Seemingly from out of nowhere, the community learns that the
homeless shelter so many went to bat for is far less likely to
become a reality
Bad news: The much-anticipated and supported Sobrato Transitional Center, designed to make a permanent dent in the homeless problem in our community, is on hold. According to the street count in 2004, Gilroy has the highest number of unhoused people per capita in the county, with more than 150 living on the streets and more than 250 living in winter shelters.
The reason given by EHC LifeBuilders and their donor HomeAid, a consortium of builders whose purpose is to give back to the community by helping nonprofits with in-kind services and goods, is the recent downturn in housing. That would be an answer with which we could sympathize if the downturn wasn’t so recent.
It’s a legitimate question to ask: What happened in planning, the asking and the documentation of pledges earlier in the year?
The project was first approved in concept two mayors and one president ago. When such time passes, changes in economic climate can change a construction project, but the truth is that, at least publicly, everything was going according to plan for years.
We realize that shifts in public policy, such as the shift in emphasis from emergency shelter and transitional housing to permanent supportive housing for homeless people, can change a project. But that doesn’t necessarily apply here.
The scourge of homelessness remains, and the solution that many earnest Gilroyans, who put their faith in and assisted EHC LifeBuilders to turn the city’s policies around to accept the center in the first place, is now on hold indefinitely, and that doesn’t sit well.
Even before the shift in emphasis on how to house homeless people occurred, EHC LifeBuilders tapped every government source it could. Gilroy doesn’t have mega-bucks donors like Sobrato or Boccardo who they could tap for one large donation in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. But EHC LifeBuilders has enough of a history in Gilroy to understand that, and as far as we’re aware, a grassroots fundraising campaign working in the churches and the civic associations that bolster much of Gilroy’s philanthropy isn’t in the works.
Too bad. Had such a campaign started when they first learned of the amount needed to complete the project, by now they might have built up enough evidence of local financial support so that plans for the building would not have fallen through. Now we’re left with only a promise of a building and program, a solution that Gilroyans helped them fight for, but no delivery date on the horizon.
It’s an empty feeling – ironically and sadly similar to the promises made that a new shelter was a done deal.
