Pearl Munak

Paso Robles, CA

I have been a longtime volunteer for nonprofits serving the homeless.

First I volunteered for a group trying to start a homeless shelter in an area that had none. When another group started an overnight shelter in a nearby city, I changed my group’s mission to providing 24-hr./day shelter for homeless persons with medical conditions whose doctors advised it.

We provide shelter in motel rooms and rented apartments until the person is well or housed. I also volunteer for a nonprofit that provides a warming shelter on cold and rainy nights for people sleeping outdoors. I also started a Christmas toy group for indigent families when the old one went out of business.

The president of the first nonprofit came to my church and spoke, and I realized this was the most important UNMET need in our community, and that it would not be met unless I helped. He challenged us to walk the river bed after a flood, cleaning up debris from homeless camps. I realized I was afraid to do it, so I had to do it.

As a result of my work and the work of many others, hundreds have been helped, including “Ann”, who had cataracts, detached retinas, hearing loss and needed two hip replacements. We saw her through medical treatment, and managed to get her housed in spite of almost total lack of housing resources.

It’s not always so rosy. One blind man, a European immigrant, could not get Social Security despite his age, because he did not have a copy of his Permanent Resident card. He was stubborn and uncooperative, but with the help of a member of Congress, we were able to get him a copy of it after a year of struggling. It had been in the file of his deceased mother.

Now he had income, but not enough for rent and food. We could not keep him longer in our temporary program, so we arranged for him to go into another program.

It became apparent he had Alzheimer’s. We had to evict him, with the worker from the other program standing by to take him, but he hit the officer and was jailed. The sheriff was able to do what we had failed to do: get him a conservatorship and involuntary placement into a nursing home. At least we had gotten him the Medicaid to pay for the nursing home, and he is not walking by the side of the road, blind, penniless, as he had been when someone picked him up and brought him to us.

Most community nonprofits operate on a shoestring, with no paid employees and often no office, helping those in need of food and shelter. They desperately need volunteers, no matter what your age. They may not be able to perform their mission without your help.