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View photo by Jordan Christopher
PARKER JONES of Jones Ford Buckeye, left, and West Valley View adver tising consultant Julius Tiritilli set up a food drive box April 28 at the West Valley car dealership. View photo by Ray Thomas
PARTICIPANTS of the Interfaith Homeless Emergency Lodging Program prepare for dinner with a prayer April 27 at First Southern Baptist Church in Avondale.
STATE CHAMP! Estrella Foothills’ Zoey Nelson wins title again — Page 12.
CINCO DE MAYO Avondale holding fiesta to commemorate Mexican holiday — Page 5.
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Helping the homeless West Valley program claims 1st successes in getting people off streets by Glenn Gullickson staff writer
Last winter, Josephine Jonzalez was walking the streets and sleeping under a tree in Avondale. But after spending a couple of months in a program to help the homeless organized by several West Valley churches, Jonzalez is settling into her own apartment. Jonzalez is one of the first success stories of the Interfaith Homeless Emergency Lodging Program, or IHELP, which started in January as an effort to help people who are living on the streets. Several local churches rotate the responsibilities for offering shelter for up to 10 homeless adults for up to 90 days while establishing a plan for self-sufficiency. “When we’re able to help them get into their own housing, I call them ‘graduates,’” the Rev. Jack Marslender, pastor of the First Southern Baptist Church in Avondale, said of the program spearheaded by the Avondale Interfaith Council, a group of faith and community leaders. Marslender said the program is looking for two to four additional churches to join the eight churches that take turns offering nightly shelter. He said the program, which started with one person on the night it opened, has grown so quickly that it hopes to increase the number of homeless people it helps. Interest in the program indicates the need, according to Connie Phillips, president and CEO of Lutheran Social Services, the agency that is administering IHELP and works with similar programs in the East Valley.
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“It shows there is a pent-up demand. People want some support,” Phillips said. “We don’t want people sleeping on the street.” Marslender said 30 people have spent at least one night at one of the shelters. While some of the homeless don’t stick with it, four of IHELP’s “graduates” have found housing. “The program helped us when we hit rock bottom and picked us up,” Jonzalez said. Jonzalez, 62, a lifelong Avondale resident, admitted she has “struggled through life,” leaving high school when she was pregnant just three credits short of graduation, then divorcing twice as she coped with depression and sobriety issues. Last fall, she lost the trailer she shared with her boyfriend. “We were doing wonderful, then, bang, he said, ‘I’m leaving,’” Jonzalez remembered. “I got stuck being homeless.” What followed was days of walking so much that she lost about 100 pounds, showering at a food bank that provided sack lunches, occasionally begging for money and sleeping under what she called “my favorite tree” along Dysart Road. “One time it got so cold, nothing was helping. I had to walk to keep warm,” she remembered. She heard about IHELP and became the third person to join the program, which has a schedule that helps create some structure for the homeless.
A night at the shelter On a recent Thursday — First Southern Baptist’s day to provide shelter — the program’s participants were provided a ride from Care1st Avondale Resource Center in Old Town Avondale or walked to the church before the shelter opened at about 4:30 p.m. During a day when temperatures rose into the 90s, the homeless said they had spent most of the daylight hours looking for a place to stay
View launches food drive Annual appeal helps cover summer needs by Glenn Gullickson staff writer
Hunger never takes a vacation, but donations to food banks usually peak during the holidays and decrease over the summer months. It’s a dilemma that the West Valley View’s annual summer food drive hopes to help remedy. For the 12th year, the West Valley View is conducting a summer food drive collecting nonperishable food through the end of May. Donations may be made at boxes set up at the West D BY SORE Valley View’s office SPON in Avondale and several West Valley businesses that advertise with the newspaper. Three West Valley food banks will benefit from the drive, which was created to help the organizations through the summer slump. Since the newspaper’s first food drive in 2006, 64,897 pounds of food have been collected. But last summer’s drive collected 2,122 pounds of food, less than half of the previous year’s total. “Donations this time of year slow down,” said lley
West Va caring And the community business
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