Sometimes the offer on the table is a tempting decision: Give up your pet, and you’ll have a place to live.
For Martin Ramos, a 67-year-old man living on the streets in Gilroy, no offer would be enough to part from his two best friends.
“I couldn’t even think of getting rid of them,” he promised, pointing to his companions Rex the Terrier, and Princess, a 160-pound American Bulldog.
The Gilroy Compassion Center – a grassroots outreach organization and hoped-for year-round homeless shelter – had clients just like Ramos in mind when volunteers constructed a roughly 10-by-10 outdoor wire dog kennel on the south side of the building, located at 8425 Monterey Road.
Thanks to donations of time and money, the Center now has a safe place for clients to leave their furry family members as they access important social services that can get them on the road to stability and well-being. The Compassion Center is the first homeless services provider in Gilroy to offer temporary kenneling for several hours out of the day.
“We started allowing people to tie up their pets here, but we were concerned they would get loose,” said Daleen Pearse, 45, the center’s new program manager who observed the “great need” for a kennel.
Pearse, 45, began volunteering at the Compassion Center in December 2011 thanks to a chance encounter with an informational flyer at Gavilan College. Eight months later, Pearse was in her present part-time role as the center’s only employee.
“I love it,” she beamed.
The idea of having a permanent kennel on site became reality in November 2012 after volunteers purchased the building materials and the Center’s clients carried out the construction. Anonymous donors even provide food for the dogs.
“I thought it was a great idea,” said Board Chair Jan Bernstein-Chargin with the Compassion Center. “It made the center services available for a lot of people that wouldn’t usually get access.”
That includes people like Ramos, who came down to Gilroy from San Jose four years ago with Rex and Princess. Making and keeping important appointments related to health, housing and social services was difficult with no trusted person(s) to take care of his dogs in the interim, Ramos recalled.
“It’s very difficult,” he said, referring to the added problems the dogs created while he was trying to get his life back on track. Getting into low-income housing, for example, was a big issue.
“Nobody would ever rent (to someone) with two dogs,” he pointed out.
Low-income housing options come with added stipulations, explained Pearse. One of the main ones, and a big hurdle to overcome for people in Ramos’ position, is that no pets are allowed because the homeowners are concerned about the potential for damage.
Having a place to leave his dogs gave Ramos more time, freedom and flexibility to extend his search for living quarters, which ultimately led him to a rental property in Morgan Hill that fit his needs.
Pearse is quick to point out that Ramos isn’t an isolated case when it comes to choosing companionship over accommodation.
“It’s their family. The dogs love them,” she noted.
As homeless individuals tend to get pushed to the fringes of society, their dogs “become their life” and provide emotional stability, Pearse explained.
For volunteers like Ann Marie McCauley, its a compelling reality that prompts her to wonder: “How can you not help?”
The 41-year-old owner of Gilroy-based “Lazy Suzan Designs” has been helping out at the Compassion Center since last December and donates $100 from every kitchen she sells to the nonprofit. McCauley doesn’t know if her money went directly to the dog kennel, but she is sure of one thing: It’s all for a good cause.
Diana Dufer, 56, who has been involved with the Compassion Center since the idea was floated almost three years ago, echoes those same sentiments. She praises the generosity of some oft-unsung heroes who enable the Center to continue assisting South County’s homeless population. The donated dog food, for example, is just one item that arrives in the pantry by goodwill alone.
“We had dog food worth $15,000 donated by an organization,” said Dufer, who called the ripple effect of that gift “immense.”
The anonymous organization that provided the dog food also donates important day-to-day necessities including razors, shampoo, toilet paper and makeup, Dufer added.
“They’re just really great people,” she remarked.
Ramos certainly thinks so, too.
Standing outside his new digs in Morgan Hill, Ramos said will never forget the help he and his dogs received that enabled them to stick together.
“I just count my blessings,” he said. “They (the Gilroy Compassion Center) got me back on my feet again.”
About the Compassion Center and its new program manager, Daleen Pearse
The Gilroy Compassion Center provides drop-in access to basic needs, including bathrooms, personal care items, laundry, clean clothes, breakfast, supplies for daily living and respite from the streets. The Center also provides one-stop access to resource information, referrals, workshops and clinics offered by social service agencies and service professionals such as substance abuse counseling, legal clinic and personal counseling. A connection to other services through telephone, the Internet and quarterly Project Homeless Connect events is also provided.
When clients come to the Gilroy Compassion Center, one of the people they’re going to meet is Program Manager Daleen Pearse, whose ties to the community run strong and deep. She lived in Gilroy as a girl, but moved away after getting married.
When her brother-in-law passed away in February 2010, however, Pearse returned to be with her sister and to finish out her schooling at Gavilan College.
Pearse thinks her caring nature makes her ideally suited to her present job role, but initially she had a little difficulty separating herself from her job.
“I wanted to take everyone home, but you just know that you can’t,” she resolved.
For Pearse, clarity of vision is the most important thing in her daily work at the Center, which is open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 12 p.m.
“It’s really rewarding to be able to connect with people and be able to see beyond their file, to actually see the human being,” she said.
* Men’s clothing
* Blankets
* Sleeping Bags
* Rain gear
* Backpacks
Donations can be dropped off at 8425 Monterey Road.
