Pizza dough and printer’s ink might just be the catalysts that move young people out of a homeless shelter environment and into jobs that can sustain them.
That is the hope of several nonprofits behind an enterprise called Timmy’s Place on Cortez Hill in downtown San Diego. The nonprofits include the Lucky Duck Foundation as well as the Rolf Benirschke Legacy Foundation.
Behind a row of blooming jacaranda trees at Fifth Avenue and Ash Street, Timmy’s Place is part neighborhood eatery and part vocational training space. It offers pizza, pastries, packaged salads and coffee drinks. Its dining room is within walking distance of many businesses downtown and on Bankers Hill. The kitchen staff includes residents of the Urban Street Angels shelter, which is upstairs.
The space helps shelter tenants, who are ages 18 to 24, build up skills as kitchen help and baristas.
Windows into an adjacent room show off a second vocational education effort. Taking up much of the room is an industrial screen printing machine. Its metal arms radiate from a central point like the arms of a sea star. Shelter tenants use the machine to turn out multicolor T-shirts as well as other printed material such as tote bags and mugs.
The goal of Timmy’s Place is to employ more than 50 shelter residents per year.
Capital Investment
The Lucky Duck Foundation and the Rolf Benirschke Legacy Foundation are providing the capital to get the business off the ground.
Executive Director
Lucky Duck Foundation
Drew Moser, executive director of the Lucky Duck Foundation, said his organization plans to underwrite the business’ operating losses for its first year to make Timmy’s Place a self-sustaining enterprise.
The Lucky Duck Foundation was founded by Pat and Stephanie Kilkenny, who match donations 1-to-1. The foundation has also underwritten the large, fabric-covered tent shelters for people living on the streets of San Diego. One such shelter is in Barrio Logan.
The foundation looks to apply sound business principles to address homelessness, Moser said.
Rolf Benirschke became a household name as placekicker for the then-San Diego Chargers during the 1970s and 1980s. The name Timmy’s Place is a nod to Rolf and Mary Benirschke’s son, Timmy, who overcame homelessness and addiction after living on the streets for more than five years.
The business is operated by the Union of Pan Asian Communities (UPAC), a provider of social services that operates a similar café and screen printing enterprise in City Heights.
The downtown eatery opened to the public on May 2.
A recent Friday found the kitchen staff at Timmy’s Place getting ready to do the final cleanup of the week. One pizza came out of the oven with eggs on top, sunny side up.
The workers included Isabella, who spoke of the daily routine. It was the time of the day when the last pizzas are prepared. The business keeps making coffee drinks until closing time, she said.
Also working was 22-year-old Jasmine, who wears a ball cap with a rose embroidered on it. She raised her voice so it carried through the space: “Pepperoni is done.”
Jasmine went to high school locally. She said that prior to moving to the Urban Street Angels shelter in February, she camped near libraries and couch-surfed. She is now planning to go to San Diego City College, with an eye toward studying graphic design or computer science.
The space downstairs from the shelter was already equipped with commercial pizza ovens, a walk-in refrigerator and major appliances. Eric Lovett, executive director and founder of Urban Street Angels, said in a press release that Urban Street Angels had been looking for the right partner to activate the space.
“I just want youth to feel like there’s hope for them,” said the executive director, who wears the word HOPE tattooed on his upper arm.
The shelter has 70 beds in dorm-style rooms. It offers emergency housing, transition housing, case management and wraparound services, Lovett said.
The organization tried to open the café a few years ago, but COVID came along and put the plans on hold, he recalled. But it is all for the best. By waiting, Lovett said, Urban Street Angels was able to secure a better partnership for the enterprise.
The Lucky Duck Foundation says a single $100 donation can cover a four-hour shift for the young adults running Timmy’s Place.
Lucky Duck Foundation has invested $2.5 million in 22 job training programs since 2018, said Moser.
