SLO LIFE Magazine Dec/Jan 20/21

| Q&A
CHANGEMAKER
We visited recently with JOHN KLEVINS, a social worker employed by
the Transitions-Mental Health Association, who spends his days working
directly with San Luis Obispo’s homeless population as part of an innovative
partnership with SLOPD’s Community Action Team. To date, he has helped
more than one hundred local homeless seek treatment, reeducate, and
reunite with their families. He spoke to us while walking through a local
creek. Here is some of what he had to say…
Where are you from, John? All right. So, let’s see, I
was raised in Southern California, Costa Mesa. And
I went to USC undergraduate for business. I was in
real estate finance at the beginning of my career. There
was certainly money to be made, and I had some good
positions, leadership roles, and this and that. But, fast
forward a number of years, and I was telling myself,
“Okay, you’ve got to do something that kind of feeds
your soul a little more than just the sheer fact of making
money.” Not that making money is bad. I just felt that
maybe there was more in life.
Was there something precipitating these thoughts?
At the time, my wife’s mom was going through
Alzheimer’s. She had just been diagnosed, and it was
pretty rough on the family. That kind of inspired me
to help elderly folks. I started volunteering. Then, I
went and got a master’s in gerontology, which is the
study of old folks. I was in that line of work, senior
care, for about a decade and really enjoyed it. We were
living up in Seattle and we started our own nonprofit.
It was called LEAF, Legacy of Elder Advancement
Foundation. We did a lot of work for the elders of
Seattle; we had a lot of different programs to help them.
But we got to a point where Seattle wasn’t working for
us—just too cold and gray. Honestly, we were missing
the sun. San Luis Obispo and Morro Bay were places
that I’d always visited with my family, so I had good
memories of this area. We decided to make the move.
What did you do when you came into town? I became
interested in social work, because I wanted to have
direct contact with people. So, at the ripe old age of
55, I went back to school. My wife said, “Hey, do you
want to retire?” And I said, “I’m just not the retiring
type.” I can’t sit still long enough to do that. So, I
went back and got my master’s in social work. I went
through that program and did a couple of internships.
One at Atascadero State Hospital, and the other at
the psychiatric health facility here in town, PHF; it’s
where people are taken if they’re put on a 5150 hold.
Then, somewhere along the line, I saw this job pop
up working with the police department. The idea of
working in and around the police department appealed
to me right away. I’ve got a lot of respect for law
enforcement and thought, well, that might be a good fit.
How’s your caseload? So, I would say your typical
social worker has between twenty-five and thirty
clients. I have 855 right now. There are people who are
advocates for the homeless who say negative things
about what we’re doing out here at these
cleanups, but we come through weeks in
advance, like we’re doing today, to offer
help. But, the advocates have been pretty
vocal about it. But, it’s like, well, I’m here
every day working with the homeless.
Where are you? I haven’t seen you out
here lately, except when the cameras
show up. And, so, to me, what we do, our
goal is to provide services and solutions.
That’s why I describe myself as a
solutions-based social worker; and that’s
a perspective that’s taught in school. The
question is: What can we do to make
change? By the time people come in
contact with me, it means they’re in crisis.
It means things aren’t working out very well.
There’s a problem and so we have to get to the
core of that problem.
What have you learned in your two years doing
this job? Human beings don’t like change. So, in
the case of these cleanups, for example, like the one
we did over at Bob Jones trail recently, we took
fifty tons of trash out of the creek. Fifty tons. Now,
I’m also an environmentalist, an outdoorsman, and
I don’t like to see our open spaces just completely
thrashed. So, I think there has to be some
boundaries set. If you talk to people who are more
conservative, their opinion is that the homeless
are all drug addicts and thieves and we should just
get rid of them. Then, on the other side, people
on the liberal end of the spectrum will say that
homeless people have halos over their heads and
should be a protected class. I don’t think either one
of those points of view are correct. Remember, these
are people who are making a lot of choices to end up
where they are; many of those choices they are making
are not working out very well. That’s my job, to help
them see that. To show them there’s a different way.
A better way. So, yes, we absolutely need to continue
to set boundaries and enforce them, but at the same
time, we also need to help people create change in their
lives. Ultimately, my biggest thing, and what I try to
do, is provide hope. I try to show people that they can
have a different life, a different trajectory. I’m here to
help people overcome their challenges—mental illness,
substance abuse, whatever it is—so they can see that
homelessness should not be considered a destination,
but a place you pass through on the way toward
something better.
SLO LIFE
28 | SLO LIFE MAGAZINE | DEC/JAN 2021