SHARE: Making a Difference for People in Need

Bleak, dark, and piercing cold, it was a night for the well-housed and fed to draw round the bright fire, and thank God they were at home; and for the homeless starving wretch to lay him down and die. Many hunger-worn outcasts close their eyes in our bare streets at such times, who, let their crimes have been what they may, can hardly open them in a more bitter world. – Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist, 1838

When Charles Dickens penned those powerful words almost two hundred years ago, he was already a successful author. Because he had experienced extreme poverty in his youth, he always had a keen eye and a wealth of empathy for the downtrodden people he encountered on the streets in London and other bustling, coal-begrimed cities of England’s Industrial Age. And one can easily apply Dicken’s indicting passage to today’s American cities and Main Streets, and —  to our everlasting shame — we can also see Modesto reflected in his words, especially in the cold, rain-swept parks, and strip centers where our own un-housed neighbors seek shelter from the elements and the unforgiving perils of the night.

Now in its fifth year of operation, the Stanislaus Homeless Advocacy and Resource Enterprise (0r SHARE) was founded in 2019 by two community-minded individuals who saw the humanitarian crisis unfolding among so many of our neighbors and together decided to do something about it. From its inception, co-founder and CEO Steven K. Finch and co-founder and CFO Frank Ploof have been the driving forces behind the startup organization. Lynelle Loeb-Solomon joined agency more recently and her inspiring outreach into the community has become a hallmark of the nonprofit’s can-do approach to assisting individuals and families challenged by homelessness. At its core, SHARE, “believes that all people deserve to have access to safe housing and/or safe shelters in order to have basic human needs satisfied in the community.”

We’ve done a bit of everything,” CEO Steven K. Finch recently explained, “from giving people tickets home so they can go back to be with their family, to giving food to families that are temporarily sheltered.  We’ve sheltered people temporarily in motels.  We pay pet fees so that people can get into shelters, and pay people’s shortfalls, so they don’t lose their home – like electrical bills, gas, water. We pay partial payment on people’s homes, so they don’t lose their homes. A myriad of things. And that’s important, because the system currently isn’t set up for that — to assist people so they don’t lose their homes.

“I’ve worked with a blind woman for a year, and it took nine months to get her off the street into housing,” added SHARE CFO Frank Ploof. “I’m still working with her on a weekly basis because she needs ongoing support, because of her disability. We can get people off the streets — but oftentimes, ongoing sustainability is hard to come by.”

Altogether, SHARE was able to serve over 278 individuals and families in 2023, a remarkable accomplishment for a tiny nonprofit agency with an all-volunteer staff — which tells you a lot about the level of compassion and depth of commitment that  Finch, Ploof, and Ms. Solomon and other volunteers feel about the work they do every day, whether the sun is shining or an atmospheric river is roaring across the Valley.

For both Ploof and Finch, the lessons in giving to help others arrived early in their lives. “My mother was a teacher, but she didn’t teach very much because she came down with Parkinson’s,” Mr. Ploof recalled.  “By the time I was 12 or 13, she had been disabled by the disease. I had a younger brother who died of leukemia when he was three.  I was born into an environment where people needed a lot of help. So I learned about compassion and the importance of helping people early on.”  This was passed on to Mr. Ploof’s daughter who works with the homeless in Tempe, Arizona.

“My dad was always community-involved,” Finch recounted.  “That was the way I was raised, my kids are raised that way — you give back, you do what you can. I met a young family one day going out to collect rent. They were living in the park, over by La Loma. A young man with three children. I saw them turning in to go into the park at evening time, so I picked them up and it just kind of started me. I started navigating the system with them and realizing how difficult it was – just trying to get them some sort of stability in their lives, and to help the young father get off drugs.  It was just beyond difficult. I see how overwhelming it is for people. It literally is a full-time job. That’s how I met everybody.  Just a network of people – and we have some superstars in that network, and we all know who they are. They are going to be here for the duration, so I figure I can support them.”

Finch and Ploof are grateful for the strategic partnerships SHARE has been able to forge throughout the community including with St Vincent DePaul, CHAT, CAREs team, Turning Point, Salvation Army, and many others. “We really value each of these partnerships,” Mr. Finch said, “and look forward to strengthening them in the future and building on new ones.”

Since its founding, SHARE has largely existed on private donations and a few grants from charitable foundations, including a grant from the Stanislaus Community Foundation. But the type of specialized outreach and assistance that SHARE provides so well to our community is unconstrained funding that allows it to accomplish its flexible mission.  Overall, expenditures for SHARE can average about $60,000 a year.

“We virtually have no fixed costs – the costs are variable,” Ploof pointed out. “And those are tied in with what’s going on in the community, the time of year, the weather, and availability of shelter space.  There are a lot of variables, so it’s difficult to predict. We attempt to put people in the shelter first, but the shelters have been basically full, for all practical purposes. This is a humanitarian need. We don’t want women and children sleeping on the streets or in cars if we can do something to help them for a night or two or three. It’s as simple as that.”

With another cold and wet January taking its toll on those of our neighbors living out on the streets and by the rivers, we would do well to take a few minutes before watching the next pro football playoff game or Hallmark special and think back on the words Dickens wrote in 1838; we need to ask ourselves if we would feel comfortable reading what Mr. Dickens might say about Stanislaus County in 2024, were that somehow possible. Or, for that matter, what John Steinbeck might say. I don’t think either of them would spare our feelings after observing the way the unhoused fight to survive in our community.

We can’t just leave it up to SHARE, and a few other fine organizations. As Steven Finch points out, “the system is disjointed and very difficult to navigate.” For far too many living out on our streets, it’s become a matter of life or death.  That’s why it’s imperative for all of us to get involved — with SHARE — to link up with those who are making a difference for those of our neighbors who are living at the very edge of existence. We can’t just leave up to a few tireless souls. It’s up to all of us.

SHARE is located at 1111 J Street, Suite G101 Modesto, CA 95354 and is a 501(C)3 charity, so all donations are fully tax deductible. Their telephone number is (209) 993-4984. Their Facebook page is: https://www.facebook.com/sharestanislaus.