Patrick Miller of Grace House helps distribute hot meals to area homeless on Dec. 27, 2022. // M. Hazlip
By Mike Hazlip–
Volunteers from the Citrus Heights Homeless Assistance Resource Team (HART) and Grace House on Tuesday provided a hot meal behind Costco to those living on the streets of Citrus Heights.
Both organizations work together to provide meals every Tuesday at the picnic tables behind Costco and Walmart on Auburn Boulevard. This week’s turnout on Dec. 27 was slim due to the weather, organizers said.
Homeless advocate Alfred Sanchez, known on the streets as “Snack Man” for his efforts to distribute snacks and toiletries, said people living on the streets and in the parks try to stay warm and dry as best they can.
“Thank God that Grace House is out here doing this,” Sanchez said. “Because it gives it a kind of a sense of community, somebody cares. The navigators, the people from HART, I come out, and it just makes it feel like, damn, somebody cares.”
Citrus Heights HART President Irene Hronicek said the outreach helps staff connect with homeless individuals and offer services. The meals are prepared and served by Grace House, she said.
Patrick Miller, president of the board for Grace House, said his organization houses between 30 and 35 men and women among three houses, a men’s house, a women’s house, and a men’s transitional house.
Since April of last year, the City of Citrus Heights has paid for 18 people to be housed at Grace House, Miller said. Of those, only two have turned back to alcohol or drugs while the rest are either living in transitional housing or continue to live at Grace House.
“We don’t run a rehab, we don’t run a behavior modification type of program,” Miller said. “We build a new family for them.”
Grace House meets each Friday night at Crossroads Christian Fellowship near Dewey Drive and Madison Avenue. Citrus Heights HART offers office hours with the navigator, Gabby Yost, at various times and locations during the week.
HART is also helping coordinate a rotating Winter Shelter program, set to begin Sunday night.
Patrick Miller (second from left) with volunteers from The Way and Grace House ministries distribute food to people living in the green space behind Costco and Walmart in Citrus Heights. // M. Hazlip
By Mike Hazlip—
For more than a decade, The Way Ministries has worked in and around Citrus Heights to feed those in need and help people experiencing homelessness transition into a more stable life.
The ministry meets Friday nights at Crossroads Christian Fellowship on Dewey Drive and also has a donation center next to Hall’s Furniture on Mariposa Avenue.
Patrick Miller, one of the ministry’s leaders, spoke with The Sentinel last month at a gathering to distribute food and supplies to people living in the green space behind the Costco and Walmart stores on Auburn Boulevard. He said The Way Ministries work with the Citrus Heights Homeless Assistance Resource Team (HART) and the Citrus Heights navigator to check in on homeless people.
The Way works closely with Grace House, a sober living facility near Mercy San Juan that helps individuals integrate back into society. Miller said The Way and Grace House operate as nonprofit ministries and share many of the same staff and volunteers, but are separate entities.
“The majority of people who come to us deal with both mental health and substance abuse issues,” Miller said. “It’s called dual diagnosis, and you really can’t treat the one without the other.”
Grace House operates a men’s home with 18 beds, a women’s home with six beds, and a transitional house for men with six beds. The facilities are completely clean and sober, he said.
Kathilynn Carpenter, who serves on the Citrus Heights HART leadership board, said her organization has sponsored guests at Grace House as well as at another transitional house in Carmichael. She said HART has had “good success with both.”
While the facilities are just outside of the boundaries of Citrus Heights, many of the people coming to the ministry have been on the streets of Citrus Heights for years. They have separated themselves from society, and The Way helps them come back and reintegrate with society, Miller said.
“Our purpose for being on the street is not to enable people to stay on the street, but to provide a way off the street,” he said.
While Miller appreciates the support from some organizations that serve food and supplies, he says they often do not have the resources to take people off the street.
Rhonda Sandoval oversees Grace House, and she said rules are in place to encourage residents to develop an internal sense of self-esteem. Sandoval said she won’t ask anything of the residents that she is not willing to do herself, and can empathize with the men and women at Grace House.
Men and women coming to Grace House go through a six to nine month detox period, and those coming into the program also go through a blackout from mobile devices that can last two to four weeks.
Miller said those whom The Way and Grace House work with have to desire to change in their lives, and that can take a period of years.
“Many of these folks we work with for three, four, or five years before they’ve had enough,” Miller said. “Then they’ll say to us ‘I’m ready, can you help me out?’“
One of those “folks” is Travis Niles. In an interview with The Sentinel at Grace House last week, Niles said he opted to leave the program of his own accord for over a month before returning, citing personal reasons. Although Niles said he was not homeless for a long period of time, he called his living situation “unstable.”
Other Grace House residents also said it’s not uncommon to see people leave, only to come back later seeking stability.
Sandoval said she typically sees a sense of gratitude from residents of Grace House in the first few days after their arrival, followed by a period of resistance to the rules before they finally accept the lifestyle and become cooperative. One man The Sentinel spoke to said “too strict” rules at Grace House have kept him away from the program.
Several program participants stand in front of Grace House, a sober living and transitional home in Sacramento County. // M. Hazlip
Grace House residents transitioning out of the program are given a graduation ceremony. Two graduates have gone on to work as navigators in the region, helping other homeless individuals transition off the streets.
Videos of past ceremonies are posted to the ministry’s website. In the most recent ceremony video published from 2017, Sandoval said residents often find faith at Grace House that helps them move forward in their lives.
“That’s a very big part of graduating from Grace House is knowing your identity,” Sandoval said. “Knowing that we are a family and that you can always come home.”
A graduate in the video named “Big Ed” is shown describing the ministries as having “a spectacular program that changes lives” and said “it’s like reaching up to God and giving back to the community.”
Grace House was formerly headed up by Pastor Lonnie Nix until he died after being hospitalized with COVID-19 earlier this year. His brother, Coy Nix, stepped in to lead the ministry, according to an announcement on the organization’s website.
The ministry is operating at a reduced capacity because of the pandemic, and people coming in to the program are tested for the virus.
Grace House is self-funded, with residents paying rent if they can, but Miller said no one is turned away because of a lack of funds. A statement on the organization’s website says participants are expected to pay $600 per month for room and board, but “20% are half-pay, and another 10% are scholarship beds.” Residents stay for up to a year or “until the resident is ready to live safely out on their own,” the website says.
Miller said the organization does not receive any funds from the state, but does accept monetary donations as well as furniture.
Although some have criticized The Way for attracting area homeless through its food distribution, Miller said the ministry has found the best way to help people experiencing homelessness is by showing compassion.
“The best way is to show them that somebody cares,” he said. “Learn their name; when I see people, I know their name, and they’re somebody.”
Volunteers serve homeless guests a hot meal at a local church as part of a local winter shelter program. // CH Sentinel
Updated Feb. 25, 12:30 p.m.–
With rain drops falling on a stormy February afternoon, about two dozen homeless men and women began arriving at a temporary “intake center” set up at Messiah Lutheran Church in Citrus Heights.
Familiar “guests” were checked in using simple paper identification cards with a photo, and newcomers were screened for alcohol and drugs before having a picture taken and an ID created. After checking in, the homeless guests could be seen chatting while seated around a half-dozen round tables, waiting for a van to arrive and transport them to an area church for a meal and overnight stay.
At 6 p.m., guests piled into a large passenger van owned by The Way Ministries and took off for a baptist church in Carmichael, which had agreed to host the homeless for a week.
“Dig in,” said Dave Brown, pastor of The Church on Cypress, after leading a short prayer before the meal. Salad bowls were placed at each table, and guests lined up to be served a hot meal — with chicken enchiladas cooked by Pastor Brown and served up by volunteers.
Following the meal, guests checked in with a volunteer to be assigned a cot and sleeping bag for the night, with each item numbered and documented on a paper spreadsheet. By 10 p.m., lights were required to be out and guests looked forward to breakfast being served the next morning before being transported back to the intake center.
The effort was part of a first-ever “Winter Sanctuary,” a seven-week program coordinated by the Citrus Heights Homeless Assistance Resource Team (HART), a local nonprofit made up of various public and private organizations and volunteers. The group’s mission is to “provide resources that will enable at risk people and people experiencing homelessness in Citrus Heights and adjacent areas to become independent, self-sustaining and participating members of the community.”
There are three other HART’s in the region, with Elk Grove and Rancho Cordova HART’s serving as a model for Citrus Heights, and a newly formed Carmichael HART being launched in the past year.
The inaugural seven-week shelter was held from Dec. 26 through Feb. 11, 2017, with homeless guests taken to a total of five different area churches who each agreed to host the homeless on site for a week. Three of the churches were located in Citrus Heights — Holy Family Catholic Church, Celtic Cross Presbyterian Church, and Advent Lutheran Church — while two churches in Carmichael agreed to take on a total of three weeks, after hearing of an urgent need for more host churches.
Getting off the ground Although organizers view the first-ever winter shelter effort in the city as a success, the effort almost didn’t get off the ground.
Mark Holt, a deacon at Holy Family Catholic Church in Citrus Heights, helped spearhead the shelter program and said he “almost pulled the plug” on the program in November, when he only had two host churches lined up to cover three of the seven weeks.
Beginning last May, the deacon said he worked to contact local churches to line up facilities to host the seven-week program, but although contacting churches by mail, in person, phone, and email, the deacon said he was lucky if he even got a phone call back. Thanks to the help of neighboring churches on short notice, the program was still able to have host facilities each week, but Holt is hopeful to find more host churches in the city for next year’s shelter.
The rotating shelter also faced limitations when more homeless showed up than the shelter was able to handle. One volunteer expressed a “heartbreaking” moment, when he had to turn away a homeless man in the rain, due to the program only being able to help up to 20 homeless guests each night.
“We’re just barely hitting the tip,” said Deacon Holt in an interview, referencing the number of homeless the shelter helped contrasted with a Citrus Heights police surveythat identified a total of 192 individuals as homeless or associated with homelessness within the city.
The 2016 survey also found that 58 percent of those included in the survey self-identified as having a drug or alcohol addiction — a problem faced by the shelter, which turned away individuals who didn’t meet the requirement to be drug and alcohol-free.
“We’ve got some pretty strict rules,” said Holt. “Very simple respectful rules, but we’ve found people have some issues with that — and if you can’t follow the rules, then you’re on the streets.”
Finding housing
Although having an immediate goal to provide temporary shelter for those without homes in the winter, HART’s ultimate mission is to help the homeless find permanent housing. Getting the often-roving homeless population in one room proved to be a helpful tool towards that end.
The City of Citrus Heights partnered with HART in its housing endeavor, funding a “navigator” charged with the task of connecting homeless with public services. The navigator visited the shelter once a week, helping homeless get state ID’s and housing counseling.
Navigator Lauren Juskelis told The Sentinel 30 homeless guests received housing counseling, 11 were provided transportation through rides or a bus pass, and 10 shelter guests were given fee-waiver vouchers for applying for a state ID or drivers license.
Katherine Cooley, a HART leader and development specialist with the City of Citrus Heights, said five guests are also now in the process of getting housing through Volunteers of America’s “Rapid Re-housing” program. She also said several shelter volunteers worked on an individual basis to connect homeless with housing through local ministries, like The Way Ministries’ Grace House.
Asked whether homeless were also helped with finding employment, Cooley said the city-funded navigator was “not really” focused with providing employment services. She said the navigator was focused on getting homeless housed and connecting guests with social security, public assistance, and bus passes.
“While the city sent our homeless navigator to the shelter, the success of the shelter is due to HART,” said Cooley, referencing volunteer work and contributions of churches. “The city, we didn’t do it — they did it.”
In the end, organizers estimate over 900 volunteers assisted with the shelter, with about 400 volunteers coming from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, according to Deacon Holt.
The guests Over the 48-night shelter period, organizers said as many as 70 different homeless individuals participated in the program, ranging from age 18 to 70. Volunteers were encouraged to sit down during dinner and meet with homeless guests, talk to them, and find out their story.
Volunteers interviewed by The Sentinel repeatedly said their most memorable experience in helping at the shelter was sitting down with homeless guests and hearing their unique stories and backgrounds.
Volunteer Irene Hronicek highlighted the effort as a winter “sanctuary” rather than just a “shelter.” She noted the personal aspect of the effort was “more than just a roof over the head,” with volunteers sitting down to chat with homeless guests during evening meals.
“We became part of their community,” said volunteer Dick Bartlett, noting the level of personal involvement in the program. “They know our names, we know their names.”
Deacon Holt pointed out the youngest guest, age 18, who he said was likely kicked out of his parents house for alcohol or drug abuse. He was reportedly placed in Grace House for temporary housing and rehab.
Another guest was 60-years-old and chronically homeless for 30 years, with no plans to try to get off the streets.
Other homeless guests served at the shelter included a man and his mother, who attended the shelter every night — while others came only for a few nights. Holt said a volunteer ended up taking the man to an interview with a regional water district, and other guests were offered employment by at least one volunteer.
Shelter objections The shelter was not without its critics however. Holt said objections had been raised by some community members who were concerned the shelter would attract more homeless and crime to the area.
Asked whether police had observed an increase in homeless-related calls for service during the shelter period, Lt. Jason Russo told The Sentinel he was “not aware of any increase,” but said a study had not been conducted.
In January, the lieutenant said calls for service related to camps and loitering went down compared to December, but noted that rain could also have contributed to the difference observed.
In prior years, Mayor Jeff Slowey expressed skepticism about whether funding a navigator would be a worthwhile investment for the city, but after hearing the results of a pilot program in the prior fiscal year, he called the navigator “a phenomenal success.” He has also expressed opposition in the past to building a permanent shelter in Citrus Heights, commenting in several public meetings that “if you build it, they will come.”
Asked about the temporary shelter provided by HART, Slowey told The Sentinel in an email last week that he is not opposed to “sheltering the disadvantaged,” but is not in favor of a permanent shelter in Citrus Heights, as he said “there are many places that already offer that service today.”
Slowey said HART had done “an excellent job” with the shelter program and also praised faith-based communities who “stepped up and did what they do best – put others ahead of themselves.”
He said the city would be continuing its support for HART, but said he “will continue [to] tread very cautiously when spending taxpayer dollars on this topic and will make sure there are measurable results and outcomes.”
Reflections and future plans Looking to next year’s shelter, Deacon Holt said HART is hopeful to line up a total of nine local churches — a goal he believes will be possible through more advance notice and connections made during the first shelter period.
“It’s been a huge success from our perspective,” said Holt, reflecting on the group’s first shelter season. “It’s a band-aid, but it’s a step in the right direction.”
