Last month, Sunnyvale Community Services (SCS) held its annual resource fair for unhoused individuals and families, bringing some 20 social service agencies together to help people navigate a path out of homelessness.
“It’s open to anybody in this county,” said Marie Bernard, executive director of Sunnyvale Community Services.
Visitors walk out the door with useful items like sleeping bags, information about programs they can sign up for and a hot lunch.
The event also fosters connections between the agencies, Bernard said, “so that they know this agency is able to do this, and this other organization is able to do that.” It’s also a way for these partners to hear directly from people about what they need.
Patelco Credit Union, represented by Erika Aramanos, offered free one-on-one financial coaching on budgeting, saving, building credit and paying off debt.
“Financial literacy is going to make a difference in making better choices,” Aramanos said, steering clients away from payday lenders and other predatory loans.
Job Train offered another ingredient of self-sufficiency: employable skills.
“We have six different training programs in fields that are in high demand,” said Brodie Storey, an employment specialist with the nonprofit, citing carpentry pre-apprenticeship, HVAC and certified nursing and medical assistant programs.
Maker Nexus, a nonprofit maker space, promoted free youth camps with the Community Services Center.
“When was the last time you built something, or when was the last time you tried something new?” is the organization’s guiding motto, said Sebastian Esteva, a Maker on Duty at Maker Nexus.
Instructor Jackson Martinez described watching a girl who had been described to him as a “behavior problem” blossom.
“She was nothing like that,” he said. “She started off being quiet and not doing a lot of work. But as the week went on, she started making stickers and shirts and became interested in what we were doing.”
Homelessness is never a stand-alone problem. Take Angie, for example. This was her first visit to Sunnyvale Community Services, and she said she’d been looking forward to the event.
She was on disability when confusion over sales commissions from a former job left her facing a $10,000 overpayment claim she’s been fighting for two years. When her roommate had surgery and could no longer work, the two had no way to pay rent. She was evicted about a month ago and now alternates nights between her car and a relative’s house.
“I’ve been in a state of shock,” she said. “I wanted to know what resources are out here, and hopefully it’ll help me get everything situated.”
Her disability began with a broken back, followed by a mental health crisis and a years-long wait for a psychiatrist and therapist. She lost her job when the paperwork she needed for disability went unsigned.
Untangling this kind of knot is Maria Wendralston’s daily work. She’s spent 16 years at Sunnyvale Community Services helping clients apply for county benefits such as CalFresh and Medi-Cal, and, when needed, Social Security, unemployment and disability.
“Sometimes when I start with a one-on-one interview, I’ll find out there may be some domestic violence going on,” Wendralston explained. “I may find out that there’s an autistic child, but they’re not getting benefits. So, my umbrella extends to what a client needs.”
She recounted the story of a client hit with a $6,000 unemployment overpayment notice, the result of having both unemployment and disability claims open simultaneously.
“I contacted the Assemblyman’s office, and their aides helped me cut to the chase and get their benefits verified, so it’s handled by an administrative process instead of a hearing in front of the administrative judge,” said Wendralston.
“I feel very blessed to have this experience,” she continued, “so that when someone comes in because they are being evicted, I’m able to look at what resources they may already have, and know that they don’t have to go through a lot of red tape.”
The Unhoused Response Group, by contrast, focuses on immediate needs. The group began in March 2020 delivering PPE and COVID information directly into encampments.
“We go out to camps, we go to sweeps,” said Shawn Cartwright, one of the group’s leaders. “It’s important to represent the voices of the people who are literally on the streets being swept — places where they’ve been ‘swept’ to. Abatement is a sanitized word that takes out the emotion.”
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