GILROY
– Kathleen Carrington doesn’t consider herself homeless. She has
a home; it’s a 1983 Oldsmobile station wagon.
GILROY – Kathleen Carrington doesn’t consider herself homeless. She has a home; it’s a 1983 Oldsmobile station wagon.
Uninterested in pity, Carrington is quick to point out her cramped living quarters for the past two months could be much worse, but she does admit sleeping upright in a car every night is not the best thing for her 81-year-old disabled mother and roommate.
“My mom’s still in the car. She won’t come in,” Carrington explained Monday at the opening night of Gilroy’s cold weather homeless shelter. “I tried to tell her that there is food and a good place to sleep, but she wants to stay with the dogs. Oh, yeah, we have four dogs, a turtle and a guinea pig with us, too.”
Carrington was one of about 25 local homeless men and women who were lined up Monday night outside the Gilroy Armory building, 8949 Wren Ave.
The people were there to celebrate the annual transformation of the National Guard facility into a “cold weather” homeless shelter. More importantly, they were there get out of the cold, eat a warm meal, clean up and capture a good night’s sleep.
Now in its 12th year of operation, Gilroy’s shelter has never been so important to the homeless because low-income people without anything to fall back on are always hit hardest by a recession, said Barry Del Buono, president of the Emergency Housing Consortium, which operates the shelter.
The shelter will operate from 3 p.m. to 7 a.m. every day until March 31, providing sleeping mats, food and services to as many as 125 local homeless people. A total of 40 people took refuge at the shelter Monday night – about 15 more than expected – and 48 showed up Tuesday night.
The EHC rents the building from the National Guard for $300 a day – money it receives from the county.
“This is just the bare necessities,” Del Buono said. “Folks who come here get up with the light and go to bed when it gets dark, so we want to give them a safe and warm place to rest and recover. But ideally, we wouldn’t have to serve anybody.”
Due to the economy, the shelter is expecting increased numbers this year, something that makes the team of volunteers more important than ever, Del Buono said.
Monday night the 15 local volunteers took on a number of tasks at the armory: laying down sleeping mats, setting out blankets and pillows, cooking hot meals in the kitchen and supplying the shelter’s guests with photo identification cards so they can use EHC shelters throughout the county.
“A lot of these homeless people coming here are smart people but are just victims of circumstance,” said Grace Sosa, who lives in Hollister but has been volunteering at the shelter for 10 years. “We can all learn a lot from these people.”
Fellow volunteer Ray Milyard agreed.
“I’ve met several college graduates who come here,” said Milyard, who has worked at the shelter for four years. “I’ve also talked to people who just got out of San Quintin and even a cowgirl from Montana. They all have interesting stories to tell.”
While the stories may be good, Del Buono said he won’t be sad to close the shelter when the Sobrato Family Transitional Center comes to Gilroy. Already approved by City Council, the new center, to be built in northern Gilroy at 9345 Monterey Road, will include a 140 bed emergency shelter and 60 units of transitional housing.
The EHC and South County Housing-run center is estimated to cost $10 to $20 million, including $3 million already paid for the land. Del Buono could not give a time frame on when the center will open – but he said the EHC already is pleased with its fund-raising efforts to date, which have netted $5 million.
“The reality is that the people who come through these doors want services we can’t provide in an armory shelter,” Del Buono said. “These people are looking for permanent solutions. The new center will provide classrooms, counseling, a better kitchen and more privacy to help these people get back on their feet.”
That sounds good to Carrington.
“I’ve lived around Gilroy for a long time and would really like it if there was more places like this,” she said. “All my life people who I thought were my friends stole from me, but here people are very kind. I wish I had a big house here – I would invite all the homeless in.”
To make any type of food, clothing, monetary or other donation to the Gilroy Armory Homeless Shelter or to volunteer call 847-8455.
