Feeding and Housing the Homeless - Meet Brenda and Stacy

Feeding San Diego’s homeless tonight was inspiring and amazing.

“Brenda is three months pregnant with no place to sleep.”

We met several homeless people tonight like we do every Monday night on the streets of San Diego. Here’s a few of their stories.

Pregnant and Homeless on the Streets – Meet Brenda and Stacy

Brenda, and her husband Stacy, traveled from Florida and came into San Diego this last Wednesday. They both are on a tight budget and live in a camper back in Flordia. Stay’s mom lived in San Diego, but died last week and he wanted to have a proper funeral for her. So they left Florida and flew out to San Diego. After realizing they miscalculated their finances and the expenses of the funeral, they didn’t have enough money for a hotel room.

Brenda, being three months pregnant, was now homeless and living on the streets until their flight about a week away. Scared and not sure what to do, they attempted to visit some of San Diego’s homeless shelters. Many of the shelters offer preference to women, and especially homeless pregnant women. God’s Extended Hand and Father Joe’s Villages both offered her a place to stay for a week; however, Stacy, being a male, was not given the same offer. That meant that would have to split up for the evenings for the next week. Although Stacy insisted she do just that, Brenda didn’t want to leave her husband behind, alone on the streets.

When we met them, they asked the Streets of Hope for some thoughts and possibly for some help. We encouraged Brenda to reconsider spending the night in one of the shelters and allowing Stacy to stay on the streets. Brenda told the entire group, through tears, how she had been raped more than once in similar situations and just didn’t’ feel safe without her husband by her side. (It was difficult to hear her talk about her pain and struggles of being homeless once before and being raped.)

The group decided to take up a special offering to buy them a tent and some blankets. People reached into their pockets and pooled together enough money to make it happen! Two volunteers drove to Walmart at 9pm at night to make the purchase. Later that night the tent was set up right on the street in a safe area. (Be sure to see the photos below.) Brenda and Stacy were so grateful, praising God for leading them to the Streets of Hope. There’s nothing like seeing the homeless smile after you have helped them in a way they had never expected to be helped. Thanks to everyone who helped Brenda and Stacy in this situation.

A Homeless Man Needs Pants – Meet Mike

Also tonight, we met Mike, an elderly man homeless and living on Island Street between 14th and 15th Streets downtown. He was sitting down with his friend Ike. We noticed he was itching his legs. He said he had been bitten by several bugs while sleeping on the streets because he did not have any full-length pants to cover his legs. So at the end of the evening, when the group came together, Carols asked if anyone had any extra pants they could donate. Someone did have an extra pair in their trunk! The pants donated were a little too big so another volunteer from the Streets of Hope took his belt off his waist and offered it up. Another volunteer had an extra shirt they too were willing to give. A few of us we went back and gave the pants and the belt to Mike. He was very grateful and thanked God.