Editorial: St. Vincent’s housing desk a helpful upgrade for Marin residents in need

For more than 40 years, the St. Vincent’s Free Dining Hall has been a helpful hub for Marin’s residents in need.

The hall has been serving free, nourishing meals – day in, day out.

Besides a meal, it has been a place where people can find assistance, get connected to places, and programs where they can find help, support and counseling.

Now, St. Vincent de Paul Society of Marin has created a “housing help desk,” aimed at helping get the homeless – chronic and new, individuals and families – into housing.

It formalizes the helping hand St. Vincent has offered for years, setting up a desk and a counselor where they can get help, from rental housing assistance or bus tickets to car registration and connecting to services.

Meredith Parnell, St. Vincent’s chief programming officer, says, “It’s the front door for services for people experiencing homelessness in this county, whether they’re chronically homeless or newly homeless.”

St. Vincent strives to make that help and assistance “immediate,” carrying on a role the organization has served in Marin since it was formed in our county in 1946.

The San Rafael-based agency is part of a network of nonprofit and county agencies working to combat homelessness, a national societal problem that has existed in Marin for many years and, in recent years, become much more visible.

Marin’s 2024 “point-in-time” count of people who are homeless or risk becoming homeless tallied 1,090 homeless people. Many are older adults. Many have lived in Marin for many years, but their fixed incomes can’t keep up with rising rents, says Kathleen Woodcock, a St. Vincent executive.

At the newly established help desk, people who need assistance can find a staff member, sit down with them and figure out what they need.

Every person helped off the street and into housing or helped out of substance abuse toward a healthful lifestyle is a success story.

Every single person.

Casual observers of Marin’s homeless challenge may question what’s being done, but St. Vincent’s workers and volunteers are serving on the frontlines and helping make a difference in the lives of their clients.

A recent survey of local homeless indicated that most would rather live in permanent housing than camping in a tent or living in their car.

That’s the goal of the county’s “Housing First” strategy. There is, of course, a challenge of not having as much local housing to meet the need. There is also a challenge in reaching people in need and the help desk is a strategy for meeting that task.

It is another point of access where those in need can find help, assistance and aid. The staff person seated at the desk is there to listen and help, including sometimes guiding someone through a bureaucratic web of governmental services.

Marin has a serious challenge when it comes to homelessness. But it is fortunate that our county has many dedicated nonprofit agencies available to help people, providing them with a “hand up,” a meal and aid and compassionate guidance to assist them in getting “off the street.”