ORANGE COVE – A movement to help Orange Cove residents experiencing homelessness has been growing over the last few months, and the city is working to ensure it doesn’t fizzle out.
At its Jan. 14 meeting, the Orange Cove City Council unanimously put its support behind the continued use of the Orange Cove Community Center for services geared toward the city’s unhoused population. Mayor Diana Guerra Silva, due to her connection to the soup kitchen operating out of the community center, abstained from voting.
“There’s a big movement that’s happening right now in our community, … so now what we’d like to do as a city is trying to coordinate all of this to continue those efforts and slowly implement the new services that we’re doing,” City Manager Sam Escobar said.
Escobar had brought an agenda item to the meeting asking the council to acknowledge and continue the use of the community center for existing services and authorize the coordinated use of the center’s shower facilities to further support unhoused individuals. Through its vote, the council also directed city staff to explore the feasibility of partnerships and funding opportunities for future short-term shelter solutions at the community center.
Council members discussed what brought them to this point and where they would like to go with services in the future.
Serving the community
Last year, Guerra Silva began operating Sandy’s Soup Kitchen at the community center every Monday as a way to honor her late sister Sandy and continue her legacy of feeding the homeless.
“I didn’t want that just to go away, and I saw the need in the community,” she said.
Driven by her faith, Guerra Silva said she talked to Escobar about getting it started at the soup kitchen, and the volunteer-based service began.
“And then, God says ‘you know what, they’re not only hungry, they need a shower,’” Guerra Silva said. “And I talked to Sam about that and he said, ‘well, we have showers here.’”
Then, Guerra Silva said she thought about how after someone takes a shower, they shouldn’t go back into dirty clothes, so they should provide clothing for the individuals as well.
What started as a soup kitchen turned into providing Orange Cove residents in need with hot, home-cooked meals, a safe place to shower and donated clothing and toiletries. Individuals, members of the Orange Cove Lions Club and local pastors have all volunteered their time to make this happen.
Escobar said there are many cities in California that have been attempting successful programs related to rehabilitation services for homeless individuals.
“It’s a multi-faceted program, but the food is a start for what we’re doing,” Escobar said. “And what I see is that there’s still a lot of work to be done, and it’s going to take everybody, (including) all the faith-based organizations.”
To expand services, Escobar said city staff are working to coordinate with Fresno County to see if the county’s counseling services can visit the soup kitchen once a month to connect with homeless residents.
The city will also need to take an inventory of its unhoused population, in part so that it knows when it’s serving people from Orange Cove or neighboring communities, and so the city can have data to use to apply for funding. At the moment, no city funds are being used for these services, just city facilities.
If future funding allows for it, Escobar said one idea the city has is to purchase temporary sleep pods for the community center and use it as a warming center for the colder winter months.
Councilmember Cassy Ortiz also said the spirit behind the discussion and the services being provided was to go after funding to help the city continue these efforts. While the soup kitchen and showers are a good step forward, Ortiz said she thinks there are ways to make sure that homeless residents are also being counseled and worked with “so they can get off of the streets and do better and do better for themselves.”
“I think that’s kind of the heart behind pushing this forward, to look into doing more as a city, to make it so that we can have places for these people to hang out and to grow and learn,” Ortiz said.
