CORONA DEL MAR : Shelter Network Assists Homeless

One particularly cold night recently, Russell Connor recalls, he lit a cigarette, but not to smoke it. “I lit it to keep warm,” he said.

After Connor lost his girlfriend and his job, a bout with drugs and alcohol had plunged him into four months of homelessness. “I was to the curb,” he said.

But that was two weeks ago. Today, Connor, 30, has the security of free meals and shelter for up to 90 days, and is scheduled start a new job as a postal worker on Monday.

Connor is among the men living at St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church in Corona del Mar, which last week joined the Orange County Interfaith Housing Shelter Network.

Based on an idea formulated by homeless advocates in San Diego, the program employs churches and synagogues as shelters on a two-week rotational schedule. Volunteers serve meals, and the guests are provided with job leads, bus passes, counseling and training for the 90 days that they are allowed to stay with the program.

“One week here, and I’ve got a job and I’m drug-free,” Connor said while eating hot soup and bread.

He said he is also considering enrolling at a community college after he finds an apartment.

“And I’ve never thought about taking any classes since I got out of high school,” he said.

The program, which is run almost entirely by volunteers, is only 2 years old. But, organizers say, it already is being used as a model for similar programs in Long Beach, the San Fernando Valley and Hawaii.

The goal, according to organizers, is to allow the men and women to find jobs and save about 80% of their income for a security deposit and first month’s rent.

And, for many homeless people, that push is all they need to get off the street for good, organizers say.

“When you’re living on the street, there’s nowhere (prospective employers) can call you, and you can’t shower and dress properly, so you start off negatively” on job hunts, said shelter resident Daniel, 33, who asked that his last name be withheld. “There’s no way you can get going again that way.”

Matt Macri, 23, another shelter guest, also found a job this week with the U.S. Postal Service. “If this program were not here . . . you could never get out of that rut” of job hunting by day and sleeping on concrete by night, he said.

Connor said he “always knew I had it in me. It just takes motivation. But a person who wakes up on the street doesn’t feel motivated to look for any job. You wake up and look around you, and you think about getting a bottle to warm yourself up. It’s easy to lose your motivation sleeping out on the street.”

“Showers, an address and phone, these are the real barriers to employment for most of these people,” explained program organizer Susan Oakson.

At St. Michael, the response of parishioners has been overwhelming. More than 100 people have volunteered for the program, helping to prepare and serve meals or stay overnight at the rectory, according to church member Norm Ewers.

On Monday, the guests will have been at St. Michael for two weeks and will move to another church.

More than 60 churches and synagogues in Orange County are participating this season, according to program director Valerie Griffin. With funding and additional volunteers, the network hopes to expand from the winter months to a year-round service, she said.

The congregations “have gotten so much more out of the program than they ever anticipated,” Griffin said. “Because they get to deal with the homeless on a one-on-one basis . . . it really changes the stereotyped images that they had.”

Jessica Hatch, assistant priest at St. Michael, surmised that programs like this haven’t surfaced sooner because “we’re terrified of homelessness. We all know that most of us are anywhere from one to three paychecks away from this.”