The Community Care Crew, a new employment program at The Compass Station, Shoreline Community Services’ drop-in resource center in Pacific Beach, is up and running.
Shoreline Community Services has contracted with Discover PB, the community’s business improvement district, to do street cleaning, trash removal, light landscaping, and graffiti removal in ongoing efforts toward beach beautification.
The new crew is an updated version of the PB Street Guardians program that served PB from 2016 to 2019. Plans include making pressure washing services available to the beach community for businesses and/or residents. “Building up our power-washing business, that’s our goal for the spring, getting that going in a bigger way,” said Shoreline Community Services executive director Caryn Blanton adding the community care group goes out daily in a work truck to engage in maintenance and beautification projects. The crew works throughout the Discover PB area including Garnet Avenue, Mission Boulevard, and Ingraham, Cass, and Turquoise streets.
Noting the PB Street Guardians previously “started with no contract just walking around cleaning the streets and sweeping the sidewalks,” Blanton noted that, this time around, the Community Care Crew is on firmer footing. “I was approached by community leaders about starting up another cleaning crew,” she said adding, “This time we wanted to lay a strong foundation. I talked to Sunny Lee of Discover PB and we restarted the program last July and it worked out great: It was a great collaboration.”
Lyn Fielder, who confided she was living in her car when she “discovered” Shoreline Community Services and its wraparound services, talked about the unsheltered center and being a Community Care Crew member. “The Compass Station and all of its volunteers just made me feel like I had a safe place to come and they’re helping me get back up on my feet,” she said. “We just need a boost up to get back up. We’ve got each other’s backs. It’s like a family. We’re all very supportive of each other.”
Fielder said it was an adjustment getting back on a regular schedule and “holding yourself accountable” after being out on the streets. She pointed out the public has been very accepting of her and the rest of the Shoreline Community Services work crew. “We’re getting thanked constantly and people come out and give us hot chocolate and iced tea,” she said. “The community has embraced this program. We are doing it because the community wants us to come and do this. It’s a win-win. It’s an ongoing project. You get to the end – and then you start back at the beginning again.”
Regarding how Shoreline Community Services and The Compass Station are faring, Blanton noted: “You would hope the (unsheltered) numbers were declining, but that is not the case. When we opened in June 2022, we were seeing 20 to 30 people a day. Now we’re seeing 50 to 60 people a day. By the end of 2023, we had seen over 600 individual unsheltered people through visits.”
Nonetheless, while pointing out that PB is “the only community that has something like this (Compass Center) other than downtown,” Blanton concluded: “We’re very proud to offer this (unsheltered services) to our community at the beach. And nobody else is doing anything like this work program and outreach that Shoreline Community Services is doing.”
