a division of Lee Central Coast Newspapers

When 36-year-old William Diaz was homeless, he didn’t ponder his future. Instead, his days were consumed with finding a place to sleep, warmth and his next meal. “The whole time I kept thinking that I didn’t have a chance,” said Diaz, who now lives in an apartment in San Luis Obispo. “I wasn’t thinking about a future.”

At the same time, Diaz, who grew up in Nipomo (see related story) was struggling with homelessness in the South County, a group of individuals was creating the 5 Cities Homeless Coalition to help people like him.

“We knew there was a need for services for the homeless in the Five Cities area,” said Patricia Diefenderfer, president of the newly formed coalition that consists of different agencies and community organizations.

On any given day, there are at least 536 people without a permanent place to call home in the South County, according to statistics on the local homeless population recently released by the county.

“Other than the People’s Kitchen, a few churches and case management, there’s really nothing for (the homeless) population in the South County,” Diefenderfer said, explaining the reason behind the coalition’s formation in 2007.

 The closest day-use shelter for the homeless is in San Luis Obispo, and the county’s only overnight shelter, which has a limited number of beds, and is usually at capacity, also is in San Luis Obispo.

Other much-needed services — mental health, medical and housing — for homeless individuals in the South County also are mostly offered in locations outside of the area, making it almost impossible for the homeless to get the help they need.

Many homeless people collect cans and bottles for money, but Diaz said it’s a very grimy job that doesn’t pay well and leaves the individual collecting the cans a mess.

“It’s barely just enough money to survive on,” Diaz said. “And you’re so dirty after. Try to get a job (looking) like that.”

Because of the lack of services for the homeless in the South County, the 5 Cities Homeless Coalition plans to bring a plethora of both to the area, said Diefenderfer.

“We want to bring all the players that provide or could provide services to (the homeless) under one roof,” Diefenderfer explained. “The bottom line is that we envision a one-stop shop for the homeless. A facility that when you walk through that front door, you are assessed to get you from Point A to Point B.”

The facility visualized by the 5 Cities Homeless Coalition also would be a day-use center where homeless persons could wash their clothes, take showers, eat lunch, make a phone call and integrate back into society, Diefenderfer said.

“We want to be able to provide the daily basics that help them survive,” said Diefenderfer, who was homeless for five years. 

The coalition also would like to see an overnight shelter established in the Five Cities, but for now the group is focusing its efforts on raising funds to open a facility.

The group also is in the process of forming an advisory committee.

“(Funding) is what it will take to make this a reality,” said Diefenderfer.

BY THE NUMBERS:

 536

Number of homeless people any day in the South County

By April Charlton/Senior Staff Writer/Times Press Recorder

a division of Lee Central Coast Newspapers

During one Nipomo native’s struggle with homelessness, he did everything he could to sleep standing up.

“I felt a lot of shame,” William Diaz said about the period of his life when the now 36-year-old often slept in a stand of trees behind the Nipomo Men’s Club in Olde Towne. “I wouldn’t want to sleep on the ground when I was homeless,” he explained, “because if I woke up on the ground, then I was officially homeless. I didn’t want to be that. At least if I was standing up, I was doing something … had somewhere to go.”

Diaz’s years-long on-again, off-again battle with homelessness started when his mother moved to Missouri when he was about 18; the troubled teen opted not to leave Nipomo.

“I stayed, and once that happened, I was pretty much on my own,” Diaz said, noting that his mother wanted him to move with her.

 For the first three years after his graduation from Lopez High School — a time when most other people his age where attending college — Diaz lived in a 1969 Chevrolet Impala and tried to stay employed.

 “I couldn’t hold a job for more than two weeks at a time,” Diaz said. “It seemed like what was easy for others to do was really hard for me. I couldn’t deal with anybody. I would try to figure out what was wrong with me.”

Eventually, Diaz did seek help from Community Health Centers of the Central Coast, but his journey was a long and difficult one.

Diaz believed many of his problems at the time stemmed from his age and an “attitude” that cost him multiple jobs and left him without the means to meet his basic daily needs, he said.

When he awoke in the morning — on a couch at a friend’s or family member’s house and often on the streets — all he wanted to do was fall back asleep to escape what he saw — an endless, empty road with no future.

“I would open my eyes and say, ‘What am I waking up for?’”

In 1998, Diaz’s father, who lived in Nipomo, took his son into his home, giving him a place to find refuge and sleep, eat and shower.

However, life didn’t get much easier for Diaz, who struggled with physical and mental health problems that kept him from realizing his future was more than a life of homelessness.

His father also died in 2005, and without a job, Diaz soon lost their home and found himself with nowhere to go but the streets, he said.

A year later, Diaz took part in a homeless enumeration study (see related story), and was introduced to Jan Stone, a case manager with Community Health Centers of the Central Coast (CHC). He didn’t, however, take the help that was offered.

“The first time that I tried transitional housing, I withdrew,” Diaz said, adding he didn’t seek help until “it got to the point where I had to sleep on the ground.” “Even if I had money in my pocket, I couldn’t go into a store. I didn’t want people to see me, smell me. It was a cloud of shame.”

After waking up one morning on the cold ground behind the Nipomo Men’s Club, Diaz made the decision to reach out for help; he borrowed change from a family member and took the bus to CHC in Grover Beach.

Diaz was given a bed at the Maxine Lewis Memorial Shelter in San Luis Obispo, signed up for transitional housing and assessed for his health issues. He also started seeing medical doctors.

“It would have escalated and got worse (if I didn’t seek help),” Diaz said. “I can’t even imagine. I would have been institutionalized or not even here anymore.”

Today, he has his own apartment in San Luis Obispo, regularly sees his doctors and started school at Allan Hancock College recently. Diaz hopes to transfer to Cal Poly to earn a degree in social science.

After graduation, he plans to work with low-income and homeless persons, using his own trials to help others in need.

“I think I understand what homeless people are going through,” Diaz said. “So many are misunderstood. People say all the time, ‘Why don’t you just get a job?’ It’s not that easy. It took someone to reach out to me.”

By Times Press Recorder Staff

a division of Lee Central Coast Newspapers

A single count of homeless persons in San Luis Obispo County has revealed that on any given day, there are more than 3,800 people without a place to call home.

Even more alarming is that of the 3,829 homeless people recently surveyed during an enumeration count of the county’s homeless population, 35.8 percent of those without a permanent place to live are children. Five percent are senior citizens. The findings of the single-day count and 2009 enumeration study also show that the homeless are a diverse group who live in every area of the county.

The highest percentage of homeless persons were in San Luis Obispo — 36 percent — and Paso Robles — 20 percent, according to the study.

 Most of those individuals have social and family ties in the county — 26 percent of persons surveyed have friends or family in the area and 38 percent of persons surveyed reported that they were born in the county.

However, the study also revealed that 44 percent of the individuals surveyed in the South County slept outside or in a car the previous night, and half of the homeless in the county have been without a place of their own for more than a year. “These numbers really show that the homeless are members of all of our communities who are facing a variety of challenges, namely the economy, unaffordable housing and access to services,” said Dana Lilley, county planning supervisor.

To combat the growing numbers of homeless individuals and those already without shelter, the Homeless Services Coordinating Council recently spearheaded development of a 10-year plan to end homelessness.

 The aim of the plan is to coordinate the county, its seven cities and the various agencies that provide services to the homeless in an effort to transition people without homes into a functioning life, with homes.

Dee Torres, CAPSLO homeless services director, believes the enumeration study and the survey results are a good first step toward ending homelessness in the county.

“The survey results are an important resource for service providers to better understand our clients and the types of programs that will move them closer to a home.”

When the county conducted a similar homeless enumeration study and survey in 2006, there were 2,408 homeless persons counted.

However, the 2006 study had a smaller volunteer workforce than this year’s project employed, and the previous survey also occurred at a different time of the year, according to the county.