Project Helps Find, Care For Sick Homeless

The homeless man had come to the Oxnard Salvation Army’s health clinic because of chest pains, but he still protested briefly as nurse Evelyn Burge insisted on taking him to the hospital.

“If I make an appointment for him, he’ll never go,” Burge said. “This is a ‘now’ population. They’re worried about what they’ll eat tonight, where they’ll sleep. They’re not thinking about a doctor’s appointment two days from now.”

Burge is the chief nurse and, in fact, the only employee of Ventura County’s Homeless Project, a program that began last August and is aimed at combing through the county’s homeless population in search of men and women needing medical attention.

In many cases, Burge said, homeless people who need medical care either regard their health as low priority or are so overwhelmed by bureaucratic red tape and other obstacles that they do not look for free aid on their own.

“These people won’t come to you,” she said. “If you really want to help, you have to go to them.”

The Homeless Project is financed by Proposition 99, the tobacco-tax initiative approved by voters in 1988. A grant pays for Burge’s annual salary of about $30,000 and for some transportation and supply costs.

To find the needy, Burge travels to the Salvation Army, the Rescue Mission, Zoe Christian Center and the emergency homeless shelter at the National Guard Armory--all in Oxnard. She goes to Ventura’s Project Understanding and will soon begin visiting Catholic Charities in Ventura.

In addition, she scouts places that give free meals to the homeless, such as Fellowship Hall in Ventura, to see if anyone has been missed. And she trudges through the Ventura River bottom, where many homeless live.

“It’s not ‘Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous,’ but I’m a basic person,” said 49-year-old Burge, a high school teacher before she turned to nursing 10 years ago.

Since the project began, officials say, Burge has discovered two cases of tuberculosis, two HIV-positive cases, a few serious infections, several heart problems, a rising number of venereal diseases and countless smaller health problems that were easily treated.

In one 10-week period, she helped more than 400 people gain treatment that ranged from giving flu shots herself to providing transportation to doctors’ offices.

Burge has recruited her own corps of five volunteer doctors who have opened their offices to her patients, providing free services without red-tape hassles. They also travel with her to health clinics.

She has also found three dentists who will treat some patients for free, she said. And Burge is trying to coordinate a program with the UCLA School of Dentistry.

Officials of the Salvation Army and other groups said the Homeless Project, now midway through its one-year funding, has been a success. But, they added, the program needs to be expanded.

Officials at Catholic Charities said they recently asked Burge to stop by once a week, because clients there were asking for her.

“All the homeless here know her, and they trust her,” said Mary Ann Decaen of Catholic Charities. Burge’s closest stop now is 14 blocks away at Project Understanding, and some medically ill homeless don’t have the strength or will to walk there to see the nurse, Decaen said.

“These people have been through a lot,” she said. “And sometimes that one last step is just too much--especially when experience shows that there might not be help at the end of the road. When they go to Evelyn, they know she’ll lead them all the way through.”

When Burge and her client from the Salvation Army’s Oxnard clinic arrived at Ventura County Medical Center earlier this month, she escorted the man inside and explained the procedure to him in Spanish.

Because the man was unable to read or write, she helped him fill out an admission form. Then she sat with him in the waiting room until his name was called.

“These people need a lot of help,” she said. “You can’t just throw a form at them and say, ‘Here, fill this out.’ You have to help them through all the obstacles.”