Shelter services help families set a new course
For four months last year after they were evicted, they had nowhere to go.
Nohemi Ramirez and her mother lived in their car, wondering each day what the next would bring.
“We would sleep in front of Kmart, and places that were open 24 hours,” she said. “We would go to places where the bathroom was open, like Mc
Donald’s. We would go to the YMCA or to beaches to take showers.”
The weather added to the burden. One day they were near their breaking point.
“It was so cold,” Ramirez said. “We went to the shelter. Thankfully, they had a bed for us. They welcomed us with love.”
Since 1983, Pajaro Valley Shelter Services has provided emergency housing for roughly 7,000 people who have been in similar desperate straits. They are often single mothers with children who have been evicted or who have suffered domestic violence with no place to go. The shelter embraces them and gives them hope.
But the nonprofit charity doesn’t just provide handouts. It requires people to become self-sufficient by teaching everything from financial literacy to English as a second language, and also by helping them get their GEDs, connecting them with jobs, or helping them qualify for college or vocational training.
Last year 87% of those who left the program — 81 people in two dozen families — moved into permanent housing, double the typical rate for similar shelter programs. Now with the coronavirus pandemic, the group is working to expand its job-training offerings by helping residents take classes at community colleges to learn jobs that are more resilient during the
economic downturn, like nursing assistants, home caregivers and translators.
The organization is asking Wish Book readers for $5,000 to help cover tuition and other fees so the shelter can expand its jobtraining programs and more of its residents can afford to attend Cabrillo College and move up the economic ladder.
“We’re really trying to build a foundation under a family’s feet for long-term sustainability and happiness,” said Mike Johnson, the shelter’s executive director. “We’re trying to teach families skills, abilities and attitudes that they can leverage to build a great future.”
Not only has the organization helped thousands of once-homeless women find jobs, open bank accounts and rent new housing, but 40 of its former residents have also gone on to purchase their own homes.
“No one is immune to homelessness,” said Toree Hempstead, the group’s economic development coordinator. “There’s a stereotype about the choices you make. But we have everybody from migrant workers to registered nurses.”
The organization runs an emergency shelter in downtown Watsonville, where up to 30 mothers
and children can stay as long as six months. It also has 13 units of housing where families can stay for one or two years in Watsonville and the adjacent community of Pajaro, and six homes where families can stay up to five years.
A caseworker at the shelter helped Ramirez enroll at Cabrillo College in Aptos and apply for financial aid. Staying at the shelter’s transitional housing with her mother and brother now, she is studying political science at Cabrillo and plans to complete her four-year degree at San Jose State or another Bay Area university.
“My goal is to finish Cabrillo next year and become a probation officer or a criminal defense lawyer,” she said.
Patty Ibarra has a similar story. A Watsonville native, she came to the emer
gency shelter two years ago with her 3-month- old son and nowhere to go.
“I no longer felt safe in my home and I decided to leave,” she said. “It was very difficult. I didn’t have any money whatsoever. Coming here gave me the opportunity to save money and be in a safe, secure location.”
Today, Ibarra works at an answering service in Santa Cruz. Working with the shelter’s counselors, she developed a career plan. She learned Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint and other software programs. Focused and determined, she saved enough money for a down payment to purchase a home in Salinas. She, her son, now 3, and her daughter, 19, move into their new home this week. No longer homeless, now they are homeowners.
“PVSS provides tools
for people, and stability so they can achieve on their own,” said Ibarra, 36. “We have to do our part to get there. It’s not a handout. I’m immensely grateful. There’s nothing like knowing I’m securing a future for my family and myself. I went from being in a crisis to now where I am securing the foundation for my family.”
Ibarra said she hopes to eventually work at a nonprofit, doing accounting or running programs to help people in need.
“I’m the first one in my family to graduate from high school,” Ramirez said. “And I’ll be the first to graduate from college.”