SLO church creates ‘welcome home kits’ for newly housed 40 Prado clients

When the Rev. Ian Delinger looked for an outlet for his parishioners’ interest in helping San Luis Obispo County’s homeless population, he decided to base their efforts around the patron saint of his congregation.

St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, a 155-year-old congregation in downtown SLO, has a long history of generosity within the San Luis Obispo community, Delinger said. This time, the congregation joined with Community Action Partnership of San Luis Obispo (CAPSLO) and the 40 Prado Homeless Services Center for a new take on the intention of Boxing Day, a holiday historically associated with St. Stephen and giving to less fortunate individuals.

With the idea of making donations to unhoused people in mind, Delinger went to CAPSLO director of homeless services Jack Lahey to see where the congregation’s aid could be used.

Lahey said he had been interested in implementing a “welcome home kit” program at the 40 Prado shelter, to provide residents with essential items when they transition into permanent housing. But without a consistent funding stream for the idea, he was never able to get it off the ground.

Now, with the help of St. Stephen’s, those plans have come to fruition.

“Fundamentally, at St. Stephen’s our desire is to help serve the city and the community in any way we can,” Delinger said. “Where our priorities or values overlap with other organizations’ values, that’s where we want to help.”

What’s in the box?

In late August, the congregation agreed to collaborate on the project, with the goal of donating the first round of welcome home kits to CAPSLO at the church’s annual St. Stephen’s Day celebration, which fell on Sept. 11 this year.

As the completion date for the kits approached, Delinger said he began to worry that there wouldn’t be enough ready to go. However, his concerns were unfounded, he said.

“I thought, ‘Are we going to have anything to give to 40 Prado?’” Delinger said. “And then the day before (the celebration), I walked into the parish hall, and one whole wall was lined with boxes that were on the tables and underneath the tables, which took two overfull pickup truck loads to take to 40 Prado.”

In all, the congregation donated 14 kits, which were then broken down into four specialized types to address move-in needs for bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchens and cupboards.

Lahey said nine households have received kits so far, including two family households.

Because the kits consist of donated items, their contents can vary in quantity and type of amenities being delivered.

For example, one recently delivered bathroom kit given to Navy veteran and former 40 Prado client Devonia Colbry contained a laundry list of some 35 assorted bathroom and cleaning-related items. Included in the kit were the following items:

• Laundry basket

• Shampoo

• Soap dish

• Body lotion

• Hand sanitizer

• Hair brush

• Band-Aids

• Hand soap

• Manicure set

• Cotton swabs

• Nail brush

• Toothpaste

• Bar soap

• Deodorant

• Night light

• Dental floss

• Toothbrush caddy

• Safety razor

• Toilet paper

• Kleenex

• Bath cleaner

• Toilet brush

• Spray disinfectant

• Sponges

• Tide pods

• Downy sheets

• Plunger

• Rubber bath mat

• Cotton bath mat

• Disinfectant wipes

• 6 wash cloths

• 2 bath towels

• 2 hand towels

• Dust pan and brush

Colbry became unhoused two and a half months ago after her mother died of Alzheimer’s, an event that brought her to the Central Coast to “heal,” with only the clothes in her car.

Colbry said she spent the intervening months living at 40 Prado while connecting to service providers like Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF), which found her a home in Pismo Beach.

But with the cupboards bare and her plate full with settling into a new home, Colbry said her welcome home kit from 40 Prado — and a bathroom kit from SSVF — helped smooth the transition into her new home.

“I chose the bathroom kit, because because that’s where I think the needed most,” Colbry said. “SSVF also gave me a welcome home kit, and they gave me dishes, pots and pans, and towels and bedding.”

Lahey said the kits were assembled after asking newly housed clients what “missing components” were most needed when they moved from the street or a shelter to permanent housing.

Breaking the kits down by type of need allowed CAPSLO to avoid redundancies in what would most help each client on move-in day, though a client can pick any combination of kits available.

“It varies case by case. Some people have a storage unit where they have a lot of their own stuff,” Lahey said. “For somebody who (only) has a backpack and moves in, this is life changing, because all of a sudden, you have the key components of utility to live in your place.”

Boxes help newly housed clients acclimate to new homes

When Malcolm Drisdon moved into his Atascadero apartment, he had very few possessions to fill the empty space.

That’s because Drisdon, 55, spent the past two decades bouncing between prison and the streets; when Drisdon started his job earlier this year at Cal Poly’s Subway restaurant, it was the his first day of work in more than 20 years.

Four jobs, eight months at the 40 Prado shelter and one Section 8 housing voucher later, and Drisdon is living independently with a steady job and a goal of giving others the same kindness that helped him get a roof over his head.

“If you do not appreciate it, God will take it from you,” Drisdon said. “If you walk five steps, somebody’s gonna knock you down three.”

Upon arrival at his current home, Drisdon said he had very few belongings to his name. That’s where the “welcome home kit” came in.

When Drisdon moved in, he was given a kit full of kitchen and dining basics, like pots, pans, dishes and silverware, and some bedroom needs like sheets, hangers and a laundry basket, which he said filled in some of the missing amenities in his home.

Now, with his home needs taken care of, Drisdon said he’s looking forward to finding stability in his new job at a recreational vehicle park and at his home, which he decorated using donated and secondhand sale items.

“This is going to be my first Christmas here,” Drisdon said. “It’s exciting. ... I’m blessed, bro. I’m truly proud of myself.”

More welcome home kits could be on the way

Delinger said the move-in kits are the latest iteration of St. Stephen’s affiliation with homeless outreach and 40 Prado, a relationship he said stretches back to the days of 40 Prado founder Maxine Lewis, who operated the original iteration of the shelter more than 40 years ago.

At that time, St. Stephen’s operated as the overflow location for the Maxine Lewis Memorial Shelter, Delinger said, and served a similar purpose for the Prado Day Center, the precursor organizations to the current 40 Prado shelter.

The congregation’s recent partnerhsip with 40 Prado has opened up the possibility of future collaborations on homeless outreach efforts, Delinger said

“Our conversations around (the welcome kits) led to other conversations where we can mutually work together to serve the homeless population ... here in San Luis Obispo,” Delinger said. “Because of our location downtown, we see a lot of the unhoused people. I would say three or four times a year, we have people who come in looking for temporary accommodation.”

Importantly, Delinger said working with Lahey and 40 Prado on the program reminded him of the often-overlooked end goal of homeless services.

“When Jack (Lahey) explained this to me, he said, ‘One of our primary goals is to get people into housing,’” Delinger said. “And I said, ‘Thank you for reminding me of that,’ because I know that but I focused on 40 Prado being a homeless shelter.”

With the success of the first round of kits, Lahey said he hopes 40 Prado’s collaboration with St. Stephen’s congregation — and other faith-based organizations — can continue.

Currently, Delinger said his church is planning on making another round of kit donations on Boxing Day — the day after Christmas Day — and may continue to provide kits in the future, should the need continue.

The final gift of each kit is a short letter, offering welcomes back to the housed community and words of encouragement for box recipients.

“Those kinds of things mean a lot to people,” Lahey said.