OB Community Foundation committee to tackle homelessness

The Ocean Beach Community Foundation is trying to take on the homelessness problem with the formation of an Unsheltered Subcommittee, and it’s seeking support from the community.

In announcing the new committee at OBCF’s public meeting Aug. 14, board member Phil Cenedella categorized homelessness as three types of conditions — mental illness, circumstantial and criminal — and said the committee’s goal is to assist with all three, including incarceration for the latter.

“The elephant in the room in OB has been the unsheltered, security and mental illness issues,” Cenedella said. “That’s why we’re taking it seriously as a board and try to address it. … We know what’s going on. Now we need to find solutions. … We don’t want kids and their moms scared walking to school. That’s unacceptable.”

Tamara Kohler, chief executive of the Regional Task Force on Homelessness, was on hand to offer the support of her nonprofit organization.

She emphasized that the new committee doesn’t need to reinvent the wheel but rather draw on existing outreach and resources available through professional entities such as PATH (Projects for Assistance in Transition from Homelessness) and the San Diego Police Department’s PERT (Psychiatric Emergency Response Team), among others.

“We don’t have to try something new,” Kohler said. “I’m going to encourage you to work with things that already work, providers that are already in your community. …It’s up to you to figure out how you want to realize that and how you want to do it. But also I want to make sure that you have clear and intentional goals to make it work.”

Based on the most recent Point in Time count that surveys the number of homeless people on a single January night using U.S. Census tracts, Kohler said the Ocean Beach area had 201 unhoused individuals, including 20 in OB proper.

Calling those numbers “manageable,” Kohler urged the committee to uncover the demographics of the local homeless population — such as military veterans or senior citizens — to identify what resources are required and then focus its efforts on that segment of the population instead of trying to find a resolution to the issue as a whole.

“The smartest thing to do with 200 people is to target the 10% that are in the greatest need, the biggest challenge,” she said. “You want to address those highest needs. When you get a group together and you focus specifically on the individuals, you’re going to need your professionals, your outreach workers to work on that and charge them to really work on the top 10%. I promise your community will see an improvement that is visible and intentional.”

Because the regional task force helps allocate city, county and state funds for homelessness programs, Kohler said her organization could provide $50,000 over two years and that the money could be leveraged for additional funding through grants and endowments.

The new committee would direct where to spend the money.

“You have all the pieces you need,” she said. “I just want to help you organize and support it. That’s why our expertise is helpful. We bring those things together. We just want to support anything you guys need. I think the greatest body of work in addressing homelessness is when communities come together and work at it themselves, not just looking for the city to fix it or solve it for you.”

Inspired by the financial and professional assistance, Cenedella exhorted the 30 people in the audience to accept the challenge of working to improve their community.

“It’s up to us to implement it,” he said. “It’s not the county waving a magic wand. It’s us. So whatever we could do to become impactful, we’ll take the leadership, we’ll take the hits, and let’s work together to get something done.”