Helping People Find a Home After Being Homeless Herself
Catalina Hinojosa knows what it’s like to face addiction, homelessness, even jail time. She wants to help other people who have experienced these things, which is why she is in the process of founding a nonprofit called San Pedro Recovery Alliance.
“I’ve been through the judicial system, I’ve been through treatment,” Hinojosa said. “If I didn’t go from jails to treatment, I would not have been able to get housing.”
Hinojosa now works as a homeless outreach worker for Homeless Healthcare LA, where she has worked since September 2021. She has worked in homeless services for six years. She has met many who have gone through addiction treatment but have nowhere to go.
“They’re falling through the cracks,” Hinojosa said. “There’s tons of resources for the homeless that are actually homeless on the street in tents. But for someone who is actually trying to change their lives, there’s nowhere for them to go.”
Hinojosa said that most of them have burned bridges with their families, and have no one who will take them in, so they end up back on the street. Her organization is writing grants to try to get funding for transitional housing.
Prior to working in homeless services, Hinojosa was in prison, and homeless beforehand for nearly a decade.
“Back then I had a record, like a mile long, I was messing up so bad,” Hinojosa said. “After my mother passed away … I lost it, put it that way. I needed to find my way back.”
She went through the Alternative Custody Program, which allows convicts to spend the last year of their sentences in community service. After she got out of prison, she went through a treatment facility, and worked for Homeboy Industries with an ankle monitor.
“After the first month, you’re in three days blackAs
out and then you can go work if you want,” Hinojosa said. “So, I started working, and I started focusing on doing what I’m doing right now. I knew where I wanted to be.”
Through Homeboy Industries, Hinojosa worked for Project 180, where she learned homeless case management. Then she worked for the People Concern, where she worked getting people from tents to housing.
Through the Los Angeles County probation AB109 office, she was able to find transitional housing and then a subsidy to help her find a permanent home. She has lived there for six years.
Hinojosa briefly worked for Harbor Interfaith, a nonprofit that operates in San Pedro and helps homeless people. With her organization, she hopes to help people that Harbor Interfaith is not able to.
San Pedro Recovery Alliance has a board of nine people, one of whom coordinates a mobile doctor unit.
“We’re going to have one once a month, which will be dealing with mental health,” Hinojosa said. “They’ll be dealing with any type of medical conditions. They’re going to be helping those that are coming up to us and trying to get off of fentanyl.”
Hinojosa said she wants to have the first visit of the mobile doctor unit in January 2023.
Four people in her organization are writing grants, and they are trying to come up with ideas for fundraisers. Hinojosa is trying to get the organization into the Homeless Management Information System, or HMIS. She has been working with that system for years, so it won’t be that difficult. She has also requested for San Pedro Recovery Alliance to become an access center for the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, or LAHSA.
Hinojosa went through the Fred Brown Recovery Services, and her organization has a working relationship with it. She intends for the San Pedro Recovery Alliance to house people after they make it through Fred Brown’s 12-step program. She has a few options in town for housing, and she is trying to acquire more.
In addition to housing, Hinojosa will be placing people into addiction recovery services.
“I do have different sober living facilities that I have access to, because I do that right now,” Hinojosa said.
Hinojosa has already gotten a lot of people into detox and other treatment, and placed them into housing. But this is something that she has done outside of San Pedro Recovery Alliance, as the organization does not have many resources yet.Hinojosa hopes to imitate the organization she is currently working for, Homeless Healthcare LA.
“They’re so client-centered, and so staffcentered,” Hinojosa said. “It’s the only place I’ve ever worked at in my life where you’re not getting yelled at, or ending up with the extra stress.”
While working for Homeless Healthcare LA, Hinojosa has been running a contract with SELAH Neighborhood Homeless Coalition, finding permanent housing for its clients.
“I housed 26 people in the last 12 months,” Hinojosa said. “Which is actually really good in our organization.”
Hinojosa said she is very passionate about her job.
“Watching somebody get their keys is the