GILROY
– It was a drizzly night, but not too cold, as the Emergency
Housing Consortium opened its winter shelter Monday night in the
Army National Guard armory on Wren Avenue.
GILROY – It was a drizzly night, but not too cold, as the Emergency Housing Consortium opened its winter shelter Monday night in the Army National Guard armory on Wren Avenue.
By central California standards, it’s been cold recently. There was frost on the ground Wednesday morning, and for someone with nothing but a cotton blanket between himself and the elements, that’s chilly enough to welcome a mat on the armory floor.
That was Ronald “Doc” Stone’s scenario. The blanket he had is made of cotton blend, about an eighth of an inch thick, and he was looking forward to sleeping indoors as he waited for the shelter to open Monday.
“I’ve been homeless since I got out of the Army in 1971,” Stone said. “I get work when I can get it. … I chose (this lifestyle), I guess. I could’ve gone to work, I guess, but I didn’t have any skills. All I could do was shoot.
“You get used to it,” he said of homelessness. “It’s like smoking a cigarette. … It’s a habit.”
The armory shelter has 150 mats (the official capacity is 125), but staff didn’t expect to see that many guests Monday night. Occupancy usually maxes in mid-December, according to Site Manager Julie Roybal, who’s worked here for 12 years – 10 as the manager.
Her son Louie, volunteering his services, said it’s still too dry for many to come inside.
“(In mid-December) the rains come, and people crawl out from the underbelly of the earth,” Louie said. Others, whom Louie described as “the people who don’t want to conform to society,” stay outside in tents all winter.
Once the shelter fills up, it generally stays that way every night until it closes on March 31, Julie said.
Joining the Roybals Monday night were three other paid staff members – including a security guard – and five other volunteers, plus a group of Girl Scouts helping cook dinner and a crew from the Gardner Health Center running a mobile medical clinic from a recreational vehicle parked outside.
Monday night’s guests in general gave the armory shelter a thumbs-up.
“This is good; it’s better than Sunnyvale,” said Doug LeFiell, who’s been coming here for the past three or four winters. Sunnyvale is the home of the EHC’s other cold-weather shelter, which also opened Monday.
The EHC also runs a year-round shelter in San Jose and is hoping to break ground on another one in north Gilroy, at 9345 Monterey Road, by summer 2004.
The Gilroy winter shelter offers dinner and showers in the evening and breakfast in the morning, as well as a place to sleep, before the building is vacated for the National Guard’s daytime use. Meals are provided either by the EHC or by occasional volunteer groups, mostly from churches.
Monday night’s shelter guests had been sleeping in a variety of different settings for the past little while.
Larry Alvarez was sleeping nights on the No. 22 bus between San Jose and Gilroy for the last two weeks; he has a monthly pass. Originally from Tampa, Fla., Alvarez said the colder weather has been tough, but he still didn’t feel the need to wear socks.
“Sometimes I have socks, but then they just get holes in them, and I have to throw them away,” Alvarez said.
Linda Bird had been staying at an abandoned chicken farm. Not long ago, Bird, 45, had a job, a husband and an established home, but now she’s divorced and on her third stint on the streets.
“I remember when this place just opened up (20 years ago),” Bird said of the armory shelter. “I was the only girl.”
LeFiell and his girlfriend had been sleeping in a wrecked car – by permission of the owner, he said. LeFiell, 63, said he’s been homeless since he was 16.
“Occasionally I save up enough to stay in a motel,” he said.
Robert and Judy Glenn have been staying in the covered bed of their pickup truck in the Wal-Mart parking lot. A gas heater and cooking stove help make it more homey.
“They run me off every now and then, but it’s pretty safe there because of the cameras,” Robert said. Originally from Concord, the Glenns have been homeless for three years.
“Construction jobs don’t last long because I’m 50,” Robert said. “There’s such an abundance of young labor.”
Samuel Gonzales has likewise been sleeping in his car for three years.
“It’s hard to get a job, because you’ve got no place to stay,” Gonzales said. “It’s hard to get a job when they don’t pay you for your first two weeks. … You need a place to shower and stuff (in the meantime).”
Carl Onkka has only been homeless for two weeks, and it was his first time at the armory. Onkka, who has diabetes, lost his construction job recently after he passed out at work from insulin shock. Since he can’t drive, he can’t work, and he’s found that state disability payments aren’t enough to meet San Jose rents.
Tom Everhart and his girlfriend felt “lucky” to move up in the world recently. They had been camping in the bamboo groves along Uvas Creek, but Everhart was able to save enough money from his job to buy a motor home.
Many, like Stone, have been spending their nights outdoors. Dianna Hall described her group of friends huddling under a bridge “like wolves in a den.” Hall is eight-and-a-half months pregnant, she said, and plans on giving up her baby for adoption. She’s been coming to the armory shelter on and off for five years.
“This is like family to me,” she said.
More than 20,000 people experience homelessness in Santa Clara County each year, according to the EHC, which serves more than 13,000 of them annually.
The EHC is currently looking for twin-sized blankets, sheets, pillows, travel-sized toiletries and bus passes so patrons can get to and from work and job interviews. For more information about donating, call Ginny Pfluger at 539-2108.
Volunteers are also needed to provide and serve meals. To volunteer, call Ky Le at 294-2100, extension 227.
To find out more about the EHC, call 539-2113 or visit www.homelessness.org
