Our Town: A nod to Jim Burklo Our Town: A nod to Jim Burklo (April 23, 2003)

by Don Kazak

It was an act of compassion and hope when the Palo Alto City Council voted unanimously March 3 to approve a homeless drop-in center and 89 units of low-cost apartments..

Called the Opportunity Center, the project will be built next to the Palo Alto Medical Foundation, just across the train tracks from downtown Palo Alto.

And there is a story in that, too, since the medical foundation -- primary care doctors for nearly half of Palo Altans -- initially dug in its heels and, citing serious concerns about security, said no way, we don't want a homeless center next door.

But the foundation did a huge about-face between last fall and March 3. David Druker, M.D., the foundation's CEO and president, not only endorsed the plan for the center but said the foundation would likely work out a plan to provide medical services.

Many people helped the Opportunity Center evolve from an interesting idea into what may become reality in two years. The Community Working Group, a nonprofit that put together the plan for the center, has only about two-thirds of the needed $21 million secured or promised for the project, in federal, state and city funds. But those folks are optimistic.

The effort has an interesting history. The Community Working Group met every other week for five years to put the plan together. The effort was started by the ministers and congregations of All Saints Episcopal and First Presbyterian churches in Palo Alto, two churches that have a long history in social movements in the Palo Alto area -- being the better parts of the people we should all be.

Don Barr, M.D., the chairman of the Community Working Group, helped put the whole deal together. Dr. Barr is an emergency-room trained physician who works part time at the Urgent Care Clinic of the Palo Alto Medical Foundation. (It must have been interesting to have Dr. Druker say last fall he didn't want the homeless center built next to the clinic.)

Barr also teaches sociology at Stanford. Only about five people in the country share those dual professions, he quipped -- many hats kind of person.

So is Eve Agiewich, also a member of the Community Working Group. She chairs of the Palo Alto Human Relations Commission, as well as being a staff member at the Clara Mateo shelter for homeless families in Menlo Park -- which will operate half of the planned drop-in center, the part for women and families.

The Urban Ministry of Palo Alto, founded 20 years ago as a homeless drop-in center, is also faith-based, supported by a dozen or so churches in Palo Alto and Menlo Park. It will provide services for the other half of the drop-in center, for men.

The Rev. Jim Burklo is also a member of the Community Working Group that put the plan for the Opportunity Center together.

I first met him years ago, when he was still a minister at First Congregational Church and was serving coffee to homeless people out of the back of a Winnebago motor home parked in the lot of First Lutheran Church. He was the Urban Ministry. He is now the pastor of small church in San Mateo and a campus minister at Stanford.

There are others involved in the Community Working Group, but it all started with Burklo in that Winnebago, offering hot cups of coffee to homeless people.

I once asked him why he spent so much time caring for people whom most of the rest of us are often repulsed by.

He said he didn't judge those people, he just talked to them, accepted them and tried to help.

Burklo may not even remember what he said to me, way back when, but it stuck with me.

He is a gruff-speaking, street-wise minister with a kind heart. He is self-effacing, so he wouldn't take credit for the Opportunity Center, the Urban Ministry or anything else. But he helped start this whole thing.

He teaches people to care for others.

Don Kazak is the Weekly's senior staff writer. He can be e-mailed at dkazak@paweekly.com.