• Project Touch Wildomar

Are you familiar with Project Touch? Have you heard of it?

It's an organization started about twenty years ago by Anne Unmacht in Temecula to help prevent homelessness. You can read more about its history at their website if you'd like.

Click Photo To Visit Website

Project Touch owns a three-acre property in Wildomar and will be expanding the current layout, which currently houses up to eight residents, to one that will have eighty bedrooms.

Knowing this was coming closer to reality, I felt it my duty to get the details out to the residents of Wildomar. I met with Anne and she was happy to answer my questions so I could share them in blog form here.

Joseph Morabito (center), Anne Unmacht (center right) at the 2023 Murrieta Wildomar Chamber of Commerce Awards Dinner.

The proposed plan has eight single-story buildings divided in two. Each building will have two kitchens separated by walls with five bedrooms on each side. 

Eight, ten-bedroom structures with a common adjoining laundry room for each building. The existing 3BR two-story house will remain too.

Project Touch purchased the property three years ago. It's been housing single men, and at the moment there is only one there, and he's employed as a security guard in Canyon Lake.

There are no construction timelines at this point, but when pressed, Anne hedged that groundbreaking is possible in a year.

The funding that Project Touch has lined up will pay for the first of three phases which is between two or three of the buildings mentioned above. Anything beyond that is still not even on the back burner yet.

The Wildomar Campus will be about homeless prevention, not something akin to a soup kitchen/flop house seen in big cities.

How does Project Touch choose its residents?

Anne reminded me that Project Touch has been doing this work for twenty years and they are the only homeless prevention/shared housing operation of their kind in the region. 

For years they've gotten referrals from school districts, hospitals, and law enforcement (such as domestic violence situations, or coming across a mother and her children in a car). Also from social services, adult protective services, child protective services, and other groups that work in this endeavor. 

The current view from Grand Ave.

What may not be common knowledge is that since Project Touch has contracted with Wildomar and City Net they have been housing homeless men from Wildomar, outside of Wildomar. In their other operations which are better suited for that need.

All totaled, Project Touch has 265 beds in the region, at this moment in time, they have 225 clients. 

"I encourage people to think about the fundemental choice [necessary to be in the program]. Do you want someone who comes into a very strict program, with lots of resources, to keep them out of homelessness, or do you still want them to hang out on your streets and the unknowns?"

- Anne Unmacht

About How Long Do Individuals Stay Before Moving on?

As you could probably guess, there is no set answer, it varies depending on the situation. There are some who are with Project Touch for a short time, perhaps reconnecting with family, or they find a more suitable program for the individual's needs. 

They work with agencies throughout the county. They have a very comprehensive resource book online that they update every year. 

Some people may be there a month or two, while others, such as senior citizens with health issues and no family have been with Project Touch for five and six years. 

As more permanent low-income housing comes online, their longer-term clients have an opportunity to make that move.

I quipped, "People will be glad to learn that the average stay isn't something like eleven days." 

To which Anne responded forcefully in a tone of clarification, "One of the focuses of this campus (Wildomar on Grand Ave) is going to be the single moms and families who have been with us [for years] but are currently in a location that is much more conducive for someone that is entry-level."

This will be home for those who have been part of Project Touch for quite a while. "I'm very particular and selective about the people that will be living on that campus," Anne reiterated.

What Kind Of Oversight Is There To Keep Difficult People In Line?

When it comes to difficult clients they first aim for behavior modification approaches. Their goal is to not make the person homeless again by kicking them out, but they do have an "infractions" system where a person can be "written up" for a minor or major infraction. 

After the second write-up, there's a mandatory meeting with the director, Anne herself, to see if that person is suited for shared housing or not. That happens on occasion, and then a "strategic exit plan" is implemented. They are also prepared for immediate exits if the situation calls for it.

"For the most part people [we deal with] are cooperative because we're offering them something they really want. We're not going out trying to fit a square peg into a round hole, we're dealing with people that want help and don't want to be homeless."

- Anne Unmacht

In their existing properties, they have staff which includes case management, and someone who monitors the shelter at night.

At the Wildomar location, there will be live-in staff. 

There are many unknowns at the time of this blog as they are exploring their options with County services, including, possibly onsight parenting classes, anger management classes, financial literacy classes, and other similar services that will help people become independent of government services. 

Regarding Project Touch Staff

Generally, the staff comes from those who have gone through their system and have proven themselves over a long period of time. 

Having the experience of the program under their belt, they are uniquely qualified to assess what they're presented with. In common parlance, don't bullsh*t a bullsh*tter. 

Her main go-to staffer is twenty-year Marine vet, Darryl Chambers. He initially came her way as a client after his family hit a bump in the road and she helped them find an apartment.  

Staff meetings are weekly with internal training, outside training, Zoom meeting training, and other educational components. 

As Project Touch moves forward with the county they are reaching a different level where all clients are entered into the HMIS system and they'll have a dedicated staffer for it. 

Link to HUD's page about HMIS

Link to Project Touch Facebook page

I asked Anne if there was anything she'd like to add:

[What] I would share with the community is to reflect on the word "the homeless". It almost makes it feel like you're going to Sea World to feed the dolphins or the seals. The homeless are not "the homeless". 

These are veterans, human beings, single mothers, who are trying to make it. These are people who are leaving bad situations for the well being of their kids, and I always say, "There but for the grace of god go I".

There are no guarantees. Life can throw you a curveball anytime. Always remember you just don't know that the same thing could happen to you. Have some compassion. Don't operate in fear. 

Once we get our campus open we'd love for people to come and volunteer, get involved, we'll have lots of opportunities. It's actually a lot of fun, when you're helping other people there's no looking back.

Link to Project Touch Instagram Page

Wildomar Rap opinion time

I know that the location of this homeless prevention facility has worried many people. That's understandable. 

Google Map view. Project Touch property yellow/red highlight.

We all have our own ways of going about things; the way we form opinions or come to conclusions. For me, the primary factor revolves around getting the facts of the matter, and then putting together an opinion with a firm base in reality.

The upfront facts, in this case, indicate all the decision-making leading to an 80-room homeless prevention facility being at the location in question happening well outside of the City of Wildomar.

Though 2M dollars is coming from the Riverside County Board of Supervisors, the decisions go beyond them too, all the way to Sacramento. 

It's a similar story to that of Tres Lagos in the new parts of Windsong Valley. Local control wasn't even on the table. 

When I first was apprised that this was being considered, knowing it had SB 35 protections where the city can't even hold a public meeting about it as was done with Tres Lagos, I made my opinions known that public outreach needed to be a key component. 

Anne Unmacht and Project Touch want to be good neighbors, and she agreed that such outreach would be done.

In the interim, I yielded my position on the Homeless Subcommittee to, then newcomer to the City Council, Ashlee DePhillippo, and haven't been in the loop due to the restrictions of The Brown Act. 

I wanted to attend a recent community meeting hosted by Project Touch at the site on Grand Ave but was blocked by the City Attorney. 

In a perfect world, cities would be perfectly laid out like it was the old computer game SimCity, but we live in a real world, that isn't planned out, and when it's in California, the one-size-fits-all approach of Sacramento rules the day.

Instead of getting all wordy as can all too often be my custom, I'm going to end here. 

If you have questions there are many resources you can investigate listed in this blog. 

You can also add Mayor Bridgette Moore as an information source. She's running for re-election from that area of Wildomar, and she has been at the forefront of getting information out through social media, emails, phone calls, and in-person meetings.