September 15, 2004

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Palo Alto Online

A second chance

by Jocelyn Dong

For members of the public, Allen Krever is the voice of Palo Alto's planning department. His smooth baritone has been answering phones for the busy office -- about 60 calls a day, more or less -- for the past two years.

Krever, 52, holds an unusual position within the ranks of City Hall, and not only because he's a male receptionist in a stereotypical woman's role. He is also a graduate of the city's Seasonal Employment Opportunities Program, which offers homeless men and women 12 weeks of work with the government.

When the fit between the job and the employee is good, as it was in Krever's case, the temporary work can turn into long-term employment.

Many cities in the Bay Area lend the homeless a hand by funding local food and shelter programs, but Palo Alto is the only one that hires them, according to Kathy Espinoza-Howard, the city's director of human services.

The program is currently in full swing, with six participants working through the beginning of November. Even if a job doesn't work out in the long run, the program offers the men and women experience they can put on their resumes.

For Krever, the city's help provided him a way out of a desperate situation.

"The last five years of my life had been a natural disaster," he said recently, sitting on a bench in the Civic Center plaza with a city-employee badge hanging from his waistband. A former electronics technician for Hewlett-Packard Company and Agilent in the Santa Rosa area, Krever had been a middle-class homeowner. Then, as he tells it, he made a series of "bad choices," which cost him everything.

"I made it out with my body and brain," he said.

The city's human services division has been running the life-changing program, informally called the Seasonal Worker Program, for seven years. In that time, 71 people have participated. Not all of them have lasted the 12 weeks, sometimes due to personal issues and other times because they've found permanent work elsewhere.

On a budget of $40,000, Espinoza-Howard and management assistant Debbie Park partner with three local homeless shelters and a temporary-work agency, Springboard Forward of Mountain View. Espinoza-Howard and Park find available positions within the city; shelter staff recommend some of their residents for the work; and all of the organizations participate in a panel interview of the job candidates.

After hiring, Springboard Forward hosts weekly "success team" meetings for the new employees, where they can talk about their jobs and receive personal coaching on job skills.

Espinoza-Howard described the homeless employees as "a highly talented group," ranging in age between 20 and 60. Although some hold MBAs and PhDs, they ended up homeless after losing their jobs, Park said.

The city work is not for everyone. Typically, the employees are hired to do clerical, warehouse, public works and print-shop work. But some, like Krever, were just eager to have a job.

"I figured I'd end up cleaning toilets or raking leaves, and that's fine," he said. "I'm not above that."

The reception work suits Krever, even though it's another world from his beloved electronics industry. He said he gets a thrill meeting local developers and residents, or receiving an irate phone call and turning the person around so that they're laughing when they hang up.

Sitting in front of City Hall, he waved to a resident walking by.

"Hi Liz!" he called out to Elizabeth Wong, whose home plans last year became mired in neighborhood controversy.

One person in the planning department who has seen the program's impact is Robin Ellner, a staff secretary assigned to be Krever's mentor. She had advocated for the department to have a full-time receptionist in the first place, and has fought to keep Krever on ever since.

Ellner checks in with Krever weekly. She recalled his first days of work: "He was scared and nervous and didn't know what to expect. He wasn't sure how it would work out."

She, in turn, hadn't been a mentor before. Her protective instincts sprang into action, insisting that department co-workers go through her before assigning him work.

"I became like this mom figure," she said with a laugh.

She needn't have worried, though. Krever dove into the work, determined to learn everything that he didn't already know, including improving his skills with Microsoft Office software. At the end of 12 weeks, Ellner said, it was clear that the public and the department "loved" Krever, so she "stormed" into department head Steve Emslie's office and demanded that Krever be retained.

The program has faced its share of challenges, most notably budget cuts that limit the number of participants. This fall, the city was able to hire six temporary workers. In the past, they've hired about 10.

Early on in the program, Espinoza-Howard said, they learned the hard way that employees needed guaranteed housing while they worked. Now the shelters promise housing concurrent with employment.

There are some drawbacks that can't be planned around, however. One city worker -- a former client of the program -- said that low wages and a stigma of homelessness discourage some program participants.

Non-homeless co-workers have sometimes expressed their misconceptions about people who are homeless, said Richard Jerry, a print-shop worker.

"Yeah, it bothers me," he said. "Do I let it bother me much? No."

He said he feels "extremely lucky" to have had the supervisors he did during his time with the program, and is thankful he found employment afterward.

Though Krever wryly calls himself "the low man on the totem pole leading to the bottom rung of the ladder," he said he feels appreciated in the department and that the work helps sharpen his mind.

What he wants next in life is permanent employment with benefits. "It's a cliché, but I just want to get my life back together and get on with things," he said.

Earlier this year he moved out of the Clara Mateo Shelter in Menlo Park and found an apartment in Santa Clara that he shares with a housemate. He takes public transit to work, but said he can't complain otherwise. He's grateful for the stability and the second chance at life.

"This job made all that possible. I got my self-esteem back," he said. Senior staff writer Jocelyn Dong can be reached at jdong@paweekly.com.

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