By Dianne Anderson

All the backs of buildings and hidden places of Santa Ana became familiar territory for Pennie Mack, which was just like home for ten years until she got sick and tired of being sick and tired.

She slept around the flags of the Civic Center for years, living on the walkway where all the other Black homeless lived until the city cleared out the tents. One agency came to help, offering her a jacket and soup on the shivering cold rainy day.

“I just prayed to God if I can get out of this, I’ll make sure I come back and help other people out, the same people who were in the encampment with me,” said Mack, founder of Break Every Chain Foundation, Inc.

Since she formed the nonprofit 10 years ago, she has received recognition from a senator, a congressman, and the city for her work in reaching back.

Today, she partners with several agencies, including OC 211 to handle direct referrals. She also works with Orange County Mental Health, the school district, the police department, and United Way.

On December 16, their Christmas event will serve 300 families with 25 agencies participating. The community can access utilities, medical, and vision. Project Food Box will be there, among many others.

Her organization is also hosting a separate Christmas event for special needs children with autism who can’t handle high stimulus. The event will be low noise, and more private.

When she first started outreach she focused mainly on the homeless, but today, her multi-service agency has changed as community needs have changed. Now, she works with more low income and at-risk families, similar to her own childhood.

Her family was at the mercy of social services. She said her grandmother would regularly take her to Tripp’s food pantry, started by Annie Mae Tripp, the historic Black-led nonprofit just around the corner from her house. It became a mainstay for herself and her seven brothers after being removed from her mother due to child neglect.

As adults, she said Connie Jones at Southwest Community Center continued to help her when she had no place to go.

Mack was born and raised in an entirely Black neighborhood due to real estate discrimination in Santa Ana. When her grandmother died, she said everything fell apart and her grandfather lost the house in the old neighborhood. She, along with most of her brothers, became homeless.

They were all lost.

“There are different reasons that people become homeless and different reasons in the encampment I was in. It could be mental health, drugs alcohol, or sexual abuse. I’ve been through everything you can think of,” she said.

In the area, the Black homeless population isn’t always visible, but she knows where to look. Many remember her from when she lived in the encampments because they all grew up in the same neighborhood.

In trying to reach the unhoused, one problem she finds is they adapt to oppression. It’s a way of life, either from childhood, drugs, mental health, or just the economy. And, it’s worse for women, particularly Black women because there are so few in the encampments.

“I defended so many females out there, I grew up with seven brothers. I knew how to defend myself,” she said. “A lot of women can’t defend themselves, they’re so preyed upon.”

Daily, she works to draw them to resources by offering help with getting their driver’s license, or identification cards. She doesn’t give up on them. She keeps planting the seed.

“Especially African American neighborhoods, over on 1st Street, down on Standard. Some people have been homeless for years. It’s a give and take, you offer them something. I’ll help you get into detox, I’ll visit you and bring you some things,” she said.

Among her programs, she has tiny tots diapers, business suits for those looking for a job, and also a housing match program, working with rental managers to screen clients and match them with an apartment.

She tries to lead by example.

“It’s me going back and talking to them. I’ve seen people get housed, give their lives to Jesus, get their kids back,” she said.

The other day, she did her laundry and broke down and cried. Now, she has a nice apartment with a washer and dryer on the patio.

“There was a time when I had no showers or clothes. I remember when I slept in the back of the laundromat,” she said.

Her capacity has grown, with her biggest benefit in working with 211 OC because now she doesn’t have to beat the bushes as much as in the past to help those in need.

“We have a back-to-work clothing program, if you have an interview clothes if you stay there we’ll buy more clothes, we have a resume program. There’s nothing that we don’t have, and if we don’t have it, we will get it.”

Anyone interested in donating a toy or resources, or to get help, contact Pennie Mack at pennymack49@yahoo.com