Posted on 02/24/2024 1:18:42 PM PST by nickcarraway
Ron Hilla, a homeless bearded man in a cowboy hat and tan jacket at a table in St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Los Gatos.
Ron Hilla has been homeless for 11 years and said the hotel program in Los Gatos is the first time he's seen the town step up to address the issue. Photo by Annalise Freimarck.
Get San José Spotlight headlines delivered to your inbox.
Email* Ron Hilla has been homeless for about 11 years, and has seen so many of his friends die on the streets, he can’t count them all on his hands.
The 65-year-old’s life fell apart when his health forced him to quit his more than 40-year career in construction, landing him on the Los Gatos Creek Trail with tarps, his guitar and a bike he cobbled together. He’s on the waitlist for Section 8 housing.
The Los Gatos Hotel program offers Hilla a brief reprieve from life outside. The program, approved last April and implemented last December, provides a select group of unhoused people temporary hotel rooms during extreme weather conditions, such as recent atmospheric rivers. Town and faith leaders at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Los Gatos United Methodist Church and St. Vincent de Paul at St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception run the program.
After nine years in Los Gatos, Hilla said this is the first time he’s experienced the town investing in its unhoused population.
“Sometimes all you need is a night’s sleep and a shower or something to get back up and face the world,” he told San José Spotlight. “It’s a step in the right direction.”
But the program is selective in the people it helps and is not entirely a town-supported effort.
Funding
The Los Gatos Town Council approved funding for the hotel program last April, allocating $50,000 of American Rescue Plan funding toward homeless services. Mayor Mary Badame was the only no vote. Approximately $20,000 funded the program and the remainder funded hygiene needs, such as portable showers at a church.
“We are proud of our hotel program serving the homeless during inclement weather,” Badame told San José Spotlight, who is now a supporter. “In turn, the unhoused have been grateful for the program.”
This month, the program almost ran out of the initial $20,000 after town officials booked 145 rooms at the three participating hotels — the Los Gatos Lodge, the Garden Inn and the Best Western Inn — and assisted in a medical stay over the span of 15 nights, Assistant Town Manager Katy Nomura told San José Spotlight. The program has served 14 people since Feb. 2.
Los Gatos requested $10,000 from Santa Clara County’s $50,000 allocation set aside last year to address homelessness in the town. The balance will fund case management services. Officials are also pursuing an additional $5,000 grant for the program.
Jo Greiner, outreach coordinator for St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, is glad the town has approved a homeless program and works with various faith organizations. Photo by Annalise Freimarck. Jo Greiner, outreach coordinator for St. Luke’s Episcopal Church and founder of the pantry program, said she’s grateful for the town’s efforts, after seeing some unhoused people become hypothermic due to the weather.
“We finally said, ‘Wait a minute. We need help here. We’ve been doing this all these years,’” she told San José Spotlight.
Eligibility
Approximately 19 unhoused people are allowed to participate in the program, out of the estimated 50 who live in town, according to Nomura and the town’s latest point in time count, a biennial survey of the number of homeless people living in Santa Clara County. Nomura said the town estimates its number of unhoused people to be much lower.
To receive the program’s help, unhoused people in Los Gatos must use town services, such St. Luke’s food pantry, for at least three months and be mentally stable to stay in a hotel without causing a disturbance. This excludes people battling addiction and serious mental health issues. When these individuals come into contact with the Los Gatos-Monte Sereno Police Department they are directed to the county’s Here4You hotline to find shelter closest to them, most likely outside of Los Gatos.
Related Stories February 5, 2024 Water floods over a walkway under a bridge. San Jose helps evacuate homeless residents amid storm January 28, 2024 Two story modern homes along a paved street with a blue sky. Los Gatos struggles to get its housing plan approved January 24, 2023
Will San Jose’s homeless count be higher than last year? The Los Gatos-Monte Sereno Police Department didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Hilla, whose children live in Campbell, said he wants to stay in Los Gatos with his community where he feels safe, but there is no interim housing in town. There are some affordable housing options available, but the town is still struggling to get its housing plan approved, more than a year past the state’s Jan. 31, 2023 deadline.
Councilmember Rob Moore said he would like to see transitional and permanent supportive housing, but noted the town shouldn’t get hung up on trying to make homeless service programs perfect.
“I would love to get to a point where we can provide robust, permanent supportive housing solutions for our homeless residents, but I think right now we are laying the groundwork, and we’re really just beginning,” he told San José Spotlight.
For now, Hilla will continue participating in the program, holding out hope for permanent shelter while living along the Los Gatos Creek.
“It’s just up to the town and the people to vote and sanction some lands,” he said. “Get this done. It should have been done a long time ago. (This is) baby steps and I’m thinking that this hotel thing is at least a small step.”
Funding will get used pretty quickly. Then what?
All that money has to come from somewhere, and the general
citizens are the ones who foot the bill, one way or another.
While that may sound harsh, one has to accept the fact that
taxation is now high enough in most places, to be the last
straw toward someone having to wind up on the street.
So this homeless guy is just thrilled that this program
will negatively impact all people who aren’t homeless
yet.
At some point, there is going to have to be a limit to
how many great “necessary” programs the working class
can carry, without going belly up.
Steps in the right direction would be to get a job and try as hard as possible to be self-sufficient and embrace personal responsibility.
Or move to SanFran.
Its long enough to get them a legal address so they can all be registered to vote in the next election. This will confirm them as reliable CA Democrat voters for the next couple of decades.
In other words: socialism works until you run out of other people’s money— a paraphrase of Thatcher’s quote.
If you reward homelessness you get more of it.
This town will eventually be flooded with homeless people and they will wonder what happened.
I'll never forget her advancing that thought.
If he quit because he was having health issues that didn't allow him to do construction, what about other types of jobs? If you have construction experience there are non-physical labor jobs associated with that industry.
I don't want to be judgmental or to be cynical, but I'm so tired of everyone being made into a victim or a hero, except those who work hard every day and who don't expect anything except what they've earned.
“Hilla, whose children live in Campbell, said he wants to stay in Los Gatos with his community where he feels safe”
Why don’t his kids take him in on a rotating basis?
That’s what happened for one of my grandmothers. She was totally cool to have around in my youth.
I fail to understand the phone in his hand or in the hands of all the illegals seen clutching them as they are rounded up or getting off the busses used to transport them into the country from the border. They’re even shown using phones as they arrive at the border. If one is homeless which this guy is AND all those coming across the border apparently are, how do they pay their bill for monthly service?
I think most folks can get a cell phone from the government
these days. I read recently (accurate or not), that the
members of the new illegal alien onslaught, get cell phones.
If his injury was such that it qualified him, he could get
SSDI also.
As you mentioned, there may be other jobs he could have
slipped into to make a living.
A lot of these sob-stories get very little push-back by
the Marxist media players.
How do they pay?
Thank YOU, Rush....
The government gives them a phone, and pays their bill for
them.
Folks on Welfare have been under that program for a long
time by now.
All observations that I had and you phrased them perfectly. First thing I noticed was he’d worked 40 years in construction. Yeah - AND??????? Never paid into SS?
I don’t think it’s being judgmental or cynical to voice these questions. I don’t know HOW anyone could avoid ASKING them if they have a brain!
Just arriving in the country illegally? That’s hard to believe. I know obozo had the “free phones” gamut going but I didn’t know it was still going on and how would anyone just crossing the border get a government phone? How does a monthly bill work for such a phone? How are numbers assigned?
They're grateful, really?
Then have them pull weeds. Have them help get rid of the tree of heaven invading the LG Creek trail area.
Twenty years ago I lived in the SF Bay Area and Los Gatos was one of my top 5 places to go on a weekend. Lots of good restaurants and shops. I lived in a Condo and my next door neighbor was a Section 8 housing, this is a typical feel good liberal program but the people they are trying to help, don’t care about getting their lives together.
I can attest that Section 8 is horrible and mismanaged by the bureaucrats. First neighbor was a serial dead-beat dad that never worked and was constantly having trouble with the law, he got evicted after six months of non payment of rent. Second neighbors were two gay guys that we taken away by the cops one night for embezzlement and other white collar crimes. Third neighbor was a lovely couple in their forties that actually got their life together and moved. Last neighbor was a woman with 2 teenagers, that made life miserable for kids made noise 24/7 played basketball in the house, kids were generally out of control. I had to move after 3 years and realized that this is about getting social workers something to do not finding homes for people that need a home.
I wonder what the real reason he lost his job...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.