Emergency cleaner helps SLO County clients at the worst time in their lives
When Joseph Giambalvo returned to his Arroyo Grande home from a three-day hospitalization caused by a knife attack that left his wife dead, the house was clean.
All that remained was a boarded-up window. The blood that once stained the walls and carpet was gone.
Guy Gonzales, owner of 805 Lighthouse Keepers, received a call from Giambalvo’s daughter, Laura, explaining the brutal attack and the mess it left behind. She had received his card from a district attorney’s investigator.
Gonzales, Joseph said, was “like an angel landed on our shoulders.”
He talked to the family’s insurance to explain where the blood in the house was and refused to take any sort of payment for his services.
Gonzales has become known in San Luis Obispo County as the person to call for emergency and social services cleanings. He’s cleaned up suicides and drug houses and routinely does work with San Luis Obispo County Adult Protective Services. The agency provides emergency intervention services for dependent adults and seniors.
Gonzales’ work with APS specifically has saved nearly 100 people from eviction since 2011, social worker supervisor Allison Kokonas told The Tribune. That number doesn’t include all the clients he’s helped who were not facing eviction, Kokonas said.
He’s the only cleaner in the county that is willing to do high-needs cleans, such as hoarding houses, for a price either APS or their client can afford. Other companies that provide similar services have costs so expensive it becomes prohibitive, she said.
“Many people that APS comes into contact with are having maybe the worst time of their lives,” Kokonas said. “He will literally meet people where they’re at. He does not judge them. He’s very kind and compassionate with them.”
Sometimes, even, he will provide his services for free, Gonzales said.
The cleaning services Gonzales provides include gruesome crime scenes, hoarding houses that are sometimes filled with used adult diapers, extreme mold and water damage, and everything in between. In some cases, he’s even purchased supplies or furniture for the people he’s served.
“Just call if you need anything,” the soft-spoken Gonzales said. “It doesn’t matter what it is. If you’re in the time of need and you can’t find a number or you don’t know anybody, just call. It can be truly anything. I know a lot of really good people and organizations, and that’s our goal.”
“I’m not going to be that deciding factor” between someone receiving cleaning help and buying food, he said. “It’s just money.”
Company named after love story between business owner and wife
Gonzales moved to the Central Coast when he was 17 years old. He worked in a furniture warehouse after school, then switched to a local cleaning company a few years later.
At the cleaning company, he focused on water damage, mold, hoarding and trauma — essentially all the emergency services that are needed in the county.
The company he used to work for never did any services for low-cost or free, even if the situation was dire, he said.
He would do free side jobs for people who couldn’t afford services and for clients of Adult Protective Services. He eventually left that company and took a break from the cleaning business altogether.
“If you care too much about it, it wears you down,” he said.
He said he became depressed but realized after a few years that helping people through cleaning made him feel good. So he began cleaning again.
His company, 805 Lighthouse Keepers, is named after his and his wife’s love story.
Their first date was at the Piedras Blancas Light Station in San Simeon. When they got engaged, the lighthouse director let them book a wedding as a small, 12-person tour. The docents who led their group got married there, too.
His company is one of the only licensed and insured water and mold companies on the Central Coast, he said. It allows him to pay his bills so that he can provide his low-cost services for those who need it in San Luis Obispo County.
Cleaner has experienced ‘a lot of death in my life’
Once a crime scene is investigated, the cleanup is often left to the victims of the crime or the owner of the property where the crime occurred.
That’s where Gonzales comes in.
“I’ve dealt with a lot of death in my life,” he said. “I’ve never had the opportunity of someone telling you just to focus on yourself and your loved ones.”
Providing cleaning services to those who need it most is Gonzales’ way of paying it forward and being the person he wished he had as a role model when he was young.
When he was 12 years old, he worked at an Arizona liquor store and witnessed his boss getting shot in the head during a robbery. As he grew up, he struggled with depression and substance abuse, he said, but has since decided to take another path.
“It just throws your whole world through a loop and you end up just wanting to do things for real life,” he said. “If it works out for you, it worked out, and this is working out and helping people. Our business is growing.”
“I think I have to go through stuff to be able to do this,” he added. “If I didn’t, I don’t know where I’d be.”
Admittedly, he said, he does “lose it” on the way home from a difficult job. He’ll cry in the car. But his life experiences have prepared him to handle these emotionally taxing jobs and help people in crisis.
“I’m built for this, unfortunately,” he said. “The stuff I’ve gone through, I wish somebody was there to walk me through some of them.”
Gonzales hopes to open nonprofit to provide housing services
The Giambalvos were actually the first crime victims he met in person, Gonzales said.
He was going to their house to check it one last time before they got home from the hospital, but when he pulled into the driveway and got out of his car, he realized they had already arrived.
“I just ran, tears running. I ran to the truck and drove away,” he said, adding that he had thought he just recreated the nightmare they had lived three days prior with an unknown person coming up to their door.
But he hadn’t. The Giambalvos saw his truck and immediately called him and asked him to come back.
When he returned to their house, the Giambalvos embraced him with tears and hugs, he said.
Gonzales sat down with both Joseph Giambalvo and his daughter, Laura, and the three got to know one another.
Gonzales was extremely humble, the Giambalvos said, and commended his work ethic and selflessness.
Gonzales told the Tribune he doesn’t love being praised, but was happy to help out their family in the way he could as they navigated this tragedy.
Kokonas shared the same praise for Gonzales.
“He does not toot his own horn, so to speak. But the amount that he has done in this community is unbelievable,” Kokonas said.
And Gonzales shared the same praised for Adult Protective Services.
“They’re amazing human beings,” Gonzales said.
Gonzales said he doesn’t need credit for the work that he does. In fact, he was hesitant to even interview with The Tribune but said the Giambalvos helped convince him to highlight the work he does.
He’s been in the business for 25 years, and his goal is simple: Provide for his family and help as many people as he can.
Eventually, his dream is to grow his business into a nonprofit that can provide a one-stop shop for cleaning, clothing, furniture and home supplies for those who need it.
Until then, people who would like to support his business can book his services by calling 805-296-6214 or emailing lighthousekeepers805@outlook.com.
