By PAT FOHRMAN
At the March 13 meeting of the Watsonville City Council, prominent business people, Sherry Dang and Kirk DiCicco, outlined for the City Council a project that they have been engaged in over the past eight years, helping one homeless person at a time find stability and a way back to self-reliance and self-respect by providing jobs, positive reinforcement and training. They have also helped these individuals find accommodations.
Having been a refugee, Sherry has experienced homelessness. She confides that her own life was completely changed by people who gave her a chance. Kirk and Sherry, who own a number of 7-Eleven stores, feel certain that their model working with one person at a time can be replicated by other businesses and organizations. They believe that we must see each person as an individual with potential rather than an aggregation of problems. Their successes include:
• N, a woman in her late 40’s, had been sleeping in her car for several months when Sherry offered her a job. N worked at night and slept in her car during the day. She showered at a local gym and once a week, rented a cheap motel room in order to have a semblance of normalcy. She was able to eat for free at the 7-Eleven store, eventually saving enough money to rent a place with a friend.
• T is another woman presently working at 7-Eleven while sleeping in her car in order to save enough money for a place to live.
• J has a tragic past and met Sherry and Kirk when recently out of rehab. He began working in the storeroom, but gradually was given more responsibility, became more self-confident and has become an asset to the business. His employers lent him money to buy an RV and he has almost completed paying them back out of his wages.
Sherry and Kirk have learned several lessons from their experiences dealing with the homeless people that they employ.
• Calling the police to deal with the homeless population is a waste of resources. They simply come back after the police leave.
• Giving people the structure of a job and the security of even a minimum wage income does more than therapy to help them reintegrate into society and find purpose in their lives. It restores their damaged self-esteem. Human beings need a sense of pride and purpose. They need the challenge of work to keep their mental faculties alive.
• Medications can create a mental fog, causing aberrant behavior.
Sherry and Kirk are asking the community to help to provide some type of housing so that individuals who are able and willing to work have a safe place to stay while they are trained and rehabilitated. They are willing to put together a training program but are calling on other business owners and organizations to step forward and offer jobs to those who so desperately need them. People need a second and sometimes a third chance. Sherry and Kirk feel that homelessness is a human problem that needs a human solution. Watsonville businesses and property owners may be able to come up with case-by-case solutions for community members who find themselves homeless.
City Councilmember and candidate for County Supervisor, Felipe Hernandez, says that initiatives such as the proposed county-wide Housing Bond has a set-aside to provide interim housing for the homeless. However, these projects will not be ready in the near future.
It may well remain for the private sector to alleviate the current housing problem with creative solutions such as Kirk and Sherry have developed. Existing properties could be repurposed as interim shelters for the working homeless. A secure place to sleep and store their possessions is essential, sharing bathroom, kitchen and laundry facilities is possible. Sherry and Kirk are presenting their project to the Santa Cruz City Council in the near future in hopes that the working homeless can be helped with stable shelter. Hopefully, the Santa Cruz City Council will be able to aid their initiative.
It is my belief that the citizens of Watsonville are both willing and able to help many of our homeless citizens once they see that they have common ground with them: the need to be recognized and valued; the need for the structure and the dignity of work; the need for a safe place to sleep and safety for personal property. Surely, we can help each other to achieve these things.
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Pat Fohrman is a former educator, author and designer of educational materials. She is currently a Watsonville Personnel Commissioner and is a community advocate for various causes. Her opinions are her own and not necessarily those of the Pajaronian.
