Homelessness a priority at Community Philanthropy Summit in Lodi

Three areas of great concern in San Joaquin County — homelessness, education and affordable housing — led to some impassioned dialogue Thursday among participants at the seventh annual Community Philanthropy Summit at Hutchins Street Square.

Many of the summit’s 200plus attendees work on the front lines of those very same issues every day striving to improve the lives of community members. They’re employed by nonprofit agencies and institutions, serve as volunteer board members or provide professional advice. And some are donors who believe in giving to charity to help their neighbors.

The summit was sponsored by the Community Foundation of San Joaquin and the Lodi Community Foundation. “The purpose of this is information and inspiration for all of you involved in philanthropy,” said Tim Daly, serving as master of ceremonies.

Nicole McClain was attending her first philanthropy summit. She is the grants coordinator for Stockton-based Community Medical Centers, which operates a number of medical and dental clinics for the poor and uninsured.

“I am really impressed with the level of engagement. I personally think that the people of Stockton and the surrounding area want to be collaborative, and we’re just figuring out ways to make that work,” McClain said.

While homelessness was a topic of last year’s summit, Lodi Community Foundation Chairman John Ledbetter said it was “important enough to revisit again” this year. Addressing the issue was San Joaquin County Supervisor Kathy Miller, who spearheaded the effort to create the county’s Homelessness Task Force more than a year ago; real estate developer, attorney and downtown Stockton advocate Anthony Barkett; and Jon Mendelson, executive director of Ready to Work, a new 501(c)3 nonprofit that is preparing to lead the county down a new road in dealing with the homeless.

When Miller hears people concerned about the burgeoning homeless tent cities saying that nothing is being done, she lets them know “a lot is being done.”

The county is focused on homelessness prevention as the most cost-effective approach to solving the overall problem. Millions of dollars in funding is coming in to provide such things as housing for mental health clients and turning temporary shelter into permanent housing.

More than four dozen organizations countywide attend monthly task force meetings, including representatives from every city in the county, law enforcement representatives, most county departments and private groups that focus on helping the homeless with housing, food, health care and other services.

“It’s very inspirational for me,” Miller said.

Barkett discussed a program that he, Miller and other task force members observed that has worked for more than 30 years in New York City known as the Doe Fund. Its motto is “work works.”

“It helps these men get that self-worth back to change their lives and it reverses the trend. After seeing it, I was truly impressed. They were there to change their lives,” Barkett said.

The local Ready to Work initiative is based on that model. With good news to share, Mendelson told summit attendees that he just signed a lease with the Sheriff ’s Office to take over a barracks at the Jail Honor Farm so that those in the program will have a place to live and get their lives back in order.

“The goal is to get them jobs within one year,” Mendelson said, expressing hope the barracks will be ready in January. “We’re now ready to get out there and start serving.”

Another goal is to give program participants skills to take care of themselves, how to save money and keep a job. “Everything we do is focused on the job of getting our clients paid employment,” Mendelson said. And the most critical step to that is linking those clients with employers. “Solving homelessness is going to take a universal approach.”

Carol Ornelas, CEO of Stockton-based Visionary Home Builders of California, has been involved in developing affordable housing projects for more than three decades. It’s an issue, she believes, that impacts everyone in San Joaquin County. She led a breakout session on the topic.

“Affordable housing means many different things to many different people,” Ornelas said. “We need to get rid of NIMBYism (not in my back yard). As a community, we have to recognize that we need the working poor, that not everybody’s going to make $100,000 a year. And that’s part of understanding what affordability is.”