Volunteers distribute backpack 'survival kits'

L.A.'s homeless get backpack 'survival kits'

By Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Los Angeles Times

June 6, 2010

The Giving Spirit, a nonprofit, distributes 1,000 knapsacks of food and essentials Saturday, with a special effort to reach homeless women and children.

San Diego photographer convenes local leaders to find solutions to homelessness

March 1, 2010
LA Homelessness Examiner
Joel John Roberts

After spending years photographing people living on the streets, Susan Lankford, an award winner author and photographer, set up a group called Humane Exposures as a way of nudging the community to take action.  San Diego’s leaders responded by supporting her latest event, “Homelessness: A Call To Action.”  Read more.

From celebrity ghosts to formerly homeless...

Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel is home to an eclectic group

February 27, 2010
LA Homelessness Examiner
Joel John Roberts

The Roosevelt Hotel recently joined the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce’s outreach program that encourages local businesses to hire formerly homeless people as a way to strengthen the community.  

Is Los Angeles the country’s homeless step-child?

February 25, 2010
Joel John Roberts
LA Homelessness Examiner

Is Los Angeles failing its citizens who clamor for safe shelter and housing?... In terms of numbers and successful programs, Los Angeles rivals any other city in the country for addressing homelessness.  For more, click here.

Census undercount of homelessness may lead to a resource-starved region

“Los Angeles is a resource-starved area,” explained Michael Arnold, the Executive Director of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority. “We only shelter 30% of our region’s homeless population.”


The head of the L.A. County’s census efforts, Julie Beardsley, told the group, “We are the 800 pound gorilla in America’s living room because we have the largest population of homelessness in the country.” Last year, the County Board of Supervisors instructed all of its departments to assist in the U.S. Census efforts.

For every person not counted, the region loses over $1,100 in federal resources each year. This totals hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenues in a span of ten years.

The California Community Foundation is investing $1.5 million to help communities to count people traditionally under-counted, including people who are homeless.

For the complete article, click here.

Weather leads to dangerous conditions

Los Angeles County trying to save homeless people living in flood-control channels
Wednesday, February, 3, 2010
InforUm

Meaningful work with computers helps California man...

"A case worker at OPCC's Samoshel sat Jones down and asked him a simple question. If there was one thing that Jones could do, what would it be? The answer came easy to Jones. He wanted to become a computer whiz. A decade later, Jones is managing his mental illness, lives in his own apartment at Step Up on Second in Downtown Santa Monica, has a supportive girlfriend and is helping others like him show computers who's boss through a course at Step Up which he manages."

For more on this story, see: "Meaningful work with computers helps California man break free from his mental illness" by BA Haller from the Santa Monica Daily Press.

Social media as a tool to share their personal stories

Activist's Web site, tweets put new face on homelessness
By Valerie Streit
CNN
December 1, 2009

"Fourteen years ago, Mark Horvath was in crisis. The former exec was living on the streets in Hollywood, California, where for a dollar he let people take a photograph of his pet iguana, named Dog... Horvath returned to Hollywood Boulevard, this time as a featured speaker at the 140 Characters Conference, a Twitter-inspired gathering attended by movers and shakers in social media. Horvath told the audience how he uses an arsenal of social networking sites -- Twitter, Facebook, Whrrl, MySpace, YouTube, Vimeo and Flickr -- to illuminate the plight of the nation's homeless."

On Twitter, he has a combined 10,000 followers to his two streams, @hardlynormal  and @invisiblepeople. 

Horvath posts unedited video interviews on his Web site: InvisiblePeople.tv.

Empowerment Group Meeting

A big shout out to all the fabulous volunteers who came to last night's brainstorming session on how to better support Samoshel.  It was great to see some of the more seasoned facilitators as well as some newer faces there.

Thank you so much for your time and energy.  Your ideas are very helpful and much appreciated.

A happy Thanksgiving on skid row

Los Angeles Times Article By Victoria Kim
November 27, 2009

More than 2,000 people -- homeless, jobless or just down on their luck -- lined up at the Fred Jordan Mission in downtown Los Angeles for a free feast of turkey legs, sweet potatoes, rolls, cranberry sauce and pie.