San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
INTERFAITH Some new beds to open next year
approved a $6 million capital grant for Interfaith to recreate more recuperative care beds in 2019, and Anglea said funds will be raised to cover the gap.
The need for more recuperative beds in the county became a topic of discussion early last year after a new state law required hospitals to create plans for discharging homeless patients who were recovering from surgeries or other health issues.
In June 2019, San Diego County Supervisor Kristin Gaspar persuaded fellow board members to provide $6 million to Interfaith Community Services to expand the 32-bed recuperative care program at its Hawthorne Veteran and Family Resource Center in Escondido.
A couple of months later, Anglea joined San Diego City Councilman Chris Ward and county Supervisor
Nathan Fletcher, then a candidate for the seat he now holds, in a press conference calling attention for the need for more recuperative care beds.
Standing in front of an abandoned county building they said could be repurposed for the need, Ward said there were only 73 recuperative care beds for the nearly 10,000 homeless people in the county.
Anglea made the announcement about the building’s purchase in a video presentation as part of the annual meeting, which was held remotely over the Zoom platform. In his presentation, he said the Hawthorne Center has been operating successfully, with
75 percent of its residents moving into stable housing after addressing the health concerns that led to their hospitalization.
“And we have health care partners who want to expand the level we’re working with, but our current center is at capacity,” he said.
Anglea said there is no set date for when the new facility will open or what it will be named, but he expects the interim graduate lodging beds will become available early next year before the recuperative beds are ready.
Also during the meeting, Interfaith board members the Rev. Kadri Webb and the Rev. Meg Decker said the nonprofit had created several new initiatives to address racial inequality and was launching a new training program for faith leaders.
Webb said Interfaith in June had created a multi-city, racial-reconciliation coalition of faith and business leaders, and he announced the coalition had released an anti-racism training program for faith leaders called “Making Faith Places Safe Places.”
“At Interfaith Community Services, we have come at a crossroads
with our mission,” he said in a video played at the meeting. “We cannot genuinely say that we are committed to fulfilling basic needs for all people and to empowering the lives of all people.”
As people of compassion and a membership organization with hundreds of diverse faith communities, Webb said Interfaith has to actively seek to address what he called harmful and immoral racial inequalities in society. He asked congregation members of all faiths to ask their faith leaders to participate in the training.
Decker said Interfaith also has launched an Office of Membership Diversity, which will engage communities of color who are not necessarily involved with Interfaith to help the nonprofit be more diverse and responsive to needs in other communities.
Anglea said Interfaith employees have launched an internal racial justice working group focused on hiring and promotion initiatives and to look for more opportunities to engage and serve diverse communities.
gary.warth@sduniontribune.com