San Diego Rescue Mission

I was sad, i took gift bags Christmas eve to womens & childrens shelter. No word back. Usually the kids draw a picture or write a thank you. I put mittens, socks, chapstick, candy in all the bags & took 20 fun books. Nuevo Vida group. Debbie was going to follow up

If they had MINUS stars, this place — at least the women’s program — would get them. If you think you are donating to a place that cares about helping people — THINK AGAIN! My friend has been trying to get into the residential program for MONTHS. She called & called & called every day, as instructed, to demonstrate that she was truly interested, and after quite a while, managed to get an intake appointment. She was staying in East County, homeless, jobless, penniless, but managed to scrape together bus fare to make it to the meeting, but the woman with whom she had the appointment didn’t bother to show up. AND — the woman never even had the decency to call and apologize. The phone is rarely answered by a live person — and voice mail messages are not returned. We left dozens upon dozens of messages. At last, my friend was told that whenever she was ready, they had a bed for her. Two days later, after disposing of her excess possessions and putting things in order, she called to say she was «ready». Again — the phone is never answered and her messages not returned. Finally, I called and selected the menu option for MAKE A DONATION… and LO & BEHOLD, I GOT SOMEONE RIGHT AWAY. I have spoken to the director of the program, the VP of Clinical Programs and several others, who all assure me that they are SO CONCERNED… it gives them the utmost JOY to help people in these situations… yet as of today, they still have not given my friend the courtesy of a return call. They like to play the «GOD CARD», but there is nothing Christian about anything they have done for my friend. It’s all about MONEY MONEY MONEY! I wish everyone could see how this organization treats people — their complete lack of care or concern — you’d never give them another cent!

Have been homeless since Oct ’12. Last Friday I had my backpack stolen from me at the Episcopal church in OB then on Sunday I lost my wallet at Fashion Valley and no one bothered to turn it in. I had/​have nothing. Just the clothes on my back. Knowing that this mission is faith based and I don’t really have much of a religious background I went into with the assumption that they are friendly, caring and loving groups of guys. WRONG. I asked several times over the past 3 days if I could call the church to see if my backpack showed up in their hands to which I was told that I could NOT look the phone number up on google being that it wasn’t in the phone book. I should add that my DENTURES happened to be in my backpack along with childhood photos and my birth certificate. After lunch today and after being told by the director Mike Castaneda that I could not google it, I left. I have no where to go tonight but I had to come back to OB (walked from Old Town to OB mind you) to see if my bag was here and unfortunately it wasn’t. I have to say I think I made the right decision because this place was supposed to be about love and kindness to which I saw none. I felt like I was back in high school again. I don’t fit into this kind of crowd and they people working there knew this. Not a pity party whatsoever but I think they treat the ones that don’t necessarily fit into their population a little harsher than they do the ones that essentially are not the minority. This has nothing to do with race. It has to do with mentality and background.
People were horrible being completely unfriendly, uncaring and treated all of us like we were a bunch of prisoners to which I have to say most of the guys in there are ex-​cons and quite scary.
If you are articulate and have any inkling of how to put a sentence together properly you will not fit in. If you don’t say homie or bro or bump fists every two seconds you will not fit in.
Here’s my bitch session about it… And the worst of the whole bunch. The asshole laundry dude who started being an ass to me the minute we met would only allow me to have one shirt and one pair of pants the whole time I was there KNOWING that all of my clothes had been stolen AND no underwear. He was a fucking complete dick and I hope his balls fall get sucked into his stomach and he pukes them up. Spit.
The church sessions were HORRIBLE. A bunch of the people from the mission who were bored and thought they’d start a «garage band». Lord is right. Lord stop fucking singing! And the audience members who had no clue how to clap along with the rhythm — WTF. The best thing about the church was I would sit in the same seat in the back right because the projection screen was always down and there was some prayer behind it and it read. «The poo he saved.» I chuckled everytime I looked up there and that got me through the horrendous pile of poo that «He saved» for three FUCKING hours a day!
All of the smokers who wouldn’t sell a fucking cigarette to me. Go fuck yourselves. Spell mississippi bitches.
The hispanic asshole who made fun of the way I was eating my pork ribs because I used a knife and fork instead of sucking the grease off of my fingers. Go fuck YOURSELF and your cohorts too.
Lastly — JP you were awesome. Thanks for listening to me. I greatly appreciated. You were the best thing there — and hot.
Food was good too. Bed was comfortable but I was stuck on the top bunk right about 2.5 feet from the ceiling and right in front of my face was a fire sprinkler head with a protector on it. Fire hazard I’m sure considering there were 5 bunk beds scattered around the room with four in each corner and the sprinklers sitting right there in the top bunk. There’s no way water would be able to spray around the room had their been a fire. UNSAFE!!! At least I would have been ok. Fuck the rest! LOL
Fin.
Blessed be.

Metered parking in the front 12 mins for the first quarter. Met by Paul at the entrance. Quick transaction not even 5 mins. I got a receipt of my donated clothes for the Battered Women & Children Emergency Shelter. Can’t wait to make more donations

Recently moved our Grandfather into a seniors home and were giving away his whole home worth of belongings. Called up San Diego Rescue Mission and they said no problem we will send out a truck just give us about 10 Days notice. We boxed everything up nicely. cleaning all the furniture and had it all ready to go, called and set up a date giving them the 10 days notice. The day of pickup the driver refused to drive down the road to the property because said he was going to damage his truck from the weeping willows lining the road (the trees are not even close to the road we have had quite a few service vehicles down there since we started this move). The gentleman with the driver told us that this particular driver is extremely lazy and will do anything to get out of doing work and that he knew it was a home full of stuff. The one customer service guy whom we were working with named Bart was great but the driver and his supervisor… awful… I will never help this charity ever and I will tell everyone about our experience this them. It is unfortunate because there was a lot of stuff that could have been put to good use but for a lazy employee.

Have been to this San Diego Rescue Mission to drop donations off and visit with someone I know who works there. Karen Clark also gave me the tour inside the facility and it is a great place. The SDRM helps so many people in need with 4 core programs encompassing in-​depth services for lasting life change: The Men’s Center houses the 12-​month recovery program for up to 200 homeless and addicted men. The Street Services has outreach to needy men, women, and children. Long-​term programs for women and women with children are housed in the Women and Children’s Center along with Nueva Vida Haven, the emergency shelter.
The mission statement of the Rescue Mission documents that it is a Church based program that cannot take federal money because it is religious-​inspired. The San Diego Rescue Mission «exists to spread the good news of salvation through Christ by serving the needs of the poor, addicted, abused, and homeless, thus improving the quality of their lives. We believe in the inherent worth of every homeless man, woman, and child, and provide rehabilitation and discipleship programs that lead to permanent change and independent living.» Therefore, they must rely on donations, fund-​raisers, Sleepless in San Diego events, income from the thrift shops and direct mail solicitations.
Today the San Diego Rescue Mission has consolidated all of its rehabilitation programs into the former Harbor View Medical Center at 120 Elm Street in downtown San Diego. At full capacity, the SDRM provides the following on a monthly basis:
Nearly 12,500 nights of shelter
Over 37,000 hot, nutritious meals
More than 82,000 hours of education, work training, rehabilitation and Christian care to the residents in its long-​term care programs.
The San Diego Rescue Mission does fabulous things for the needy among us. Matthew 25:40 tell us what Jesus would have us do here: «Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.» 5 Unilocal STARS all the way!