The San Diego Rescue Mission is merging with the Bread of Life Rescue Mission in Oceanside in what leaders of the 2 faith-based nonprofits say is step one in unifying efforts to shelter homeless folks countywide and cause them to self-sufficiency.
“We’re attempting to be delicate to the truth that this as a fantastic group and has a wealthy historical past,” San Diego Rescue Mission President and CEO Donnie Dee stated about Bread of Life. “They didn’t want us to take over, however we’re simply dedicated to the identical factor, and we really feel that we are able to do extra collectively.”
The merger will enable the San Diego Rescue Mission to have a North County presence and can present the Oceanside mission with extra assets whereas saving on prices.
After the merger turns into official in October, the Oceanside facility shall be referred to as the San Diego Rescue Mission, and Bread of Life would be the title of its North County department.
Bread of Life was launched in 1999, and the previous couple of years have been a transitional interval for the mission.
Tim Yzaguirre, who had been a Bread of Life board member and labored greater than 20 years in banking and finance, took over as director in March 2018 and set to work addressing a number of points.
“After I got here on board right here, it was clear that we wanted to make some modifications,” he stated, noting that the small group didn’t have the power to help the 5 paid employees members it had on the time. “They acquired slightly too heavy on wage and wages.”
Bread of Life, now run by a volunteer employees apart from Yzaguirre, had operated an annual winter shelter for 30 males and 20 girls and in recent times had thought of increasing to a year-round shelter.
Tim Yzaguirre of Bread of Life Rescue Mission (left) and Donnie Dee of the San Diego Rescue Mission stand within the Bread of Life Thrift Retailer on Apple Road in Oceanside.
(Don Boomer/Don Boomer)
Yzaguirre stated the year-round plan was deserted as a result of, amongst different causes, it could have required cost-prohibitive enhancements to the 40-year-old constructing, which they don’t personal.
Trying on the books, Yzaguirre stated it additionally didn’t make sense to pay hire on rooms that have been solely used just a few months of the 12 months, which led to shuttering the winter shelter program final 12 months.
A room that after held beds has been transformed right into a classroom the place people who find themselves down and out can study to handle family budgets, construct resumes and purchase different expertise that might result in jobs and self-sufficiency.
“We do every thing we are able to to get them again into employment and get their lives on their method,” Yzaguirre stated.
A room within the again even serves as a closet for folks to borrow costume garments for job interviews.
“We wish to be certain that they’re dressed for achievement,” he stated.
In one other room, folks in want can meet with volunteer case employees who will assist join them with advantages, job placement, momentary rooms and different providers.
The mission just lately added a kitchen to make 30 to 50 meals an evening and as much as 300 boxed meals every week. It additionally has a meals pantry and a thrift retailer on its campus at 1919 Apple St. in Oceanside
With the merger comes what is predicted to be a interval of extra development for each missions.
Dee, himself a North County resident with a house in Vista, stated he reached out to Yzaguirre early this 12 months with an thought of unifying forces and filling a necessity in areas that should not have sufficient emergency shelters. This 12 months’s depend by the San Diego Regional Activity Power on the Homeless discovered 242 folks with out shelter in Oceanside.
“We’re working with Donnie and his crew to discover a location,” Yzaguirre stated concerning the objective of getting one other emergency shelter. “Our imaginative and prescient is to have a location up north that may serve about 100 males.”
Dee stated the thought is to start with an emergency shelter for males — the downtown San Diego Rescue Mission has a nightly emergency shelter for girls and kids — and presumably increase it as soon as it’s up and working.
“It’s actually part of a much bigger imaginative and prescient,” Dee stated. “Whenever you take a look at the point-in-time depend, there’s a lot of homeless in North County, and there’s not very many shelter beds.”
Yzaguirre stated having a year-round shelter may have a extra profitable long-term impression on the lives of homeless folks than the winter shelter ever did.
“When you think about a person or a girl who has been in disaster mode for months or years at a time, how will we in any method switch their lives in a matter of 30 or 60 days, after which put them again on the road as a result of the shelter has to shut?” he stated.
(Don Boomer)
Dee stated the grasp plan, which remains to be in its early stage, is to open emergency shelters in North County, South Bay and East County. Whereas nonetheless actively in search of a North County web site for a Bread of Life shelter, Dee stated he is also a attainable web site for a shelter in South Bay subsequent week.
Individuals within the emergency shelters shall be assessed and regarded for enrollment within the San Diego Rescue Mission’s year-long residential academy program at its downtown headquarters, Dee stated.
“Not everyone who comes into an emergency shelter would be the proper match for the Mission Academy, and we’d refer them to different companies,” Dee stated. “However we’ve got to start out by getting folks off the road instantly.”
Dee stated he hopes property homeowners who hear concerning the plan will come ahead to supply websites appropriate for emergency shelters.
Yzaguirre stated merging with the San Diego Rescue Mission may have a number of cost-saving advantages, such because the sharing of software program, packages and insurance coverage insurance policies.
“However funds just isn’t actually the driving power,” he stated. “To us, we simply really feel God led us to this and we’re enthusiastic about what he’ll have us do.”
Dee stated the San Diego Rescue Mission is reaching out to faith-based nonprofits all through the county in a program referred to as Larger, Stronger, Sooner, which was launched three years in the past.
“The considering was, if we might align ourselves with different faith-based organizations in San Diego County, then we get greater and stronger in our method, and in the end we get folks off the road sooner,” he stated. “So why shouldn’t all of us be doing the identical factor?”
Dee stated he’s already had dialog with East County Transition Residing Middle in El Cajon, Inexperienced Oak Ranch in Vista, In His Steps in Ramona and different organizations about forming partnerships.
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