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Fresno Ten Year Plan: Homes for the Homeless Part 2

By Norma Yuriar

Fresno, Calif.  (KMPH News) —  It's a scene that's playing out in communities across the state, people without a roof over their heads, coming together for a cup of soup or to pick out some clean clothes.

"It's not just one person's problem.  It's everybody's problem, everybody that lives in this community and this city it's there problem," Lori Habib of San Jose said.

Homelessness is such a problem in Fresno the city realized it needed an organized plan to kick it.  Part of that plan is to see what other cities are doing and implement programs that work.

Two bay area cities are doing two things that could help end chronic homelessness in the central valley.  Former Whitehouse Homeless Czar, Philip Mangano is a key player in helping Fresno come up with the city's ten-year plan to end chronic homelessness.

"Fresno isn't unique in what it is seeing," he said.  "There are 350 of these ten–year plans that bring together over a thousand communities in our country.  Needless to say every one of them is a little bit different.   What you need to do is steal from other plans – I call it the art of legitimate larceny – you steal the best ideas that are working that give results."

For that the city of Fresno is turning to the city of San Jose.

It's called a One Stop Center–complete with shelter, job and housing services all under one roof.

Michelle Ogburn with Emergency Housing Consortium LifeBuilders is the Program Manager at San Jose's Boccardo Reception Center. The facility was transformed from "shelter only" to a One Stop Center – part of San Jose's ten-year plan.

"We are really trying to solve the problem of homelessness rather than just maintaining it," she said. "The idea here is to put all the services together in one place to make it a little bit easier to get access to benefits, work through barriers when trying to get a job and all of that.  A lot of time what the homeless face is... ok go over here for this... and then that person says no you got to go over there."

The cost for the first year of operation was nearly $750,000.

"I think it's important for people to understand that we are spending more money today on dealing with the problems of homelessness than it will cost us to end homelessness," San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed said.

He said hospital stays were draining the system.

"We found that there are people who are homeless, they are admitted to the hospital, they are treated and they have no place to go when they are discharged and so the hospitals are keeping them a few days extra.  We now have a respite center that cost one tenth the cost of a hospital stay and our hospital can save money by getting people out of the hospital and into the Respite Centers," Reed said.

There are several rooms at the One Stop where people can recover after undergoing medical treatment. 

The City of San Jose isn't spending anymore money on building more shelters, instead the focus now is to move away from shelters and transition people into permanent housing.

"We do know that we are having success in housing the chronically homeless," San Jose Housing Director Leslye Krutko said.  "We housed over 500 chronically homeless people last year, which is exceptional.  They are the hardest to house."

The city of Fresno has adopted the same "housing first" philosophy.

"It's a wonderful opportunity for those of us who want to move forward," Jim Grant said.  The 57–year old is living in a shed.  He has applied for permanent housing.

Since Fresno's 10–year plan was adopted in 2008 the city has provided housing services to more than 500 homeless residents.

"We've looked at One Stops, I think they are something that they are very viable," Barfield said.

Fresno's Homeless Prevention and Policy Manager says the city will be testing the concept in a few months.

"Project Homeless Connect is really a one day for all of the services and vendors to come to one central location.  We really want to be able to show how this thing really works and the connections that can be made in one day," Barfield said.

Fresno got its idea of Project Homeless Connect from San Francisco.

"There are only a finite number of ideas that work, that actually give the kind of results that we are looking for, so you steal the best ideas and then you meld that together with the opportunities that are available in each community," Mangano said.

Project Homeless connect is scheduled for May at Fresno's Chuckansi Park.

REPORTER CAN REACHED AT NYURIAR@KMPH.COM OR (559) 453-8850.