20 Years using Work to Right the Homeless
Modified Abstract From San Diego Metropolitan Magazine

Bob McElroy

When Robert “Bob” McElroy, talks about being one of four community leaders honored by the San Diego County Ecumenical Council for his commitment to the Christian faith and the ecumenical movement, he is anxious to share the recognition. “It’s not my award,” he says, sweeping an arm expansively to encompass the entire Neil Good Day Center. On that afternoon, the center and its outside yard are crowded with homeless--and formerly homeless—individuals. “It’s theirs,” he declares. “They do all the work.”

That may be so, but Bob McElroy himself is the driving force behind their motivation to clean up their own lives and then to help others do the same. As President and CEO (and Founder) of the Alpha Project for the Homeless, McElroy has spent most of his waking hours for the past two decades addressing the needs of that population and its impact on the City of San Diego.

Today, more than 20 years after McElroy launched the Alpha Project from a tiny office in the Gaslamp Quarter, more than 10,000 homeless individuals have completed the program requirements; most of them still enjoy self-sufficiency. Several thousand of them are at work on Downtown streets performing contracted services. Among those contracts is one with Centre City Development Corp. The Alpha Project Metro Homeless are hired to patrol the seven inner city parks to prevent crime, drug use and homeless encampments. In addition, they patrol the CCDC-owned Walker Scott building and Balboa Theater. Others contracting with Alpha Project for services are Hillcrest property owners, Sentre Partners, the Marston and Scripps buildings, California Theater, the U.S. Grant Hotel, Golden Eagle Plaza, 4C Square, First National Bank Building, Metropolitan Credit Union and Carol Beres, owner of property at Fourth Avenue and C Street. A fourth generation San Diegan, Robert A. McElroy is a 1973 graduate of Will C. Crawford High School, was enjoying the good life as a San Diego Community College professor and then as an entrepreneur. When a friend suggested that he go to church, and while attending Christian Horizon Fellowship, he began to reach out to the homeless. But he found that taking food and blankets did nothing to solve the real problem of getting them off the streets and into productive lives.

McElroy’s answer to the problem was the creation of the Alpha Project, which provides litter control, landscaping, graffiti removal, weed and brush abatement, refurbishment of homes, demolitions, and street maintenance. The Alpha Project for the homeless is a tax exempt 501 (c)(3) non-profit human services organization that serves over 2,000 men, women, and children each day, 12,000 annually. Services offered include affordable housing, residential substance abuse treatment, supportive housing for people with special needs, basic and emergency services for the homeless, transportation assistance, mental health counseling, employment training, preparation and placement, emergency shelter, HIV/AIDS, education, outreach and prevention, and community services.