The Drop-in Center at the Caritas Center is a safe haven for those who are unhoused and are looking for help and resources. The 3 core services they offer are showers, laundry and mail services. They provide clients with towels, hygiene items, toothbrushes, hairbrushes, body wash, and shampoo. The center also offers phone services, food and a space to stay during the day. If clients need socks or underwear, they provide that to them on a regular basis as well. The Drop-In Center sees about 500 clients a week with over 1000 enrolled clients in services year to date.
“It's a safe haven throughout the day, so our clients are not harassed by police officers or other clients and are off the streets temporarily,” said Participant Services Coordinator, Albert Sedeno.
“We also do coordinated entry enrollments on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Where we get them enrolled in some housing lists through the county and in the city. We have access to housing navigators, case managers, and outreach workers.”
On Thursday’s mornings they have volunteer led clothing drive were volunteers from the Resurrection Church come and hand out clothes to those in need. “They come and set up a bunch of nice clothes and clients come. The clients eat, we play music for them, we give them oatmeal and sometimes homemade cookies.”
“The drop-in center addresses immediate client needs by there not being a wait list. People can come in, we're open to the public, you can take a shower. People can avoid the rain, avoid the heat. We have AC in the summer, we have a heater in the winter. When it rains, they come, dry themselves and we'll give them dry clothes. That's immediate.”
“Then long term is when they come and do coordinated entry. There are here checking in. We're making sure we're updating case notes. We are making sure they're getting documents ready and everything they need so they can move on to the next step of finding permanent housing.”
