Hands-On Christians Minister to Needy

Sam Boyce, a parishioner at Our Lady Queen of Angels in Newport Beach, can quote the Bible, chapter and verse, in four separate places on why Christians are supposed to help the poor. As the owner of his own advertising agency, he did his part for years by writing checks to charities.

Then two years ago on the streets of Laguna Beach and Santa Ana, he came face to face with the poorest of the poor--the street people. He saw families with six children, including newborns, sleeping on the street. He saw single mothers with retarded children. He saw sociopaths, drug users and drunks.

But Boyce also saw fellow human beings.

He realized, he said, “these people can’t help themselves. If we don’t do it, they will probably not get the help.”

One of a growing number of individuals becoming personally involved in helping the poor, Boyce exemplifies the attitude that care providers hope can be multiplied to fill the gap left by dwindling government aid. He calls it “hands-on Christianity.”

With five others, Boyce founded Street People in Need (SPIN)--a nonprofit, grass-roots organization that brings food, clothing, blankets and hygiene kits to Orange County’s street people. The group now claims 135 members and a budget of $60,000 contributed by his parish.

“A lot of good things are being done by charities. But nobody was going into the streets and alleys and dealing with the real bottom of the barrel,” he said. “We went out and started to talk to these people under freeway bridges and in burned-out cars and tried to find out what their needs are.”

Nearly 800 people a week now line up for the SPIN volunteers who drive a van to designated spots in the county on Tuesday and Thursday evenings and Saturday mornings. In addition to passing out clothing and meals, the volunteers help transport the homeless to shelters or motels.

They also will pay for tickets issued by Santa Ana police to the homeless for loitering or leaving belongings on sidewalks. However, some homeless people prefer the alternative--a week in jail where they at least have a roof over their heads and three meals a day, Boyce said.

In addition, he is trying to launch two other programs, a job referral program with an answering service and mailing address and Clean Stop--a supervised Laundromat and restroom facility for homeless people.

“In Santa Ana and Orange, the city has padlocked public toilets because of past abuse, either homosexual activities or drug abuse,” Boyce said. “It puts these people between a rock and a hard place. So they go in public neighborhoods, and residents call the police. That is a profound problem in this area.”

So far, Boyce said he has been turned down by the cities of Santa Ana and Costa Mesa for funds to renovate storefronts for Clean Stop. He said, “In the course of the meeting (in Costa Mesa), one person who was irate said, ‘Who wants an outhouse in my neighborhood?’ ”

Many groups would fund and operate shelters, but they are unable to get city permits to do it, Boyce said.

Homeless people, in his opinion, “have no constituency, no vote and no sway. When the pressure is on the politicians to do something against the homeless, the choice is clear. Do it on behalf of the citizen group.

“The problem is, they have not come up with things where the homeless could get out of those residential neighborhoods.

“We hear comments, ‘They’re nothing but a bunch of winos. I got a job, let them get a job.’ Their perception is they are drunks, winos and druggers and even if you clean them up, they wouldn’t get a job.

“A lot of what they say is true.

“But we know that until you stop looking at them as stereotypes and start looking at them as fellow human beings, until you can do that, you’re not going to help them.”