San Bernardino officials report on homeless efforts at roundtable

San Bernardino County officials and members of local faith-based organizations gathered earlier this month for a roundtable discussion on efforts to increase housing, add shelter beds and enhance outreach efforts to help house people experiencing homelessness.

District 5 Supervisor Joe Baca Jr. hosted the Feb. 20 meeting with leaders from the city of San Bernardino’s faith-based community, county officials announced Wednesday. The roundtable also featured officials from the San Bernardino County Office of Homeless Services and the Community Development and Housing Department, San Bernardino Mayor Helen Tran.

Representing the faith-based community were pastors and leaders from Temple Missionary Baptist Church, Grace Chapel, 16th Street Seventh Day Adventist Church, the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Bernardino, Mary’s Mercy Center, Faith Advisory Council for Community Transformation, Ecclesia Christian Fellowship’s Angels of Hope program, Our Lady of Hope, Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Church and the San Bernardino Community Seventh Day Adventist Church.

Baca’s opening remarks highlighted the challenges of addressing homelessness and noted the county’s investment in affordable housing.

“San Bernardino County is committed to creating shelter beds and supporting affordable housing,” Baca said. “For example, in Rialto, the county provided $2.1 million as a gap fill to fund the construction of the Rialto Metroview affordable housing community. Additionally, we’re in the process of adding 30 beds to our Kern facility in Muscoy, which serves our justice-involved population aiding them with reentry into society. The challenge we face is that it takes time to develop affordable housing and add more shelter beds. It can take five to 10 years to complete one project.”

During Tran’s remarks, she echoed her commitment to addressing homelessness and spoke about the challenges of addressing the issue.

“For cities like San Bernardino, we are absolutely committed,” the mayor said. “San Bernardino makes up the largest number of homeless in the county, and we are taking action to address this issue. It’s not an easy fix, and it is a slow process. But with partners such as the county and faith community we can get there.”

CDH Director Carrie Harmon and OHS Chief Marcus Dillard followed Baca and Tran’s openers with an update on efforts to decrease homelessness while increasing shelter beds and affordable housing in the city.

Harmon shared details about her experience working with homeless veterans and the support she received from the faith-based community.

“Twenty years ago, when I was working with Veterans Affairs, there were hardly any shelters in Southern California,” Harmon said. “When I had a veteran who was ready for treatment and needed a safe place to stay for the night, I would go to churches, and they never turned any of our veterans away. Not only did my veterans get a place to stay for the night, but they also got a hot meal and a lot of love.

Harmon noted the faith-based community’s impact on the process of developing shelters and affordable housing.

“I think the faith-based community provides the pathway for someone’s dignity to be restored,” Harmon said. “I can bring millions of dollars together to build an apartment community or shelter, but community providers and the faith-based community play a vital role in breathing life into folks who have had a hard journey.”

Harmon then discussed the county’s current housing projects and the planned expansion of existing housing developments. One example is Pacific Village, a 28-bed interim housing facility in San Bernardino that received funding at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Phase II of the campus, funded with an $11.82 million state grant, is set to begin construction this summer.

“Phase II will include 58 permanent supportive housing units for individuals with a disability, an on-site substance-use treatment center with 16 beds and 32 recuperative beds for people who are leaving a hospital,” Harmon said.

CDH has also partnered with the county Housing Authority for Arrowhead Grove, a replacement for the Waterman Gardens housing community that served the city of San Bernardino for more than 70 years before its demolition that began in 2016.

Harmon said her goal is to expand shelter capacity countywide with a focus on areas that have a shelter deficit and have a high number of unsheltered individuals.

Dillard shared that when he started as OHS chief two years ago, his focus was on expanding homeless outreach efforts, cultivating relationships with cities and service providers and investing in the county’s Coordinated Entry System, which connects people experiencing homelessness to housing resources. Currently, Dillard is working on solutions to place individuals into housing.

“We are getting ready to launch HUG, which is Housing the Unhoused Gateway,” Dillard said. “This program will allow individuals who are homeless to go through a portal and request help and a team will be dispatched to support them. In addition, we are adding kiosks in the community to allow individuals to request shelter beds and complete their certification for Medi-Cal benefits.”

Dillard also noted Encampment Resolution Funding from the state that will enable his office to begin homeless outreach work near San Bernardino’s Del Rosa Avenue. This project entails providing bi-weekly showers and laundry services while also securing 50 housing units for people experiencing homelessness in that area.

After Dillard spoke, pastors and members of the faith-based community shared their experiences with the unhoused county residents and opportunities for collaborative efforts to address homelessness.

Pastor Ray Turner of Temple Missionary Baptist Church said local government and faith-based organizations should focus on preventative measures when addressing homelessness.

“We spend a lot of time, money and energy addressing the homeless problem, but have we taken time to interview some of the homeless individuals to find out how they got there in the first place?” Turner said. “We are seeing more people enter the streets daily, so we need to look at how we can identify those who are at-risk of becoming homeless and put more resources on that end.”

Diane Rundles, the county’s Assistant Executive Officer who oversees CDH and OHS, agreed and confirmed that the county is seeking measures to enhance services and develop programs to prevent homelessness. Harmon suggested churches collaborate with the county by identifying members of their congregations in need of resources, so the county can then connect them to the support they need.

John Andrews, the vice chancellor and director of communications for the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Bernardino, said the narrative surrounding homelessness needs to change.

“As we see more people entering the streets, they can become demonized,” Andrews said. “As part of our responsibility as people of faith, our job is to present a different narrative. When you put a human face on a problem that’s affecting a lot of people, it makes individuals more compassionate and less inclined to demonize, which unfortunately is a real problem right now.”

Rundles said the county is actively working on a profile series to show the many faces of homelessness — those who may have lost their job and fell behind in rent, or older adults who can no longer work and don’t receive enough money from federal Social Security each month to keep a roof over their heads.

Dan Flores, executive director of Mary’s Mercy Center, emphasized that community support is the ultimate solution to the homelessness crisis.

“You can put someone in a beautiful apartment and watch them either walk out or invite all their friends, and all of a sudden there’s eight or nine people living in that apartment, and it’s not so beautiful anymore,” Flores said. “You just housed them, but they’re still homeless, they’re just homeless indoors. This is because they have not changed those fundamental things about who they are.

“That only comes from community,” Flores continued. “When you give someone a door, you’re only furthering their isolation. At Mary’s Mercy Center, they must live in a community with 15 or 20 other people. They’re eating, praying and working together, which builds a sense of community and ensures accountability.”

Baca concluded the roundtable discussion by going over some of the county’s milestones achieved in addressing the issue.

“Over the last few years, we’ve made significant progress,” Baca. “We will continue to do our part, but government can’t do it alone. We need the support of our faith-based groups and community partners to make a difference.”

Baca added that he hopes to host a larger symposium on homelessness in the future to continue exploring potential solutions.

According to the 2024 point-in-time count, the most recent statistics available, 4,237 people were experiencing homelessness in San Bernardino County.

More information about the county’s efforts to address homelessness is at sbchp.sbcounty.gov.

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