Los Angeles Mission's Blog

I am still a bit awestruck by paparazzi! Thanks to Kirk and Anne Douglas the Los Angeles Mission had a record number of media hits for the annual Thanksgiving meal celebration. My new role had me in front of cameras and microphones that I would have gladly turned over to the professionals! Kirk ever joking about the actors love for applause half jokingly wondered if we will ever have a kosher thanksgiving meal at the Los Angeles Mission! Not that it seems to matter as he has been seen enjoying a nibble of turkey or spoonful of gravy!

Speaking of transitions my entry into the world of blogging has been noticed! Thanks to Omar for mentioning the Los Angeles Mission’s need for volunteers. It was nice to meet DGarzila at our Thanksgiving event. I look forward to the exchange of ideas and trust in doing so we will positively affect the lives of those in the Skid Row area and across Los Angeles. Joel John Roberts was kind enough to highlight the red apron guests from our Thanksgiving event. While I share his concern that our volunteers may be temporarily soothing their own minds or looking for the next publicity shot, that is NOT why they are invited. Many continue to donate, volunteer or network for us during the other 364 days a year that we are serving the homeless who come to us. Let’s give them the benefit of the doubt one day a year and let them be people of good will ready to reach out to others.

I applaud Joel’s focus on housing. I believe it is a critical component of ending homelessness. BUT, it is only effective when combined with job skills, medical services and support structures that help renew the human spirit and the ability to keep that roof over the head.

So bloggers lets keep media attention focused on the issue of homelessness and poverty in hopes that one day we might all close up shop because there is no longer a need for what we had to do.

--Herb Smith, President

Thanks to talk radio I finally remembered to take my turkey out of the freezer in time for Thanksgiving! It takes days to really get the job done right. Already the Mission kitchen is preparing a ton (yes 2000 lbs) of turkey. They have entered the controlled chaos phase of the holiday meal plans.

While we are all getting ready for our abundant tables, family, friends and endless football games, I wonder what those outside the mission gates must be feeling at this time. No planes to catch or places to go except the Mission. What hardening of hearts do they need at this time of year to avoid another day of hurting and pain?

The term holiday blues takes on new meaning when the mild seasonal depression it described also can be seen in bruises around drug needle marks or from the backhand of a pimp. How much pain does it take to freeze a human heart?

More importantly, how much love does it take to unthaw a human heart? See, I believe the love of God can and will heal us. But, God does not choose to do it alone. God uses us to be his hands, feet and heart. So, next time you defrost a turkey, how about saying a prayer for someone whose heart needs to be thawed. Better yet, come volunteer at the Mission and give one of our guests a hug to let them know you care.

It begins with a meal but ends with the restoration of a friend.

--Herb Smith, President

Ever been hospitalized on a holiday? Worse, ever been dumped out of a taxi on skid row?

I know what it feels like to have someone you love confined to a hospital bed where they are pampered and cared for to the full extend of wonderful health insurance. I cannot imagine what it would be like to see that person deposited on a cold sidewalk in skid row, or anywhere for that matter. Just dumped – without any human consideration. What kind of person would do such a thing – or allow it?

Know that we are here 24-7 to help in an emergency. In the mean time, I hope if it happens again, our friends in blue like Captain Andy Smith can catch those turkeys! Is a turkey shoot no longer politically correct? Cameras, action!

Happy Thanksgiving from the Los Angeles Mission to you.

--Herb Smith, President

Who sets out to sleep on a concrete sidewalk in the midst of filth and squalor? Nobody!

But the homeless are among us and we need to care for them as real people. I know a lot of pets that have better treatment than the men, women and children on Skid Row! When is the last time one of these persons received a touch of kindness rather than from lust or greed?

The recent issues with the City of Los Angeles and the ACLU are difficult to wade through. Depending on the questions asked you can end up siding with both!

At the end of the day we need to ask ourselves, what is really best for others? In our postmodern society we tend to allow for both/and not either/or. Tents or no tents? Sleeping hours or no hours?

We have so much respect for individual rights that we miss the point when a person is not capable of exercising those rights with sound mind. When the question should really be why at any time should someone have to, or choose to live in a tent in this urban environment! Why is a thirteen year old kid a drug addict or prostitute? When did rights trump need?

The Bible says the poor you will have with you always. Every generation has deal with the cultural issues of the time. Financial poverty and spiritual poverty are not new. We may end them in our lifetime – but trust me one this one, they will resurface with new names and faces. We have been given crack cocaine, heroin and other drugs to add to the age old issues of money, sex and power.

I believe the answer is not in just ending the conditions of poverty, but from a perspective of love, we serve others in need. In the eternal struggle of good and evil. Love will triumph!

--Herb Smith, President

Human exploitation is not new!

Today’s drug dealers and pimps are just another version of slave owners, Nazi’s or feudal princes. Humankind has an incredible ability to re-create itself in new versions of what I would call our sinful nature. We at the Los Angeles Mission realize that, but we live and work in Hope Central with the distinct view that life-change can and does occur. Is it 100% for a life time? No. But, have we worked with our guests to instill the will and tools to recover? We think so. We believe that the power of God in a person’s life can help them overcome those addictive patterns – and with time, support, medical treatment and a lot of help from the right friends our homeless guests can be transformed.

It starts with a meal, but ends with a table full of friends and family.

The Los Angeles Mission has long believed that faith is a component of recovery. Because of that we have routinely turned down federal or state funding. The problem with government largess is that at its core, government is fine with collecting and distributing dollars. But, it is not good at meeting the real human need of intimacy, respect and caring that one human being can give to another. Let me hasten to say that there are some wonderful caring people administering government programs but it is those individuals and not the funding that makes the difference.

Some federal leaders say we need a new initiative. Strategic, visionary - something that will overcome the failed social or spiritual initiatives of the past! I say hooey!

Government in its best intentions cannot create spiritual change and it’s a change in the human spirit that is needed to solve these issues. Government may build buildings, subsidize care and offer funding for education, and it should. But it is the spiritual leaders, the care givers and the teachers themselves that can inspire and motivate individual behavior.

The answer is not just beds. If that were the case we could rent all the hotel rooms in LA and bring everyone inside! Problem solved.

The fact is that some prefer to be outside or some are so ill with their addiction that they cannot tolerate being inside a building. Strange but true! Some simply have not come to a place that they are willing to own their addictions and seek change.

--Herb Smith, President

As the new kid on the block, I am still coming to grips with the range of issues confronting the Skid Row community. It seems every day a new twist on human depravity occurs in this neighborhood. Hospital patient dumping, shootings, stabbings, teens attacking teens, police abuse or lack of police presence, sleeping, standing, sitting and that most natural of human needs being deposited on the sidewalk! How does a reasonable person make sense out of any of it? Why not go back to watching reality TV. After all, what woman wouldn’t like a rose from an Italian prince or someone to pimp their ride!

I see well intentioned public officials attempting to address the issues. Some such as Councilwoman Jan Perry (whose district includes Skid Row) approach the issue from a personal human perspective and seek changes through legal means. Some see the problem as simply the lack of a real roof over someone’s head. Still others say it’s just a lack of jobs. Others see the extremes of neglect due to mental or physical illness without resources for treatment.

At the Los Angeles Mission we believe the issue really is all of these things and the solution is as complex as the individuals we deal with every day. Our best efforts start with a sense of dignity for the individual. A core value is that all persons are created in God’s image and we have a moral obligation to treat each other with dignity and respect.

We fulfill our mission in three primary ways. First, we attempt to share God’s love by conveying that God cares for each of us. We do this by providing for the physical needs of our guests providing for emergency services to those in need.

Second, we address those issues of education and jobs that many of the homeless have missed in their development. We work with Belmont Learning Center and others to provide a GED or other needed academics. We also work with employers to provide on-the-job-training and we provide in-house work time to teach structure, accountability and skills development.

Third, we offer limited transitional housing where people can get back on their feet financially and are able to reenter the community with a changed life, a job and the ability to sustain a life off the streets.

And that’s not all. In a future post I’ll examine this topic more.

--Herb Smith, President

As I look out my window of the Los Angeles Mission see the banners proclaiming “Toy District” as they flutter gently in the Santa Ana wind breeze, it causes me to wonder what games are really being played out on the sidewalks just feet below those colorful banners. I’m sure the language is as colorful as the banners. But the actions and activities of the people here are not all childhood fun and games. In fact, they are more likely encounters of life and death by many of those I see wandering aimlessly by or starting to setup tents for the upcoming darkness. Prostitution, drug use and alcoholism are abundant, not to mention a smattering of mental illness added to the checkerboard.

I wonder if all the rhetoric about homelessness and caring will carry on after the recent election votes are tallied and a new monopoly card gets pulled. Yet, I know that the staff of the Los Angeles Mission and the many other care givers in this community will go on serving meals, providing showers and clothing, testing for aids, providing education, vocational training, abuse counseling and a whole lot of free hugs.

Ending homelessness and poverty is a noble deed. Accomplishing it requires the brains for Scrabble and the dexterity of Twister! So, its time to make it more than Chutes and Ladders for those who really need help and see if we can’t team up together with all our differences and find ways to strategically vision a game-plan to win the ultimate game of chance over human lives and their need for dignity, compassion, tangible assistance and spiritual direction in our City of the Angels. We need the heart of Mother Theresa and the brains of Bill Gates to address this make believe world called Skid Row.

--Herb Smith, President