Fullerton Police, Coast to Coast help three homeless adults reunite with families

All three came to California looking for work.

All three couldn’t find work.

Thanks to the Fullerton Police Department’s Homeless Liaison Unit and the non-profit Coast to Coast Foundation, all three now are living with relatives out of state.

Luis Arreaga once lived in California, but he ended ending up in Virginia — out of work and experiencing family issues, Fullerton Police Corporal Michael McCaskill said.

A few months ago, Arreaga moved back to the Golden State to “straighten out his life,” McCaskill said, but he soon ended up at the Fullerton Armory because he was unable to find a job.

Arreaga’s stepdaughter in Crystal, Minn., was willing and able to take him in but he lacked the means to travel there.

Arreaga met an outreach worker with Coast to Coast and, working with officers on the Fullerton Police Department’s Homeless Liaison Unit, he was able to return home when given a one-way Greyhound bus ticket that cost $261.50.

Fullerton PD Officers Brad Fernandes (left) and Mike McCaskill with William Berry and Megan Mazetta. Photo courtesy of FPD.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, Feb. 5, Megan Mazetta and William Berry came to the front desk at the Fullerton Police Department looking for help.

Like Arreaga, they, too, had come to California looking for work.

But Mazetta, a nurse, and Berry were unable to find jobs here and ended up homeless, McCaskill said.

Eventually, however, Mazetta got a job offer in Walla Walla, Wash., where her family lives. But she needed money to pay for her and Berry’s transportation there.

The following day, Feb. 6, the Fullerton Police Department and Coast to Coast were able to purchase for the couple two Greyhound bus tickets (total cost = $458) for the ride up north.

And the lives of two more people suddenly got better, thanks, in part, to the Fullerton Police Department.