of the homeless are varied. “Sometimes, it’s attitude. There may be no self-esteem. Many times, it’s a lack of self-discipline. Many can’t read well enough. Or understand English. We go to the root of the problems.”

To qualify as a Questward resident, a person must be homeless and have a desire to change. Spaicia calls the program, which he started after returning from a worldwide missionary tour, “Project Restart.”

His motto is: “There is no progress without change.” It is a 90-day program, which can be extended in 30-day increments if there is further need and there are signs of personal improvement.

Spaicia estimates that his program has an 80% success rate, keeping the 200 men in all who have stayed in the Questward house off the streets.

Residents not only get counseled as part of the program. They also perform certain household duties and abide by house rules, among them--no drugs and no alcohol.

Lessee Cannot Discriminate

The $1 lease is renewable every year. “So if you create any problems or if you don’t comply with all the city or other government regulations, like fire inspections, you can lose the lease,” Spaicia explained.

The lessee cannot discriminate against people seeking shelter because of race or religion, and the lessee cannot charge rent. The lessee is also responsible for utilities, taxes, insurance and maintenance.

“Everything that was done in this house--all the tile work, carpeting, painting--was done by the people staying here,” Spaicia said of the house where the 19 men live under the direction of Questward staff member Tom Windom, who once lived on the streets himself.

“We put in about $10,000 worth of work and repairs, which we know we won’t get back (in terms of dollars), but we went into it with the idea of making it a proud house.”

Reputation of Being Pushy

Proud or not, such houses aren’t looked upon kindly by many cities, where there is lip service about wanting to help the homeless but reticence in allowing projects like Spaicia’s in residential areas, said a HUD official who asked for anonymity.

“I’ve made some enemies because I’ve spoken out,” Spaicia said. “I have a reputation of being pushy.”

But, Piera Amorgi, Ontario community development coordinator, said, “The city likes him because he is responsible. He picks up the homeless from us when we call.”

Of course, he can’t yet house them all, even through HUD, but Spaicia looks at the HUD program and the homeless as a perfect marriage, despite such frustrations as bureaucratic delays.

Lauds HUD Program

Because of an environmental-impact study requirement in the Stewart B. McKinney Act of 1987, which spells out how government funds should be allocated to the homeless, it took Spaicia 3 1/2 months to get one of his new leases signed. It only took 1 1/2 weeks to complete the lease for the house where the 19 men stay.

Even so, he lauds the HUD program, which he claims enables him to house and counsel the homeless at a fraction of what it costs to shelter them in a motel--$1.86 a night in contrast with $23. And he sees the private/public partnership as a way to reduce government welfare expenditures.

“We couldn’t do it without HUD,” he stressed.

Spaicia says that the house Questward is running in Ontario would cost $63,000 to buy.

“We sure don’t have that kind of money,” he said.