6 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY AUGUST 15-21, 2024 www.montereycountynow.com 831 There was a time that Lexy Obiacoro was on track to get the help she needed. At 19, she and her mom couldn’t afford rent, and so they set up a tent in Salinas’ Chinatown neighborhood. There, Obiacoro connected to a staffer with the nonprofit Community Human Services, which sends an outreach team into the streets to locate people who may need help getting housing, along with a range of other services. But Obiacoro faced a series of challenges that threw her off track. She used cannabis laced with methamphetamine, plunging her into addiction; she lost her job in the pandemic and unemployment was slow to come through, so she burned through her savings and resorted to theft to earn money. She went with her girlfriend on what was meant to be a short trip to San Francisco, but car trouble meant they were stuck there for a month. Then grief struck—she lost her girlfriend to homicide, and she lost her mom. The grief exacerbated her addiction: “I was just numbing myself,” she says. It was in the depths of that time about two years ago that Obiacoro, now 23, reconnected with Lisa Navarro, a CHS Street Outreach Program counselor. “She was understanding,” Obiacoro says. “They don’t give up on you—even though I lost all the hope in myself. Lisa is my blessing.” Now, Obiacoro has her own thirdfloor apartment with a view, she’s sober and she’s job searching. She hopes to one day return to college to study psychology, eventually becoming a counselor like Navarro, drawing on her own lived experience to help others. “There is hope, no matter how bad you’re doing,” Obiacoro says. “You can do a 360 when you lose everything. It’s possible.” It just takes the right support people, specifically people who are patient. Navarro and her colleague, Jose Camacho, describe clients who are reluctant to accept help, who go MIA for long stretches, who relapse again and again and again. But patience is a key to building trust. Another key is CHS’ new brickand-mortar space in North Salinas. The nonprofit’s previous Salinas space did not allow clients to come in; that meant holding meetings, often about sensitive topics, in coffee shops or on park benches. The new Safe Place Salinas opened in mid-June and gives unhoused youth a place to meet with counselors privately. There’s also a computer to work on resumes, and a food pantry to pick up essentials like canned soup, oatmeal and snacks. The nonprofit’s youth arm serves unhoused people ages 18-24, with roughly 80 clients currently enrolled. (That includes Safe Place Monterey, with an overnight shelter. Other services remain daytime only, with about 10 clients a day coming to Safe Place Salinas. The Salinas Valley Street Outreach Program serves a vast area, with counselors out walking through encampments from Pajaro to San Ardo.) Intake usually begins with steps to get paperwork in order—things like ID, a copy of a birth certificate and Social Security card. Housing placement is a critical step, but many clients utilize other services too, like counseling, registration for CalFresh and other benefits, and goods like clothing and hygiene supplies. “We want a client to become self-sufficient,” Navarro says. “Once they do, they graduate from the program.” One client nearing graduation is 22-year-old Angel Ramirez, who moved into her car at 19 after her mom died. In the years that followed, she had learned not to trust those who offered help. “I had gotten a lot of false hope from other outreaches,” she says. “Nothing ever goes through.” Eventually, Ramirez lost her car and was living with her aunt in a tent in Salinas for about a year. She got back on medication, a game-changer: “It helped a lot—it got me out of this funk I was in, and helped me want to do more for myself.” She connected to CHS, and learned to trust. And she moved into an apartment on July 25. Safe Place Salinas is at 212 N. Main St., Salinas. Open 8am-5pm daily. 800-2668, chservices.org. At Home Safe Place Salinas opens, offering a brick-and-mortar hub for services for unhoused youth. By Sara Rubin Lexy Obiacoro (left) and Angel Ramirez, shown at Safe Place Salinas, both recently found housing through CHS. Continuing support includes job searching, rides and counseling. “You can do a 360 when you lose everything.” TALES FROM THE AREA CODE DANIEL DREIFUSS
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