LA HABRA : Center Offers Needy Hope, Helping Hand

Paulina Romero knew she needed help when the most she could afford for her two sons was a daily ration of rice and beans.

So, like scores of other La Habra residents, she turned to the Community Resources Care Center, which provides emergency funding, food, clothes and counseling for the needy. The center’s counselors gave Romero diapers, detergent and canned foods to help her make ends meet.

Romero’s husband, Canuto, earns about $150 a week as a stock clerk at a local grocery store, but his salary is barely enough to feed his family and pay the rent and utility bills. The Romeros don’t receive welfare or food stamps and eating has become a luxury.

Paulina Romero, 24, said her heart aches when she must deny her 1- and 2-year-old sons of their favorite fruits--cherries and grapes.

“It makes me want to cry to see my babies want something that I can’t give them,” she said in Spanish. “It’s so depressing knowing that your kids need a better life and you can’t provide it.”

There are similar stories from the thousands of people who seek help from the Care Center each year.

The center opened 10 years ago when 12 churches and community organizations, which were already providing emergency services for poor, homeless and jobless people in North County, decided to consolidate their efforts.

Today, the center operates on government grants and donations. It is run by director Ray Sanchez and 44 volunteer counselors.

“We expect to help about 9,000 people this year,” Sanchez said. “The need is there and somebody has to pick up the ball and run with it, so to speak.”

Sanchez said some families in critical need come to the center with small expectations but leave with a sense of hope after receiving help.

During the visit, people are referred to organizations in and around La Habra that offer free meals, shelter, schooling, dental and medical care, affordable housing and other social services.

On a recent afternoon, volunteer James Timienta counseled Patricio Armendariz, an 80-year-old man who needed money to pay for the room he’s been living in at the La Habra Inn.

“I am alone,” Armendariz told Timienta. “I need assistance with my rent. I’ve been cut off (a low-cost hot meal delivery program). . . . I don’t have any teeth so I can’t eat, and I can’t drive because I black out and fall down. I have to beg for help.”

After hearing what Armendariz had to say, Timienta urged him to see a doctor and call a social worker who could help him get assistance.

Sanchez said older people such as Armendariz who ask for help at the center are few. “Most are jobless or have low-paying jobs that don’t pay enough to make ends meet,” he said.

That’s the case for Maria Pilar Jimenez, 29, who arrived at the center this week seeking assistance in paying her electric bill. She said she was sent a notice in the mail stating that electricity would be cut off in a day if she did not pay the $50 bill.

The center’s counselors gave Jimenez the $50, two bags full of food for her and her two children and set her up with an interview for a housekeeping job. She said her husband is serving time in the city jail for failing to appear in court on a drunk driving incident that occurred last year.

“He won’t be out of jail for a month,” Jimenez said in Spanish. “In the meantime, we have no income. This place offers a great help and gives me some hope.”

For information about services offered by the center, call (310) 697-1199.