A San Diego nun who has dedicated her life to helping the homeless is retiring this month.
Sister RayMonda DuVall has served as executive director of Catholic Charities of San Diego for the past 26 years, but she has worked for more than three decades to help hundreds of women, men and children get off the streets and turn their lives around.
Her passion to serve the poor began while she was attending a conference in Washington D.C., in the late 1970s.
“I was walking down the street and I saw people avoiding this woman,” DuVall recalled. “I came to realize that she was homeless, mentally ill, talking to herself, really dirty, and I was so haunted by that because I had never seen a homeless woman in that condition.”
Upon her return to San Diego, Duvall was led to create Rachel’s Women’s Center in downtown, when she saw a similar need for a safe place for women to sleep, shower and receive counseling.
“When I started developing Rachel’s, Father Joe was just getting his start also,” DuVall said, “So we’ve been in this business together.”
Rachel's is a place where women can begin to change, DuVall said, "and work with staff to identify the most critical thing going on. 'Let’s address that and then let’s help you move to the next level.'"
While she’s reached out to so many, DuVall said homelessness across the county has grown tenfold from what it was when she started. "It used to be tents spread out along G Street. Now, it's the hundreds camped on sidewalks in the East Village."
"It's heartbreaking to know that families in cars — they can’t even get into a place where they can be safe," DuVall said. "And that moms are still walking their children to the Rescue Mission."
She said it’s difficult to leave as rising numbers of desperate people are coming to the charity’s various doors, including a men’s shelter in Carlsbad, a family shelter in Imperial Valley, food pantries and a center for immigrants in El Cajon.
"They may have vouchers, but there’s no place for them to go," she explained. "They may have a little bit of money but there’s nothing they can afford. The truth is we just don’t have enough affordable housing."
“It's disappointing," she added. "It’s heartbreaking, and it feels like we haven’t made progress but yet I know hundreds of women and men whose lives have been changed."
As she transitions out of her role and looks to the future, DuVall said she plans to travel, play some golf and continue to do all she can to help those in need.
“I can’t imagine that I would ever completely walk away from homeless women because that’s what got me here,” she said. “That was and still is my passion.”
