Aaron Byzak is CEO of Solutions for Change, a nonprofit organization that helps families escape homelessness.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople assume when they look at me that I don\u2019t know what it\u2019s like,\u201d he said. \u201cSo, I feel compelled to tell them everything that happened.\u201d<\/p>\n
Born in 1977, Byzak and his two siblings were raised in an impoverished family living in a dangerous San Diego neighborhood. Their parents were addicts. Both spent time in jail.<\/p>\n
Byzak said he grew up experiencing constant anger and frustration.<\/p>\n
\u201cDrugs were everywhere in the house, which was only about 800 square feet,\u201d Byzak said, noting the living room was his bedroom.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was the Drug Abuse Resistance Education [DARE] program at school when I was 11 that influenced me not to use drugs,\u201d he said. \u201cThey would tell us how bad drug use is. I would go home and see it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe one way I knew that I would never grow up to be like them was to never let it enter my system even once.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDARE worked for me 100%.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, DARE did not protect against physical abuse.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was beaten since I was a little kid. I would be punched in the face, suffered dislocated joints and other injuries. Police came dozens of times.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it ended when I was 16.\u201d<\/p>\n
By 16, Byzak and his sister were living with his mom after his parents divorced. He had grown to become a large teenager. He would get in fights in the neighborhood and at school.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you grow up in a violent family and then go out in your neighborhood and everybody is fairly violent, violence becomes a normal thing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Byzak recounted that one day he came home and his mom \u201cwas super drunk and high and was beating my sister really bad. I just said, \u2018OK, that\u2019s it, no more. If you hit us, I\u2019m going to hit you.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter that, she stopped the beatings, then stopped doing drugs and eventually got a job.\u201d<\/p>\n
Byzak went on to graduate high school and became a certified ambulance EMT. He continued with his education, graduating from college and earning a master\u2019s degree in health care management.<\/p>\n
After spending over a decade serving in management at several San Diego medical centers and later a consultant to government offices, he was solicited to lead Solutions for Change.<\/p>\n
The organization matches his views based upon his childhood experiences on what steps are needed to help families turn their lives around.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe help them learn positive behaviors to replace negative behaviors,\u201d he explained. \u201cDemeanor, work ethic and training to be able to maintain a job.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd get and stay sober, a key piece of our program. We arrange for treatment, we have drug testing, sometimes surprise ones. If they test dirty or there is violence, they\u2019re out. We find somewhere else for them. No exceptions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Byzak said their zero-tolerance rules prevent them from receiving California state funds.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re not allowed to require sobriety,\u201d he said, adding that under Housing First rules they must maintain nonjudgemental communications and allow participants choice regarding drug use.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs somebody who grew up in an abusive family with drugs everywhere, I know that presence of drugs is not conducive to healthy living. We take that seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n
Solutions for Change has been successful despite relying solely on private funding.<\/p>\n
The organization, which owns apartments and single-family homes in North County helps about 35 families at any one time. Over its 26 years, it has helped about 4,800 individuals.<\/p>\n
\u201cData shows 87% of our families remain stably housed five years after graduation from our program,\u201d he added. \u201cAnd when families come in here after they\u2019ve lost children because of incarceration, drug use or other things of that nature, we have a 100% success rate in helping them get their kids back.\u201d<\/p>\n
There is currently a waiting list for entering Solutions for Change.<\/p>\n
Byzak said he freely discusses his background with participants because \u201cthey need to understand there\u2019s a way out, particularly for their kids. I want them to see me in their kids.\u201d<\/p>\n
About this series<\/p>\n
Goldsmith is a Union-Tribune contributing columnist.<\/p>\n
We welcome reader suggestions of people who have done something extraordinary or otherwise educational, inspiring or interesting and who have not received much previous media. Please send suggestions to Jan Goldsmith at\u00a0jgsandiego@yahoo.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aaron Byzak is CEO of Solutions for Change, a nonprofit organization that helps families escape homelessness. \u201cPeople assume…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":488183,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[181,23,100,592,74,76,75],"class_list":["post-488182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-people","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=488182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/488183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}