Off the Streets : 5 Formerly Homeless Men Get the Chance for New Lease on Life

Aftar two years of living on the streets, sleeping in shelters and struggling to get back on his feet, Ronald Hayward has gotten the one thing he wanted most: a place to call home.

As part of a new program run by Westminster-based Shelter for the Homeless, Hayward and four other men are moving this week into a three-story house on Birch Street. Situated in a palm tree-lined residential neighborhood, the house will be the permanent home for up to five men.

Seated on a living room couch there earlier this week, Hayward bubbled over with praise for the program and his new-found good fortune.

“A lot of guys, all they need is a foundation. Once you’ve got a place, you’ve got a launch pad,” said Hayward, 42, who became homeless in 1991 after losing his job as a McDonald Douglas personnel administrator. He recently got work as a security guard, which made him eligible for the program.

Hayward and his four housemates were chosen because they all have found jobs and knew each other from living at Shelter for the Homeless’ temporary housing site, which is nearby.

It’s important that the residents know and like each other, said Shelter executive director Jim Miller.

“We want a person who comes in to feel accepted, as a friend and companion,” he said. “They’re going to have to eat together and clean up the house, so there’s a certain amount of friendship and bonding that has to take place.”

The house rules are simple: no alcohol and no overnight guests without permission from shelter staff.

“In general, we don’t want any loud noise or ruckus. We want them to be good neighbors,” he said.

Rent is kept low--$260 a month--so residents can use their checks for more than housing. The point of the program is to “enable people to live in a house of their own. They’re able to save money. Eventually they’re able to move out and get their own apartments.”

Residents may stay indefinitely if they continue to work and pay rent. A resident who loses his job may move to the shelter’s emergency housing and stay there for up to six months rent-free.

The shelter’s housing experiment is so new that many neighbors know nothing about it.

Shelly Watkins, 55, who lives across the street and learned about the program from a reporter, called helping the homeless “a good thing. . . . There ought to be more places like that all over the country.” The agency recently purchased the new house on Birch Street, valued at more than $200,000, with the help of California Federal Bank, which provided a 30-year loan. Prior to opening residence, the group had not offered permanent housing to its clients. Miller hopes the new home will provide a model for similar low-cost housing countywide.

The five-bedroom, two-bathroom house is not perfect: its drab colored exterior needs a paint job, some roof work and other renovation expected to cost about $11,000. Still, it boasts a front lawn with rose bushes, a spacious back yard dotted with trees, a garden and a two-car garage.

To Hayward, “the blessing . . . from this place is that I’ve got an address. One of the major problems of being homeless is not having an address and a place to clean (yourself) up.” Without both, it is difficult to find work, he said.

Praising the Shelter for the Homeless workers, he said officials offered him a real opportunity by telling him: “Hey, come on. We’ll give you a place to wash up, a bed, a warm place to relax, a little TV for entertainment.”

“Naturally, I intend to better myself,” he said.

Hayward’s housemates said they are looking forward to the stability, privacy and comfort that others often take for granted.

For Thomas Carter, 45, who is working as an ophthalmic technician in Orange, the best thing about his new home is that it has four walls.

For eight months, he had stored his belongings in a cardboard box and slept in shelters after losing his job because of a long-term disability. Without money to pay two months’ rent plus a security deposit, finding an apartment was impossible, he said.

Carter is pleased that having a home will end a long series of visits to emergency shelters, which offer a place to eat and sleep but don’t “do anything for your self-esteem.”

Jim Stecki, 45, who recently got work as a delivery driver, said he is looking forward to moving in: “It’s great. It’s the stability of knowing you have a place to come home to each night, knowing you’re with a bunch of guys who are just like you, trying to get back on their feet.”