Joy Fernandez de Narayan, Mercy Care’s Street Medicine manager, shared a note from Franco Bejarano of Intown Collaborative Ministries on September 17, 2021. In the email she wrote:  “In case you were needing some good news on this dreary day, you can read below about how our friend Ruben, who I met on my first ever night of Street Medicine, is now finally housed!”

Hi everyone.

Case managers Tonya Davenport and Matthew Reed of Intown Collaborative Ministries with Ruben Gates who finally accepted housing after decades on the streets.

Some of you know Ruben who was housed today at O’Hern House. This is perhaps one of the most monumental housing successes we’ve had at Intown. If you are not familiar with Ruben, he has been sleeping outside for over a decade (perhaps multiple decades). The earliest report I can get dates back to 2010. He was the first client that Joy Fernandez de Narayan (from Mercy Care Street Medicine) served over seven years ago. Ruben is in his 60s and he lives with a development and intellectual disability that hinders his speech and cognitive capabilities. He appears to have a four-year-olds speech level. When I met Ruben, people in the street told me he had come from a physically abusive family. Whether this is true or not, we did find out his family was receiving his social disability check and, unfortunately, defrauding the system by keeping the money for themselves. Housing Ruben was an extremely hard challenge due to his distrust of the system and cognitive barriers. It took almost 5 years of engaging with Matthew Reed for Ruben to even get in the car with him.

Once, again we need to acknowledge all the hands that went into this. Thank you to Joy from Street Medicine who has been looking out for Ruben’s health since 2014. Thank you to Dr. Mawuena Agbonyitor to helped with psychiatric paperwork (even after leaving Mercy Care). Thank you to Pastor Chad and Pastor Britney who provided a community for Ruben for many years. I want to acknowledge Matthew Reed and Tanya Davenport who served as Ruben’s case managers and made this happen going above and beyond regular case manager duties. They helped him manage his own money, made sure Ruben was taking this meds daily, obtained documents for him, and engaged long enough for Ruben to gain their trust.  

This is awesome. Thank you.