Homeless men find a home, opportunities
through Cathedral project

Jeff Blenkhorn had spent too much of seven years riding freight trains, looking for a place to spend the night, take a shower and find a job that would give him back a life.

After being laid off from work he took pride in, Christy White began living a nightmare, spending nights by the river and days looking for work that didn’t exist.

Elle Reed had been to Vietnam and back, before time in prison that was a Vietnam of its own.

Next came the years on the streets, always looking over his back, rarely able to sleep.

All three men found their way to the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament in downtown Sacramento, at first as a place to spend the night, then a place to find a home.

Their transformations began last December when the Cathedral’s St. Vincent de Paul Society launched the Cathedral Square Project to provide temporary housing for the homeless living in the Cathedral neighborhood.

It is a collaborative effort which enlisted support from the Downtown Sacramento Partnership and Sacramento Self Help Housing.

Business owners saw the program as an opportunity to address safety and sanitation issues related to a growing homeless population.

For the Cathedral, where 15 to 20 men, women and children spent the night, there were other concerns.

“The homeless come here because this is the house of God,” said Father James Murphy, rector. “That reality didn’t lessen the problem.”

So three months ago the Cathedral Square Project opened its first house on a quiet residential street in south Sacramento with accommodations for five guests. A few have already left, having found employment and permanent housing.

One of the current guests is Blenkhorn, 37, who had been homeless for the past seven years.

A native Sacramentan, Blenkhorn’s life began taking a 360-degree turn the day he walked in off the streets to Sacramento Self Help Housing, where he met Danelle Saldana, a housing specialist.

“I’d been out there living in the shrubs freezing, trying to get work with nobody helping me out. I had no income, nothing,” said Blenkhorn, who shares the home with four other previously homeless men. “It had been like having a life without having a life.”

Cut off from all family ties, one of Blenkhorn’s darkest, most frightening experiences occurred while he was traveling on freight trains, “trying to get established” with a job in another state.

His last train ride this winter took him to Ogden, Utah, where he lost his way and ended up walking along a train track for 15 hours without food or water.

“I prayed to God more than once, ‘I need you. Just bring me something,’” recalled Blenkhorn, who eventually ended up back in Sacramento.

Since becoming involved in the Cathedral Square Project, he has worked with Saldana to obtain his driver’s identification and Social Security cards, ready to do what has to be done to “clear” the past and find a job.

Since finding a bicycle, which he repaired by borrowing tools from a neighbor, Blenkhorn now has his own transportation.

One recent morning Blenkhorn arrived at 6 a.m. at a Sacramento-area restaurant to inquire about a job, undaunted that he was told to return for an interview because it was “kind of early.”

“I’m ready to grab those menus and start working,” Blenkhorn said. “Danelle has been pushing me and I’m pushing myself.”

Assisting the men in their job search is often frustrating, Saldana said, because more often than not when she follows up job leads, employers have filled the positions.

Another resident of the house is White, 47, who had worked as a roofer before being laid off from his job.

He had been living by the river and behind the Cathedral for about a year before John Foley, director of Sacramento Self Help Housing, stopped to give him a sack lunch one day and referred him to the Cathedral Square Project.

“I was there at 5:30 a.m. ready to move in,” said White, who initially found work a few days a week at a walnut farm near Wheaton. But the work was seasonal and White needed a full time job.

“I like any kind of outside work or I could work as a janitor,” he said. “I’m just looking for a job.”

White is grateful to be in off the street, optimistic that work will come his way and hopes soon to move into his own place.

“Even if one guy tells me no (to a job), somebody else is going to tell me yes,” he said.

For Reed, 54, coming in from the cold is an opportunity to take care of business that has put his life on hold.

A native of Detroit, Mich., Reed served in the military for eight years and raised a family before doing time in prison, an experience he details in a book he is writing.

“I never really gave myself a chance to get on with my life, to be a man again. Life has changed so many times from being a father, a granddad, to being on my own,” he said. “Since I walked into this house, I haven’t had to worry about someone taking something that was mine or doing me harm.”

Reed looks forward to living independently once the paperwork is completed to restart his government disability check, which was stopped while he was in prison.

Over the past three months, Saldana has assisted the men in job searches and in completing tedious forms. She’s also shared the excitement of their successes.

“I love these guys, watching each one grow and get a bit of serenity in their lives,” she said. “They’re my heart.”

Funding for the Cathedral Square Project is provided by the Cathedral’s St. Vincent de Paul chapter, the Sisters of Mercy of the Auburn regional community, the California State Association of Counties, Pyramid Alehouse and other local businesses who pay $525 per person monthly to house people. The Downtown Partnership has also raised funds for the project.

“We always envisioned services to help individuals become self-sufficient,” said Shannon Lahey, president of the St. Vincent de Paul chapter. “Because of the severe challenges these people have, what has happened is something of a miracle.”

She said plans are now under way to expand placements to 10 people per month.

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