Month: August 2020

Written by Rick Schroeder

I had just come back from vacation.  Having been out of the office for more than a week, I faced hundreds of emails, scores of voice mail messages, a stack of mail a foot deep, and a number of co-workers impatiently waiting at my door.

As the busy morning progressed, I finally checked the voice mail messages.  Larry had left messages nearly every day. His last message–

“Rick, this is Larry. I stopped by the office.  The receptionist lady told me you were gone. I left you a note. Don’t tell me to give up Davidson.  He saved me, Rick.  I can’t just give him up! I won’t do that to him.  Talk to you later. Larry.”

Larry calls me at least once a week.  Larry is homeless.

I was annoyed. For the past three years, I have been trying to help Larry. I have urged patience, but Larry cannot seem to understand that there is a very long waiting list for affordable housing, especially supportive housing, and that very few units become available.  He further refuses to stay at an emergency shelter since that would mean separating from up his dog, Davidson.

I fished through the stack of letters, agreements, and other mail and found Larry’s note.

I stared at the note.  I put it aside and went back to work.

But throughout the morning I kept coming back to his note, especially its last line: “Please DON’T forget US!”

Had I forgotten him?  Would I forget him and all the men, women, and children who were homeless like him?  How could I?  Over the past decade, homelessness has grown and has become very visible.  There are close to 2,000 persons homeless in Ventura County and close to 60,000 in Los Angeles County.

And yet his concern was valid: we want to forget Larry and those like him.  Staring at the pain, the suffering, and the accumulated loss of our fellow human beings, with the realization that we as a society have failed them at a time they were most in need makes us want to sweep away our guilt and shame and think of other things.  Is not homelessness so large, so entrenched, and so overwhelming that there is very little we can do?  Will the poor not always be with us?

Larry’s concern was valid, but we can change this. Yes, ‘the poor will always be with us,’ but this does not mean that the poor have to be without a home.  Homelessness is a man-made problem, and it has man-made solutions.  The solutions are difficult and expensive and will take a long time, but, ultimately, we can end homelessness.  We must try.

Larry, I promise you that you will not be forgotten!  Many Mansions, its Board of Directors, its staff, and its many supporters are dedicated to helping you and those like you find a home.

That morning, I put Larry’s letter on my bulletin board.  I look at it every day.

 

Written by Lois-Ann (Jackson) Kurt

In June 1979, Rev. Colm O’Ryan, Assistant Pastor of St. Paschal Baylon Catholic Church in Thousand Oaks, asked me, a member of their Christian Service Committee, to assist him in housing a large family of nine. Rev. O’Ryan told me that he had housed several families prior to this, on a plan in which the Church paid the balance of rent after the family paid its portion. The families applied for area housing (HUD) certificates, and when receiving HUD funds, paid 30% of their income for rent, while HUD paid its own portion up to the “fair market rent.” The Church then paid the balance of the asking rent to the tenant’s landlord, whose rent was usually higher than what HUD allowed.

Rev. O’Ryan told me that, at his Bishop’s instruction, he could no longer continue housing families, which is why he appealed to me. I had a real estate sales license since 1961, received my Broker’s license in 1975, and was a “million-dollar” salesperson with West Oaks Realty in Thousand Oaks.

After finding housing for the family of nine, and helping a few more families the Church recommended, an idea occurred to me, which I carried to the Council of Christian Churches in Thousand Oaks, which was to house families, seniors, and disabled people, who could then apply for HUD funds. I mentioned my idea to Frank Schillo, a Financial Advisor in Westlake Village, who had raised the $8000 from local churches required to buy a house for the Manna Food Bank.

Frank Schillo wrote concerning this idea to fifty-one churches and temples in the Conejo Valley, inviting them to a meeting in his office.Present were the head of the Area Housing Authority, pastors of several churches, a temple in Thousand Oaks and Westlake Village, and Rev. O’Ryan and I – about 25 people in all. At the meeting, I explained my vision for a housing-assistance foundation, as did Frank Schillo.

Subsequent meetings were held where discussions focused on forming a non-profit corporation. At one meeting in the City Manager’s office, several pastors, the head of HUD, Marvin Sosna, the Thousand Oaks News-Chronicle Editor, and I were discussing what to name the organization. After a long silence from those gathered, it was Mr. Sosna who suggested the name from the New Testament passage in John 14:3
– “Many Mansions.”

Mr. Schillo paid his attorney $500 of his own funds to craft the Articles of Incorporation. Joseph Leggett, a Thousand Oaks broker, offered $10,000 so that we could start housing families, seniors, and disabled persons. I was appointed to start this process. As an employee and Board member (and also Secretary of the Board), I was soon paid with City funds a token $65 per lease plus travel expenses for each family we housed. Besides interviewing applicants and locating housing, I did the bookkeeping. This was a complicated process, as funds coming from the tenant, the Area Housing Authority, churches, a temple, and generous sponsors, along with full rent going out to landlords, plus monthly reports required by the City of Thousand Oaks.

I found housing for many families, some soon-to-be-evicted tenants, totaling about 250 households over the first three years. In about 1982, Schillo Gardens Apartments was built, with a construction loan furnished from City Redevelopment Funds, 20% of which had to be redirected toward the low-income population. Our original program continued, as it has to this day, now managing leases for the hundreds of apartments which Many Mansions has built.

In the eleven years I leased homes for Many Mansions, I appealed to Catholic Charities, Lutheran Social Services, and the Salvation Army to help our tenants pay rent and oftentimes also procure food, clothing, furniture, and more, including utility payments, some from churches. I provided applications and arranged transportation to the Manna Food Bank, Medicare and MediCal offices, and doctor visits. I took late-night phone calls when toilets were plugged or sinks wouldn’t drain. St. Paschal Baylon Church adopted three Vietnamese families, one of which had ten children. Most of these children later became physicians now practicing in the U.S.

Over many years, Frank Schillo and I, as well as Frank Nekimken of Temple Etz Chaim, some Lutheran pastors, and the head of HUD in Thousand Oaks, all spoke at meetings of the City Council and Planning Commission to obtain funds for our project, and to obtain permissions to build. I presented very complicated applications to United Way, and to acquire Community Development Block Grant Funds, in order to fund our Corporation’s outgoing rents.

At first, the City provided us a leased office in the Janss Mall, and hired Ed Nelson as Administrator and an accountant to assist with the books. Soon, Frank Schillo’s wife Marian raised funds to construct the “Under One Roof” building at 80 East Hillcrest in Thousand Oaks. This building then housed the Many Mansions office, the offices of Catholic Charities and Lutheran Social Services, and other organizations. Later, Joe Smolarski was hired as Administrator, as well as another staff member just for accounting.

I worked for Many Mansions from 1979 until 1990, when I left to return to teaching, graduating from Mt. St. Mary’s University in 1998. I attended CSULA for another ten years toward my Master’s degree while teaching for LAUSD and St. Joan of Arc in West L.A. I recently composed a volume of 90 sonnets, and in the Preface I asked readers to consider donating to Many Mansions.

I continue to be proud of the work so many of us did in establishing Many Mansions, and as it approaches its 40th anniversary – and I approach my own 90th year – I could not be more elated by what its President, Rick Schroeder, and the Board of Trustees and Associates continue to accomplish. Our vision which began in 1979 continues to flourish, as Many Mansions expands its horizons in Thousand Oaks and other areas of Ventura County. It is truly a model for communities nationwide to replicate!

Written by Doug Menges

For roughly thirty years, I had a number of different jobs in the corporate world. I was a manager at a big CPA firm, Vice President of Citibank, a Chief Claims Officer, worked at Farmers Insurance. I even managed big divisions for Fortune 500 companies. However, the story really begins thirty years ago…

I was a first year MBA student going to Harvard. There was a lot of pressure to join Wall Street or join investment banking and become a “titan of industry.” Despite this, I was always drawn to the nonprofit sector. I ended up getting involved with a minister at a local church that was providing homeless services in the Cambridge area. At the time, Cambridge was mostly a working class community with its fair share of homelessness, and much less affluent than the somewhat standard Boston suburb. By the second year of my MBA program, I was so interested in the concept of affordable housing that I requested and received permission from the school to do an independent study on the subject. I learned more about developing affordable housing and even planned to create a nonprofit around affordable housing. This ultimately led me to a job search in the field.

I was a second-year student with a young baby, and, instead of talking with Goldman Sachs, I was talking to very small affordable housing developers. It was the spring of 1989 and I was graduating in a few months. My job search was simply chaotic. I’d be in Houston one day, the next day I’d be in Detroit, and the following day I’d be in LA, followed by Atlanta, and then the Silicon Valley. I was still interested in affordable housing, but I was also talking to large banks. I got a chance to speak to Don Terner, one of the founding members of affordable housing and founder of Bridge Housing in the Bay area.

I don’t remember exactly what caused me to do this, but I had been reading a lot about Don Terner and Bridge Housing and the innovative things he was doing out in California, so I found his phone number and called him. He answered his own phone, and I explained that I was a second-year Harvard MBA student and would be out in Silicon Valley and was interested in speaking to him about a career in affordable housing. Unfortunately, right before I was set to meet him, Hewlett Packard, one of the companies that I was talking to in Silicon Valley, told me that they would need me longer than planned. I had to call Don Terner and cancel our meeting. I told Don that I would try to get back to him another day, but unfortunately that never happened. Several years later, in the early 1990s, Don Terner was asked to be a part of a U.S. group of ambassadors. While flying over Yugoslavia, his plane crashed, and he died. To this day, I still regret not following through.

Anyways, I ended up joining Citibank out of school. We moved to New York, and then to 8 other places through my corporate travels. Still, I had the itch to pursue affordable housing. In the late 1990s, Many Mansions was doing one of their Great Conejo Duck Races. After attending this event, I went on to attend a grand opening and, from there, I was invited to join the board of Many Mansions. Still busy traveling, I was on and off the board several times. After I retired a few years later, I called up Rick and told him that I was ready. He said I could either rejoin the board or take an entry level position in real estate development where I could learn affordable housing from the ground up. He warned me that it wasn’t glamorous and didn’t pay much, but I told him that was exactly what I was looking for 30 years ago, and exactly what I wanted to do now. I’ve had many jobs that pay substantially more, but none have been as thrilling as the job here at Many Mansions.

The most interesting project I’ve had the opportunity to work on has been the current new construction project in Fillmore. While this small city is rather hesitantly, if not a little reluctantly, coming into affordable housing, it has been a pleasure to describe the vision to them, work with the members of the community, and form the development team all while trying to make sure we come in under budget. I’ve been working on this for three years, and it will be three more years before it comes out of the ground and people move in. I’ve had the pleasure of seeing it from the early days, and it’s really been one of the most interesting things I’ve ever done.

I go home every night and think to myself, “Wow, I learned something new today. I know what I’m doing today is going to help someone tomorrow.” I could never say all of those things in the same sentence about the work I did in insurance and banking. I wish I would have gotten here 30 years ago. There are so many careers out there where you either have the opportunity to enrich yourself or enrich others. Whatever you do, the work should be honorable.

Written by Jesse Appice

My Many Mansions journey started back in 2014 when I was just 12 years old. It feels like just the other day, I was being interviewed for a summer camp volunteer position. Now, here I am, the assistant coordinator at Villa Garcia. While my involvement within the organization has transformed over the years, my purpose has remained the same. For me, it is all about being there for kids who, otherwise, might not always have someone there for them.

I began volunteering with Many Mansions in 2014 as a summer camp volunteer at Villa Garcia. I remember not knowing exactly what to expect but being excited nevertheless. It definitely took some time for the kids to get used to seeing a new face all the time, but I think it is safe to say I grew on them. I enjoyed that first summer so much that I came back the following summer to volunteer again. To my delight, when I came back, I was no longer a stranger but rather a face the kids truly looked forward to seeing and hanging out with. It was after this second summer that I then found out about Homework Club, the organization’s school year program. In 2015, I started volunteering for both summer camp and Homework Club every year. While I was able to form strong bonds with the kids of Villa Garcia after volunteering two summers in a row, starting to volunteer during the summer and school year dramatically expanded my role. I soon became more than a volunteer. I became a friend. I became someone who was consistently there for the Villa Garcia kids, someone who was there to help them with whatever they might have been dealing with or going through, whether it was lots of homework or something entirely different.

The reason why so much of what I have said is in the past tense is because I am no longer a volunteer at Villa Garcia. Well, that is not entirely true, as I believe the volunteer inside me will never cease to exist. With that said, though, I am now, about 6 years later at the ripe age of 18, the assistant coordinator at Villa Garcia. While I just recently assumed this position, it has already been so rewarding. Now, instead of being with the kids of Villa Garcia for a day or two a week as I had been as a volunteer, I now get to be with them and positively impact their lives on a daily basis.

The best part is that it rarely feels like work. It feels like I am spending time with my family. I guess that is the real reason I decided to come back and volunteer year after year. It never felt like work. I could not have cared less about getting the volunteer hours. All I cared about was being a rock and role model for my friends at Villa Garcia. Being able to help them in whatever way possible, big or small, is what has always been most important to me. Although Villa Garcia started out simply as the place I came to volunteer, today it is truly so much more. It is the home of my second family, and a place where I always feel at home. I cannot wait to see where the future takes me and this organization. No matter where we go or what happens, I know the kids of Villa Garcia will always be with me and I will always be with them.

Written by Rita Saade

I have been working for Children Services at Many Mansions for a year and a half now. Watching them grow has been such a rewarding experience. I have worked with many of the kids and witnessed them progress. Seeing them struggle in a specific area and positively advance over time shows the important of Homework Club and the importance of what we do.

I am going to share a story of one of our children specifically who I have seen display amazing growth and progress. Her name is Sasha and she is a five-year-old girl. She started attending Homework Club around the time I became the coordinator at the site. She was a new move-in and started attending shortly after arriving at the site. Sasha is an only child and is being raised by a single mom who is pursuing higher education and working hard to give her daughter a good life.

The impact of Homework Club on Sasha was almost immediate. She adapted quickly. Prior to Homework Club, Sasha had trouble sitting quiet and following the rules in school. During her first week, she had to be reminded to sit quietly and listen to announcements. She would want to get up, talk, and fidget with items on the desk. By the second week, though, she started to remind other older members to be quiet during announcements. According to her mother, she also started doing better in school behaviorally and socially.

Although Sasha is still very young, she is at the age where it is essential that she learn skills that will allow her to be successful throughout her educational journey. Children pick up on actions modelled and reinforced around them. At Homework Club, Sasha is seeing, learning, and practicing various skills daily, skills that are needed in the classroom, especially at her age. Since she is an only child, her interaction with other members around her age and older really help her grow socially as well.

Sasha’s progress behaviorally and socially are not the only areas she has shown growth. Sasha has also shown amazing progress in reading. When she first started Homework Club, she struggled with reading and would not sound out words with volunteers reading to her. As of the beginning of December, she started to read out loud and demonstrate ability in recognizing sight words rapidly. She is now excited to read! Targeting Sasha’s reading difficulties at an early age and working on strengthening her reading is important for many reasons. Once a child is behind, it becomes extremely difficult for them to catch up. Literacy issues throughout childhood has an impact on both academic and future success, so we’re very proud of her work.

Watching Sasha grow and experience her successes in various areas reminded me a lot of myself growing up. I am an only child too and at her current age, I was struggling a lot in school socially, behaviorally, and in the areas of reading and math. English was a second language for both my parents which made it hard for them to help me academically. My behavior problems in the classroom was a result of my struggles academically. Socially, since I was an only child, I was not around a lot of kids outside of school which impacted me. My parents were told that if I did not receive extra outside help, I would have to repeat Kindergarten.

My parents found a program that provided the help that I needed, and a positive change was seen fairly quickly. My grades improved, my behavior improved, and my confidence in myself improved. I continue to use the skills I learned throughout my education and in life. Even though I was very young, to this day, I still remember the individuals who helped me. They had such a positive impact on my life and I will always be grateful for them.

I hope all of us who work with Sasha can have a similar impact on her future so that she can reach her full potential. As I mentioned earlier, watching the children grow and progress has been such a rewarding experience. I am thankful to be able to work with these amazing children and have a positive impact on their life in whatever way I can. I look forward to watching Sasha, along with all the other children, continuously grow in various ways with us at Homework Club.