It was a bit cold last night, just above freezing. I woke up around 6:00 a.m. I got all my stuff together for work. When I walked over to the truck I changed into new clothes, because I don’t want people to see me wearing the same clothes everyday.
At 7:00 a.m. the Outreach team arrived at the Daybreak shelter. We put together food and supplies to hand out to people living in the street.
At 9:00 a.m. Mitchell from the local drug treatment center arrived to ride along and assist the Outreach team and help people access drug treatment. The Outreach team left and first met up with Jess and Pedro across from the bridge encampment area. We left some food, sodas, cosmetics, socks, and hats for Jess and Pedro. They did not want to exit the tent and they did not want treatment.
The Outreach team then drove over to the encampment under the bridge. There we encountered George, and a young girl named Ashley who refused to disclose her last name. The Outreach team walked along the river and met up with Thomas who came back to the car for food, socks, hats, and cosmetics for other people living in tents by the river who did not engage with us.
At 9:45 a.m. the Outreach team parked behind the Riverside Church and engaged with Alex and Eleanor, and Shirley who live in tents right behind the church. They accepted food, drinks, socks, hats and cosmetics from us but did not want any other services. They had been on our coordinated entry housing list and I was informed by the admin that they were not a fit for housing because they had been evicted from housing in the past and I informed them of this.
From the tents behind the church we continued down the river and we stopped at an encampment and talked to Anthony who accepted food, drinks, cosmetics, socks, and hats from us. Patrick, who we admitted into the shelter the day before, was in one of the tents and did not come out. I asked Patrick why he did not stay at the shelter and he said he wasn’t able to make curfew.
There was a 60 year old woman staying in the tent with Patrick named Karen who expressed interest in staying at the shelter, the Outreach team asked Karen come by the shelter later that afternoon and see if a bed was available. The outreach team also met with Noreen who declined treatment and took food, cosmetics, and socks.
The Outreach team Departed from the encampments behind the Riverside Church and drove over to the House of Mercy; there the Outreach team engaged with Davos. The outreach team put Davos on the phone with a rapid rehousing coordinator who had been trying to find him to provide him housing.
After lunch at the Bodega at 1:00 p.m. the Outreach team returned back to the shelter where Janelle was doing a shelter intake which was a referral from another local homeless organization I just recently built a relationship with. We received donations from a local rotary club, and the team worked together to unload all those donations. The rest of the afternoon was spent doing paperwork on client files.
While Mitchell was with us in the streets we asked people if they were interested in treatment but today nobody was interested. We will continue to try and offer people treatment services in the future.
3:00 p.m. I drove to a friend’s house. I was tired, I’ve been knocked around so much lately, I wanted to sleep inside alone, so I spent the night at my friend’s place. I did some work on a few things for this project. Scrolled around on social media and went to bed around 8:30 p.m.