Winter Shelter Residents Share Their New Year's Resolutions

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published December 31, 2007 at 5:18 PM PST

This story was published more than 16 years ago.

Many people are working on their New Year's resolutions today. KPBS reporter Alison St John went tot he city of San Diego's winter shelter for the homeless and asked some of the residents there for th

Many people are working on their New Year's resolutions today. KPBS reporter Alison St John went tot he city of San Diego's winter shelter for the homeless and asked some of the residents there for their New Year's resolutions -- or, as Charles Rome called it -- his "revolution."

Rome: My revolution is to get off the streets, stay off drugs and alcohol, not look down upon.

Davis: My goal is to get my place. You know what? I'm simple, I'd just like to maybe find a bigger place to live in.

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Bill: I don't really make resolutions, my only hope is for my mother to come down to San Diego to stay with me.

Bunker: There's a lot I'd like to have happen -- world peace -- this country's in a lot of trouble.

Knight: I have a nine-year-old child. I'm going to avoid the pitfalls of the New Year's resolutions and just try to stick to the resolutions I've made for myself year-long.

That was Charles Rome, Milton Davis and Bill, residents of the San Diego winter shelter, and the voices of security guard Debra Bunker and Kelly Knight, the shelter manager, telling KPBS Reporter Alison St John about their hopes and dreams for 2008.

Alison St John

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Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.