By Dianne Anderson

For some homeless individuals and families in Fontana, more help is on the way.

Last month, the city held its ribbon-cutting ceremony for The Path, a model Homeless Prevention Resource & Care Center, providing shelter for up to 120 in need for those referred by the city’s police HOST Team.

Full wraparound services for clients range from help with getting their California ID., birth certificates, resume writing job interviews.

“Everything and anything to help you get back on your feet. It’s transitional and temporary. It’s only a six-month transition,” said Monique Carter, the city’s spokesperson.

To access services, she said that the homeless clients must be working with, and, referred by case managers, but it is not open to the public to walk in off the streets. Within the police department, their Homelessness Outreach Support Team (HOST) has been working with homeless clients, who want to transition to the center.

“Or, there was a situation where they needed some support in terms of housing so they would have been already on-boarded and triaged with the support team, [that] referred them into The Path,” she said.

Clients come in from a variety of situations. Some may have been priced out of their homes and couldn’t afford rent anymore.  She said Citylink is one of the city’s partners, a local outreach of Water of Life Community Church, is also in the process of creating a transitional facility.

Other offerings from the city include emergency housing Bridge of Hope temporary shelter which helps up to 12 people, including families. Project Homekey added 14 units of interim housing for up to 38 individuals including families, and permanent housing for 16 individuals, including families.

For the past decade, Vickie Lobo, has been on the other side of homelessness.

Her day job is selling homes, but her heart is helping low-income families get free furniture into their affordable homes. Recently, she worked with one LVN nurse who was employed, but priced out of her apartment. She and three children were living in a car in the parking lot of her job.

No one knew.

“It’s so expensive to rent now, they are asking first and last month’s rent, and credit requirements. It makes it so difficult for good people to afford their apartments. With three kids, she has to pay for daycare,” Lobo, founder and CEO of Knock Knock Angels.

In the past few years, Lobo expanded her effort to help families that are finally housed get furniture. They have no money to pay.

Local charities also often call her, including large hospitals and health systems, to request her assistance. One mother finally saved enough money for an apartment, but she and the kids were sleeping on the floor.

“We give families dignity. We help them by giving them beds, and we are now working with a furniture company to give them mattresses,” Lobo, winner of the 2020 National Association of Realtors Good Neighbor Award.

Housing is her main focus, and also a clear juxtaposition to her day job.

As a real estate agent, she has watched wealthier families throw out good furniture at the curb for years. When they buy a new house, they want new stuff.

“I’m watching people sleep on the floor, and they are throwing away mattresses that look like no one has slept on them,” she said.

Recently, she expanded her program to Colorado and Washington state without any grant funding help from local governments, although she has asked. She was told she must broaden her program scope, but she said she’s not equipped to carry wraparound services.

And, the storage bills are adding up.

“I can’t afford staff, I can barely afford rent, I have a $5,000 bill every single month. I’m doing this for the community without a paycheck,” she said.

Through the past decade, she has garnered some much needed support within her own circle.

“I saw both sides of the spectrum and I saw the neglect, the waste. I saw how I could take it and bring more real estate agents into it,” she said.

With all the pressures on the homeless lately, she said she wonders about the recent long-term impact of Johnson v. Grants Pass, the U.S. Supreme Court decision that now allows the arrest and fine of people across the nation for sleeping in public places.

In June, High Court Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson joined in the dissent in a 6-3 decision.

Sotomayor wrote that over a half million people nationwide lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence, and many are without shelter due to debt, domestic violence, disability and high housing costs.

“It is possible to acknowledge and balance the issues facing local governments, the humanity and dignity of homeless people, and our constitutional principles. Instead, the majority focuses almost exclusively on the needs of local governments and leaves the most vulnerable in our society with an impossible choice: Either stay awake or be arrested,” she wrote.

To see the Supreme Court decision,https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/23pdf/23-175_19m2.pdf

To see Knock Knock Angels,https://www.knockknockangels.org/