Under the Sun: Maria Colín, from homeless to homebuilder

The Sun’s Anna Pier talked with Maria Colín at Homeless Action Sonoma’s (HAS) Open House, and again at her job at QuickHaven Tiny Homes. 

You helped build this tiny home? 

Yes. I’m the shop lead. I supervised the work on building 27 of them for the new Petaluma People’s Village, at the Mary Isaak Center.  We have an order for 25 homes for Tracy. And more for Portland. And we built the 20 that HAS has purchased.       

Have you been doing this work long? This week is my one-year anniversary at QuickHaven, my first construction job, building these tiny homes. I had taken a three-month course in basic skills offered at Hanna, through Sonoma Overnight Support. By the way, the other incredible thing that happened to me through SOS is that I met Annie (Falandes – Executive Director of HAS). 

Tell me more about this. 

This woman, all by herself, has restored my faith in humanity. I was homeless for almost ten years. She saw me as a person. She is always there for me. I once called at three in the morning, and she came and picked me up. You can really trust her. She trusts me, doesn’t look down her nose at me, or the other homeless. She knows we’re people. Annie has a way of making a whole bunch of people be loved. 

How did you get this job? 

I just showed up and told them I wanted to work there! QuickHaven began in Sonoma. Dan Bodner our CEO started working out on Denmark on the whole issue of housing the homeless. Tim Craig joined him as architect and partner.  And their philosophy is not just make housing for the homeless, but provide work. Most of the crew here have been homeless. Joel Jarvis, my young friend here, and I first met at the creek in Maxwell, where we were both living. 

How long did you live in Maxwell? On and off, over six years. I was always working. At TacoBell. I cleaned the Moose Lodge, did lots of yard work. Most of my money was for my children. I would make enough to survive a couple of days. It’s expensive to be homeless – you can’t prepare meals, so you get fast food, buy ready-made food. Have to go to the laundromat all the time. When I got a job at Ross in Santa Rosa, I lived on the bike path near Stony Point that you read about. That was the wettest winter in history. I had a tent. I teamed up with a friend, we would move everything for each other, and keep it while the other was at work. Anything you leave in your tent would be gone. That was the wettest winter in history. One day I woke up and the tent was floating. 

It’s so hard.

There is always the police harassment, wherever. They search you, they take all your things. You have to move your spot. You take everything you have on your back or your bike. 

The extreme physical suffering is, honestly, unimaginable for me, as someone who’s been housed all her life. Yeah, to understand even a little, you’d have to take your sleeping bag out in the rain for a night. But the worst is how you are treated by the rest of the world. Everyone looks down on you, if they even look at you. If you’re homeless and you go for help at the hospital, you get no respect. They always think you want drugs. They look on you as garbage, they’ll treat you but get rid of you as quick as they can. 

What do the homeless do for medical help? 

They treat you at the clinic. They have some really good docs. But they want you to get insurance – that’s how they get paid. And that was such a Catch22. You had to have an address to get a P.O. box, and without an address you couldn’t get your papers from MediCal. SOS helped with that – let us use The Haven’s address. Now it’s digital, so it’s easier, but you have to have a phone. 

Have you lived in Sonoma your whole life?

We moved here when I was 11. We’d been in a different town every two years – Fairfield, Napa, Vallejo. I’m the baby of six. I attended El Verano, Altimira, Sonoma High, Creeekside. I didn’t finish. I made some bad decisions. But I got my GED later.

And then?

I had my daughter when I was 19. Four children one after the other. They were all born at Sonoma Valley Hospital. I was an at-home mom, taking care of the four of them. You know what? I used to fold the Sun, and help my mother-in-law throw the papers. When I was 30 or 31, I got divorced. I had custody of the children, but then I lost the apartment, so no roof. SOS was still offering overnight shelter, but my family was too big. I went to Catholic Charities, but there was no shelter they had big enough for the five of us. This is the dilemma of being a homeless mother. So the children went to live with their dad, at his parents’. I was lucky. 

Where are you living now? 

I’ve been  renting a room since working here, but the house is being sold, and I will have to move. I am looking for a place where my dad could live with me. My mother died of Covid in January ’21. If anyone knows of a place, please get in touch with me through Annie or the Sun.

Tell me about the cross you’re wearing. 

My son gave it to me. It’s the Tree of Life. And my daughter gave me a ring with it. And you know what? The QuickHaven logo, if it were in a circle, would be the Celtic symbol of the Tree of Life. I believe there is a higher power helping us. Even for all the hardship of living homeless, there can be a certain serenity you don’t get when you’re housed. Being out there, so still. Once in Maxwell a bobcat came and sat down by my sleeping bag.