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Laborers of Love

Union Station Homeless Services workers Liz Shelby and Mike Santana bring hope with them to work every day

Published on Wednesday, June 7, 2023 | 4:38 pm
 

Elizabeth “Liz” Shelby, Program Services Coordinator at Holly Street Housing for Union Station Homeless Services (left) and Mike Santana, currently the Associate Director for L.A. County’s Coordinated Entry System, Western Region. [Courtesy photos]
Editor’s note: In the second of a three-part series celebrating 50 years of Union Station Homeless Services, Pasadena Now looks at the history, present and future of the social service agency and its work.

It goes without saying that those who work in the service of others, as opposed to just working for someone else, deserve a special place in the world.

As Union Station Homeless Services celebrates 50 years of service to those experiencing homelessness, it also acknowledges those of its staffers who have dedicated their professional careers to helping the far less fortunate.

For more than three decades, Elizabeth “Liz” Shelby, Program Services Coordinator at Holly Street Housing for Union Station Homeless Services, has been that person for hundreds of people, through nearly every iteration of what is now the largest homeless services agency in the San Gabriel Valley.

More than most, she understands the simple power of doing good for others, something she learned growing up.

In 1985, Liz read an article about how Union Station Homeless Services needed volunteers for the new overnight shelter. Her father was vehemently against the idea. Liz wrote a passionate letter to her father about why volunteering was important to her.

She remembers telling him she would be working with people who were exhausted individuals who needed a place to sleep, not criminals.

Convinced, her once skeptical father told her to “give it a try.”

As Shelby explained in a recent interview. “I think this work isn’t for everyone. To do it and do it well and do it consistently, you have to have compassion, curiosity and a sense of adventure about humanity.”

Said Shelby, “I started volunteering as a Catechism teacher when I was 14. I have always volunteered at church bazaars, camp counseling, and the like.”

It was through all of it that she found that she “really loved being around people. When you get around people who are good humans, it just elevates you.”

Clearly, with Union Station, she has seen so many facets of the human experience, with people at their best and worst, and with life offering one setback after another, along with true moments of goodness and kindness.

She remembers one tall teenager coming in, tired, dirty and with no shoes after everything he had had been stolen. When she offered to share some clothes and shoes with him, he said he doubted she had anything he could wear. Luckily, Liz’s brother had donated two pairs of his size 14 shoes.

“Later,” she said, “I saw the young man sitting outside the office in the sun. He was wearing one pair of shoes and hugging the other pair to his chest, with the biggest smile on his face. It is a memory I carry with me and always makes me happy when I think of it.”

Now, she says, “When I look over my years of working with all kinds of different people at Union Station,” she continued, “I’m just humbled by how much they’ve taught me, and just how much I’ve learned about human beings and what they can endure and still come back.”

And it’s a lesson we only learn by doing, she knows.

“I think it’s really important to know, when you’re in this kind of work, you don’t have to know all the answers,” she said. “You don’t have to be the smartest person in the room, but you have to bring the love.”

After two years on the streets without a roof and estranged from his son, Mike Santana came to the Union Station Adult Center. After helping out for a while, Mike was hired as a security guard in 2008. Now, 15 years later, he is the Associate Director for the CES Western Region.

As he recalled recently, “I think what I really enjoyed about working at Union Station was trying to help people out who are experiencing what I experienced in the past.”

For many, it’s just questions, he said. “‘How is it here? “What do I gotta do?’”

“They have misconceptions,” said Santana. “I try to refocus their thinking, and allow them to think about the goals it would take to finally get their permanent housing.”

Recalling a favorite moment, Santana was reminded of a time when a client was reunited with her family and found housing.

‘That was a beautiful experience,” he said, “watching the daughter and the mom, who had probably not seen each other in several years.”

This memory is like the hundreds that both Shelby and Santana have experienced. Driven by the urge to help others, Shelby, Santana and all the other staff members are setting a course for the next fifty years at Union Station Homeless Services.

For more about Union Station Homeless Services, click here.

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