While most of the city slept in their warm, comfy beds, hundreds of homeless residents gathered around the crack of dawn to help clean up the park in exchange for a $20 cash stipend offered by the nonprofit Neighborhood Hands. It’s a familiar sight, as they’ve been coming here every other weekend since the organization rebooted in 2020.
For many, it’s more than the opportunity to earn some money and clean up the park. The program has profoundly impacted these residents, offering them hope and a sense of belonging — especially people like 54-year-old Debrina Tenorio. Just 18 months ago, Tenorio was homeless, jittery, devoid of self-esteem and support as she struggled to find stability.
Today, she proudly reflects on the progress she has made — trading a tent for interim housing, setting goals, reconnecting with her family and becoming a supervisor at her work. She sees herself as a living testimony to the power of Neighborhood Hands, which is also why she continues to volunteer.
“I’m proud to say that I continue to give back to the community,” Tenorio said as she fights through nervous energy. “Being able to support others on their journey has been one of the most meaningful parts of mine. I’m still growing, still healing and still moving forward, but I’m not where I used to be — and for that, I’m deeply grateful.”
The roots of Neighborhood Hands sprouted in 2018 when its founder, Bill Sullivan, noticed the growing encampments at Columbus Park and sought out a few people living there to see if they would help him clean up.
With 10 shovels, a couple of brooms and a couple of hundred dollars in his pocket, Sullivan — a Bellarmine College Prep alum recently inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame in recognition of his public service — started with 10 to 12 people and immediately knew he was on to something.
“I could just see people’s eyes light up,” Sullivan said. “They were working, getting something for their work, making a difference, cleaning up a mess rather than making a mess — kind of knocking out all the stereotypes that unhoused people get. For the most part, they’re very enthusiastic, and at the end of a couple of hours we were sitting there drinking water and they said, ‘Hey, can we do this again next Saturday morning?’”
Sullivan said yes, and the following week, five to six more people showed up.
The cleanup group grew. Neighbors noticed and asked how they could help, allowing the program to organically grow into what it is today: a cleanup event followed by a resource fair featuring dozens of nonprofit partners offering services such as medical, legal, and housing assistance.
“It has become a big ol’ party in the park, as we like to call it,” Executive Director Brian Powers said.
The cleanup events eventually attracted up to 275 homeless residents. But, Sullivan said the organization simply didn’t have enough money to pay them all, so it had to decrease the cash stipend and limit it to 200 participants at each event.
Neighborhood Hands is seeking $20,000 from Wish Book to fund five Saturday morning programs.
“We want to link people up with resources that will ultimately help them on hopefully a journey out of homelessness. But in order to do that as a community, we also need to have a lot more understanding and empathy and ways that folks can really understand what they might personally be able to do to help,” Director of Development Kama Fletcher said. “Coming out to the Neighborhood Hands program is one way to do that.”
Park cleanup manager Luis Palacios knows the importance of the program; he used to be homeless and said the program helped him get back on his feet.
Before he became homeless, the 53-year-old admitted that he had preconceptions about the unhoused, including that they were lazy. He went from a regular stipend participant to a “matador” — a term used for leaders — to a W-2 field leader position before his most recent promotion.
“I was so far from the truth that it was an eye opener, because when I hit the streets — and I spent a lot of time in and out of the system because I was a drug addict — every time I came out with nothing and it was a blessing to have these homeless people give me things,” Palacios said. “I want to do the same with other people. I want to change hearts and minds, and I want people to know that they’re not just drug and alcohol addicts but are actually people who’ve been through some unfortunate stuff that caused them to be homeless.”
Palacios, who spent about a year and a half on the streets near St. James Park, also praised the bi-weekly event for providing homeless residents with a one-stop shop of sorts for resources, noting that for new people thrown into homelessness, it is difficult to navigate where to go for help.
The importance of keeping homelessness organizations afloat has been multiplied of late by the recent closure of the Downtown Streets Team, which ceased operations on Oct. 31, and by federal-level cuts.
“We have a general roadmap to guide us, but in a nutshell, we’re going to continue to focus on our core service offering, which is our Saturday program at Guadalupe Gardens,” Powers said. “So much of the magic is breaking down the barriers between unhoused folks and housed community members. That is something clearly that Neighborhood Hands offers that other organizations don’t, so that’s huge.”
Mike Neunfinger, a tech worker from Santa Clara who regularly volunteers at cleanups, noted how the program has helped him view the unhoused in a different light. Neunfinger said in his past interactions with them, he felt so uncomfortable he would sometimes look away.
But volunteering at Neighborhood Hands stripped him of those misconceptions. He’s well aware of the number of studies indicating that many people live paycheck to paycheck and are vulnerable to becoming homeless. Here, he sees a community where everyone, regardless of their housing situation, comes back to make it better.
“Getting to really know the people, their stories, and talking to them and actually creating friendships and seeing them as human beings as they should be is so gratifying, “Neunfinger said. “If you reach out and get to know them as a person, that gives them the dignity and gives you the dignity, too.”
Wish Book is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization operated by The Mercury News. Since 1983, Wish Book has been producing series of stories during the holiday season that highlight the wishes of those in need and invite readers to help fulfill them.
WISH
Donations to Neighborhood Hands will help it fund five Saturday morning programs. Goal: $20,000
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Donate at wishbook.mercurynews.com/donate or mail in this form.
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