Editor’s note: This story is part of the annual Mosaic Journalism Workshop for Bay Area high school students, a two-week intensive course at journalism. Students in this year’s virtual program report and photograph real stories under the guidance of professional journalists.
Desarea Richardson wakes up every day around 7 a.m. in her one-room apartment and walks to the restroom with one thing on her mind: She needs to find a job.
Richardson, 27, grew up in the foster-care system and was homeless and sleeping in her car until April. That’s when HomeFirst, a San Jose-based nonprofit that works to prevent homelessness, provided Richardson with transitional housing for six weeks, and she’s been in permanent housing for the past five weeks.
But during the COVID-19 shelter in place, Richardson spends every day applying for jobs and watching television. She isn’t receiving financial support from unemployment and depends on food stamps.
“I like being at work and that’s why it sucks,” Richardson said. “Because of the pandemic, I’m home all day, like there’s nothing to do.”
This has been a strange and terrifying time for unhoused, and recently housed, residents. However, organizations such as HomeFirst are working closely with them to make the process easier. They also have been working closely with the city of San Jose and Santa Clara County during the pandemic to provide homeless people safety and health assistance.
But it hasn’t been easy for them either. HomeFirst made many accommodations because of COVID-19 regulations. That included reducing its number of beds, cleaning facilities seven to eight times a day, and installing expensive UV sanitizing lights.
According to HomeFirst CEO Andrea Urton, the county has screened more than 3,000 homeless individuals and has placed 1,550 of them in shelters.
Hotels and motels are being used as shelters, and HomeFirst has also opened new shelters at South Hall, the big tent at the convention center; Parkside Hall adjacent to the Tech Interactive; and Camden Community Center.
When someone moves into permanent housing an effort is made to make them feel welcome. The Annex Ladies of HomeFirst, a volunteer group of 10 women and one man, take care of new apartment kits. A case manager emails them the client’s information and interests, and from there the Annex Ladies create the kits and furnish the home with pots, pans, bed sheets and other household essentials.
“This way, we want people to come into a home and not a house,” Urton said. “When they walk into a home they feel more warm and respected and are more likely to stay.”
Linda Mock, who recently turned 66, has been sheltered by HomeFirst for almost two years. She and her 42-year-old son were left to fend for themselves after their landlord sold the apartment they rented. An attempt to make a deal with a different landlord through Craigslist ended up being a scam that cost the mother and son $5,000.
Mock stayed one night at a time at HomeFirst’s Boccardo Reception Center, until she became a volunteer who cleaned the reception center’s lobby. That earned her a bed every night until she was directed to permanent housing by HomeFirst’s Rapid Rehousing Program.
“They have helped me quite consistently considerably trying to get my life back together again,” said Mock, who lives in a home with five other people.
As house manager, she maintains the peace within the household and provides help in any way that she can. “We’re like a family,” Mock said. “I make sure that everything runs very smoothly.”
But COVID-19 is creating its own wrinkles when it comes to assistance.
Assistance from HomeFirst and Abode Services, another housing nonprofit, helps residents like Mock and Richardson afford deposits and utilities. Landlords, aware of the programs, are often willing to be flexible.
Residents also can use food stamps and sometimes rely on non-profits such as Sacred Heart Community Service that have a pantry program that allows low-income and unhoused individuals to get groceries.
San Jose has extended its eviction moratorium through Aug. 31, and organizations such as Sacred Heart and Destination: Home have distributed more than $19 million in housing assistance. However, these organizations are concerned about how they’re going to continue helping the community.
“Those folks who can’t afford to pay rent aren’t paying rent, and that back rent is accumulating,” said Ray Bramson, chief impact officer at Destination: Home, “and if we don’t get help and relief to those folks, we’re going to see thousands and thousands of families lose their homes.”
Bramson said their system is funded to help 1,500 households in a normal year. But now there are tens of thousands of households in crisis. “We will do everything we can to help,” he said, “but it’s going to take more than the resources we have available to address.”
And for job-seekers like Richardson, COVID-19 has made things even more difficult.
“Even places like Amazon are doing on the spot interviews, but it’s so far,” she said, “And some of the bus routes don’t take you all the way over there or if they do they run out of a certain amount of hours.”
Richardson wants steady income from a job so she can pay her portion of the rent. And once she is settled in her new apartment for 60 days, she plans to file for joint custody of her 8-year-old daughter.
“It breaks my heart, but I got to keep strong,” said Richardson, her eyes beginning to water, “I have faith and I’m not going to give up and I’m going to get her back.”
Andrea Saldana is a 2020 graduate of Lincoln High School in San Jose and will be a freshman at San Jose State University in the fall.