Folks from Gonzales churches prepared an evening meal for homeless men last Wednesday evening. Photo by Laureen Diephof.

The Gonzales Community Church and St. Theodore’s Catholic Church prepared an evening meal for homeless men and St. Theodore’s provided a place for them to sleep for the night.

The evening was sponsored by the Interfaith Homeless Emergency Lodging Program (IHELP), an organization that has for many years been giving a helping hand to men who are temporarily homeless and need a place so sleep and some food while they work to get their lives together.

According to Program Director Linda Forkash, there are 65 faith communities in Monterey County giving help to men in need.

“It’s a win-win program because it gives an opportunity for the faith communities to practice their faith and also help the men in their own backyard,” Forkash said.

Food and shelter is not the only thing the men are given.

“The men receive job preparation, with resume help, clothing, use of the office computer and the phone to receive calls,” Forkash said.

The men are allowed to stay in the program for up to six months, with an agreement with a case manager to follow the plan set-up by the case manager, and that he must be able to get along in a communal environment.

“There is a thirty-three percent success rate of men who graduate from the program and secure an income,” Forkash said, and added that the percentage is good considering that 70 percent are chronically homeless individuals.

“When someone becomes self sufficient after being homeless, those are good statistics,” Forkash said.

According to Forkash, three men were recently relocated to the Big Sur area where a cabin had been provided for them, and where all three are working in a restaurant.

“Men come to the program from word-of-mouth or from agency referrals such as the Salvation Army, the prison, Monterey County Probation Department, hospitals, interim, Monterey County Behavior Health, to name a few,” Forkash said.

The faith institutions provide the food for the evening meal and breakfast, and a place to sleep for a night.

On Wednesday, the meal was prepared under the direction of Mayme Kulper and the table was decorated with red, white and blue stuffed animals.

Kulper named some of the food, such as, casseroles, beef stroganoff, chicken enchiladas, scalloped potatoes, sausages, various types of salads and a variety of desserts.



For the complete article see the 07-28-2010 issue.

Click here to purchase an electronic version of the 07-28-2010 paper.