Shelter and Advocacy
GILROY COMPASSION CENTER
Jan Bernstein Chargin is Director
of Public Information at Gavilan
Community College and Chair of
the Board of Directors for Gilroy
Compassion Center. Chargin is a
powerful advocate for the homeless
who experienced a bout of homeless-
ness herself as a young adult.
“People in the community often
JAN CHARGIN
don’t realize it when they come in
contact with someone who is home-
less. It could be a store clerk living in an encampment or a
college student living out of a car. They’re not comfortable
talking about it.”
Over the past six years, Jan has been a driving force behind
the South County Homeless Outreach Task Force, and the Gilroy
Compassion Center, a day center for the homeless where she
serves as board chair.
“The Compassion Center provides an immediate response
to the need for food, clothing, bathroom facilities, mail service,
internet access, referrals to County services, job training and
transportation to doctor’s appointments. Above all, an experience
of being treated with dignity. Our clients often stay on as
volunteers at the shelter because of this experience.”
In 2015, the Compassion Center served more than 600
people, about 90 percent of whom Jan said are South County
natives. “Their roots are here. They may have family in the area
who want to help but don’t have the means to do so. They need
community services to get back on their feet.”
Jan added that Gilroy Compassion Center is currently looking
for a new home itself. “We have clients. We know how to help
them. We have funds to help them. But there’s some resistance
to us acquiring new space. We want the community’s support
behind our work to provide day services to the homeless.”
An innovative group of San José State University students
is currently building a mobile shower and laundry unit for
Compassion Center.
“Given the current shortage of affordable housing, our cities
need to consider making land available and offering non-
traditional housing options. This might include safe parking
spaces and staffed campgrounds with access to services, public
transportation and jobs.”
Jan is also a board member of Destination: Home, a member
of the Gilroy Advisory Housing Committee, and a facilitator for
the Gilroy Housing Task Force.
“Once a person is homeless, the barriers to rehousing are
enormous. It’s a landlord’s market. Renters typically must show
proof of stable income at three times the monthly rent and
provide references from a previous landlord or they won’t even
make it onto the landlord’s waiting list. If a renter misses a
payment, eviction is a real threat. Even with jobs, many can’t
afford the County’s rising rents.”
Private landowners in Gilroy and Morgan Hill want to work
with us on several options for housing the homeless. We need
to make it happen. There are zoning, permitting and impact fees
involved. We would welcome help from people who can help us
work through these issues.
Tiny Homes: It Takes a Village
Jan Chargin is part of a collaborative effort to develop a tiny
homes village in South County. Reid Lerner, Weston Miles
Architects and Bill Wyrick of Los Banos RV assisted with tiny
home architecture and design concepts while John Taft of
RJ Dyer Properties has been assisting with property search and
guidance on development efforts.
“The tiny home concept was designed with wheels,” Jan said.
“It’s a small, self-contained unit with a bedroom, bathroom and
kitchen. The idea is to develop a small community of these tiny
homes in cul-de-sacs surrounding a staffed service center. We
responded to a Request for Proposal and won a contract with
the County to provide a proposal based on our concept. We
wouldn’t be the first to do this. Tiny homes villages have been
successfully developed in other states.”
According to John Taft, “Tiny homes have the potential to
provide a longer-term permanent housing solution. Having a
locally-based tiny homes village
with periodic and permanent
services would be more cost-
effective than asking the homeless
to travel from South County to
San Jose for services, and there’s
more accountability built into the
system. If the county approves our
proposal, we’ll move forward with
development. We’re looking to
develop two villages; one in Gilroy
and one in San Jose.”
Tiny homes village — an emerging concept.
GILROY • MORGAN HILL • SAN MARTIN
JULY / AUGUST 2016
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