East Bay man devotes life to ministering, serving unhoused
An East Bay man who's run a homeless ministry for years gives away his own bed and the roof over his head to serve the unhoused.
For Vincent Pannizzo, ministering to the unhoused is his life's mission. But there was a time when they weren't even on his radar.
"I was a graduate student at UC Berkeley studying ancient history. I really didn't care much for the homeless," Pannizzo told CBS News Bay Area.
Then one day, his outlook changed.
"I started reading the Bible to get some information and I start to read the words of Jesus. I was really surprised at what I found in there about caring for people, which I never really did before," Pannizzo said.
He found faith and what he described as a calling from God. Pannizzo dropped out of his PhD program to seek out the unsheltered.
"God does love them, and I want to bring the light and love of Christ to them," Pannizzo explained.
In 2012, he started the nonprofit, Mission for the Homeless. He begins this day loading up donated groceries from the Emeryville Citizens Assistance Program.
Bobby Miller, the program's volunteer director, credits Pannizzo with finding folks who are too ill or physically unable to pick up the free food themselves.
"At the end of the day, he has some solace knowing that he has reached some of those people who probably wouldn't have had anything to eat today," Miller said.
Pannizzo drives his van from Fremont to El Cerrito every day and tends to more than 100 unhoused people on his regular route.
He supplies more than food, clothes, blankets and tents.
"I have to check, I have to triage, see if they have an infection, if they need to go to the hospital. Do they need to be taken off the streets immediately?" he said.
At one Oakland sidewalk encampment, Gwen, who declined to give her last name, said Pannizzo makes her feel like she is not forgotten. Someone cares.
"If he doesn't see us here, he'll drive around and look for us," she said. "Somebody paying attention to me. That matters."
Pannizzo's nonprofit, Mission for the Homeless, also rents several homes to house 10 people whom he's taken off the streets.
They eat together like family.
One of the residents, Eric, says he was ready to give up on life when Pannizzo found him, gave him a tent, and offered hope.
"He saved me the night I was in the rain, very depressed," Eric said. "He's way turned my life around. He made me happy."
And Eric's still baffled about how Pannizzo himself could choose to live in a tent outside the house so that he and others can sleep in a warm bed.
"Put himself out to put me in. It's crazy," Eric marveled.
"We have limited space. And I'm perfectly comfortable in a tent," Pannizzo said.
In fact, when he first decided to serve the unsheltered, Pannizzo invited folks off the streets to live with his family in their apartment, and they kept getting kicked out. It was not an easy way to live, and his wife left, and took their infant son with her to the East Coast.
Pannizzo said he was heartbroken, but he remained dedicated to his mission to those living with homelessness.
Some of his other volunteers also choose to be unhoused.
Looking forward, Pannizzo hopes to secure corporate sponsorships so that he can purchase homes and get more people housed.
For his Mission for the East Bay's Homeless, this week's CBS News Bay Area Icon Award goes to Vincent Pannizzo.
