Giving Homeless Another Chance : Employment: The nonprofit organization of two San Diego businessmen helps put the down and out back to work.

For Ben, the homeless life in San Diego proved to be no life at all.

When the 30-year-old native of Malta lost his hotel security guard job in 1991, he entered a downward spiral that left him living on the beach in La Jolla. He wanted to work, but the deck was stacked against him.

Because he couldn’t shower, shave or change into clean clothing before interviews, Ben’s physical appearance alienated potential employers. Because of a conflict with a former supervisor, Ben never passed the reference checks by employers who managed to look past his outward appearance.

After five months of trying, Ben finally found work as a security guard at the St. Vincent de Paul-Joan Kroc Center in downtown San Diego.

He got the job through Second Chance, a nonprofit organization that is affiliated with San Diego Affordable Housing Inc., a for-profit company that rehabilitates and manages single-room occupancy (SRO) hotels.

Second Chance offers homeless men and women who are actively seeking work a free room for one month and a low-cost room for six more months. Second Chance also offers job training and placement assistance.

Without government assistance, the for-profit company has renovated two SROs in downtown San Diego, the 79-room Workman Hotel at 14th and J streets and the 24-room J Street Hometel at 15th and J.

Jeff Lubin and Scott Silverman co-founded Second Chance last summer after their for-profit company successfully rehabilitated the Grand Pacific Hotel at 5th Avenue and J Street.

That project provided work for several homeless people who were able to pay for their own room and board. “The problem is that, while we can buy and renovate buildings, once we’re done the people are out of work again,” Lubin said.

Second Chance is designed to provide another alternative for homeless people who truly want to return to work.

The program, which opened this fall in a gritty single-family house on 15th near J, produced its first “graduate” in late October and has, on average, sent out one graduate each week into the working world.

Second Chance uses Occupational Training Services Inc., a federally funded program, to screen potential candidates. When necessary, Second Chance also uses drug-screening services provided by downtown nonprofit homeless programs.

Lubin views Second Chance as one way to help reverse the “downward spiral of homelessness and unemployment.”

Ben, who most recently spent nearly four years as a hotel security guard, speaks firsthand about the slide that kept him from finding work and landed him on the street.

“I don’t do drugs, I don’t use alcohol . . . I want to work,” Ben said. “It was hard . . . looking for a job . . . (Second Chance) was really great. They told me how to present myself during interviews, how to make a resume, how to talk to people.”

Second Chance also urged Ben to find another reference, one who would give an accurate representation of the job he did and the specifics surrounding his layoff.

Dennis, 42, anticipates that Second Chance will give him a chance to regain the salary he once enjoyed as a security officer at an aerospace company and as a manager for a local security company. Dennis’ downward spiral, speeded by alcoholism, never led to homelessness. But but he did become dependent on a friend and public welfare programs to pay his way.

Now Dennis manages one of San Diego Affordable Housing’s two SROs, and plays “mother hen” to newer program members.

“The 30 days in a house without rent bothering you . . . allows you to stay clean, to have clean clothes to go out on job interviews,” Dennis said. For those who are homeless, the program “makes it easier to find work . . . It’s difficult to sleep in a doorway and then go up on a job interview the next morning.”

Homeless people who want to return to work need that kind of safety net, said Frank Landerville, director of the Regional Task Force on the Homeless. “That kind of long-term support tends to be more expensive, but it tends to work best.”

While state, federal and local governments pumped $35.7 million into homeless programs and services in San Diego County during the past year, very little went toward transitional housing programs that give homeless people the guidance and support needed to carry them back into the world of employment.

“Two-thirds of that money is spent on what we view as survival--food, shelter and public assistance,” Landerville said.

Transitional programs are important because “if you don’t treat the problems that lead a person to homelessness in the first place they’ll be right back there again,” said Priscilla Waller, a manager of Episcopal Community Services’ Downtown Homeless Employment Program. “They don’t just all of a sudden appear homeless on the street one day,” Waller said.

Episcopal Community Services operates a similar transitional program--Champion House--which has room for 14 homeless people who are making their way back to work. St. Vincent de Paul and the Vietnam Veterans of San Diego are among the nonprofit organizations also operating transitional housing programs.

But there are very few programs and a great demand for services, Waller said.

“We’re not going to run out of problems (to solve),” Waller said. “So we welcome (Second Chance) because it’s important to have a wide spectrum of (programs) available to help people.”

So far, Second Chance has managed to help place graduates with several companies, including a local hotel and a small manufacturing company.

One recent graduate is working for Charles Watson, president of Watson Laminates, a small, San Diego-based company that cuts, sands and varnishes wooden skateboard decks.

“I’m really happy with the person they sent me,” Watson said. “I honestly want a second person . . . if they’re going to do the pre-screening and send someone who really wants to pull himself up by his bootstraps.”

As is the case with most transitional housing programs, Second Chance is a nonprofit organization. But Second Chance has close ties to San Diego Affordable Housing, the for-profit company founded by Lubin and Silverman.

San Diego Affordable Housing plans to purchase, renovate and manage additional SROs. Silverman and Lubin believe that older, rehabilitated properties are a cost-effective alternative to new construction, especially in San Diego, where land costs are so high.

When the for-profit company purchases buildings it will use homeless workers to rehabilitate them, Lubin said. But the renovations will also benefit employed San Diegans because the company also will be hiring roofers, electricians and plumbers.

But Silverman and Lubin acknowledged that the nonprofit entity must hook into public and private funding sources in order to succeed. “We can’t do it alone,” Silverman said.

Public Funding for Homeless Programs in San Diego County (in millions of dollars) Education: $20,289 Admin. & Planning: $146,200 Day Center Services: $146,200 Employment: $219,163 Social Services: $669,136 Alchol & Drug Services: $745,769 Health Services: $2,834,773 Mental Health Services: $3,222,981 Food: $4, 053,024 Public Assistance: $6,490,000 Shelter & Transitional Housing: $11,262,277 Source: Region Task Force on the Homeless