Today, representatives from local churches will celebrate the end of one era and the beginning of a new one as they work with the Community Services Agency (CSA) and Santa Clara County social services to end homelessness.

At 5 p.m., church members will gather at Los Altos United Methodist Church to commemorate the Alpha Omega shelter program, which housed homeless residents at 15 local churches for 16 years. CSA discontinued the program as organizers transition Alpha Omega from an emegency shelter to a case management program.

“We’ve shifted from a local solution to a regional solution,” said the Rev. Matthew Broadbent, pastor at Foothills Congregational Church which participated in the program.

Citing decreased funding, an overall lack of cost-effectiveness, fewer homeless clients served and regulations that were constricting the program, the CSA board of directors in December elected to phase out the Alpha Omega shelter program. Broadbent was co-chairman of a task force that recommended discontinuing the program after looking into its operations.

“It was supposed to be a temporary solution,” Broadbent said of the program that began in 1989. Churches took monthly turns offering their facilities to homeless clients. “It was not really designed as an emergency shelter,” Broadbent said.

“Everyone who has been involved in this has very mixed feelings about it,” said Tom Myers, CSA executive director. “This program brought homeless people into neighborhoods and churches. That was a pretty fantastic thing. But it was not a program that could serve all homeless people.”

Alpha Omega clients went through a screening process for acceptance into church shelters. County officials, however, wanted the program to accept all clients.

Myers said many more homeless will be served by Alpha Omega’s new program which works to the county’s greater goal of ending homelessness over a 10-year period.

Now, church and CSA organizers will work toward finding permanent housing and placing homeless residents in a series of emergency shelters throughout the county. There are an estimated 7,000 homeless people currently in Santa Clara County.

While there is optimism about the work ahead to help the homeless, Alpha Omega personnel also look back on their emergency shelter program with pride. Hundreds of clients went through the program, and Broadbent estimated at least 60 percent were able to find their footing and go back to a normal lifestyle.

“(Today’s event) will be a thank-you to all the churches associated with the program,” Broadbent said.

In addition to Foothills and United Methodist, participating churches were: Foothill Baptist; Los Altos Lutheran; Christ Episcopal; Emmanuel Lutheran; Foothill Covenant; St. Joseph Catholic; St. Nicholas Catholic; St. Paul Lutheran; St. Simon Catholic; St. Timothy Episcopal; St. William Catholic; Trinity United Methodist; and Union Presbyterian.

For more information on the status of the Alpha Omega program, visit www.csacares.org/programs/alpha.html or call 968-0836.