Month: January 2008

Extreme Winter Weather Fills Homeless Shelters in California

Union Rescue Mission Issues a Request for Emergency Donations for Food and Shelter

We are over capacity at every shelter and have set up additional cots in the gym of our downtown location and are bussing people in. In all, we have nearly 1,500 individuals out of the rain compared to just 700 last year and we need immediate assistance from the community in order to feed these folks.
To make a donation to URM, please visit urm.org/donate
To make a financial donation, please visit urm.org/donateonline
For more information, contact me at (626) 260-4761.
~Rev. Andy B.

2007 Top 14

There is no doubt that we had some heartaches in 2008; a robbery and fire, some tragic deaths, losses that are too tough to even write about, but I wanted to start off 2008 with a blog that lists some of the past year’s highlights!

  1. Obtained Conditional Use Permit for Hope Gardens Family Center
  2. Moved families into Hope Gardens Family Center
  3. Saluted former CEO Warren Currie and named the first completed residential buildings at Hope Gardens Family Center – Currie Court – in honor of Warren and his family.
  4. Received $1 Million each from Weingart, Ahmanson and Lincy Foundations for Hope Gardens Family Center
  5. Union Rescue Mission appeared on Dateline, Prime Time, Anderson Cooper 360, 60 Minutes, and a pivotal scene in Oscar nominated major motion picture SiCKO (along with Economist Magazine, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, and many other media/publications)
  6. Union Rescue Mission was given a 4 Star rating by Charity Navigator for the first time
  7. Chief Financial Officer Richard Sykes was named one of the top Non-Profit CFO’s by Los Angeles Business Journal
  8. EIMAGO, Inc., our non-profit public benefit organization affiliate, capable of receiving government funding, reorganized to be of benefit to Union Rescue Mission’s specific Mission – including additional winter shelter for 560 homeless friends!
  9. Union Rescue Mission/EIMAGO steps up to take on 4 new winter shelter contracts – in our downtown shelter site, West Side, Culver City, and Burbank, making sure 560 additional folks aren’t left out in winter rain and cold
  10. Union Rescue Mission is certified excellent by the Association of Gospel Rescue Missions (AGRM)
  11. Our 2006 Annual Report received 1st place at AGRM International Conference in May 2007
  12. CEO Andy Bales was named one of top 3 fundraising professionals in Los Angeles by the Association of Fundraising Professionals at National Philanthropy Day
  13. Union Rescue Mission, its Capital Campaign, and affiliate EIMAGO raised the most funds in one year since 1992, when a large bequest came to URM to enable URM to build its current facility downtown
  14. Union Rescue Mission hosts our best Christmas Store to date. 400 families celebrated Christmas in a very special way. Take a look at what it meant in the life of one special family


    15. Serwa | Stories from Skid Row from Union Rescue Mission.

    What were your highlights in 2007?
    What are your hopes for 2008?

Project 50

We applaud our County Supervisors and all who have worked hard to make Project 50 a reality. Project 50 is a new, innovative program reaching out to the 50 most vulnerable and desperate people who are homeless on the streets of Skid Row.

As county workers went out to identify these 50 precious souls, they were searching with at-risk medical condition criteria in mind that place folks at higher risk of dying, if they remain on the streets. In fact, if anyone living on the streets has one of the 8 at-risk indicators below, there is a 40% chance they will die, if they remain on the streets just a few more years.

  1. Tri-morbid-combination of mental illness, poor health, and addicted to a substance
  2. ER or Hospitalized over 3x
  3. ER over 3x
  4. Age over 60
  5. HIV/AIDS
  6. Cirrhosis
  7. ERSD
  8. Frostbite

Many of the 50 most vulnerable selected have 2-3 of the struggles above while other have 4-5. These are also people with substance addictions, people with a chronic health condition, such as HIV, and people struggling with mental illnesses. Over 50% are uninsured and amount for over half of the hospitalizations made by street homeless individuals on Skid Row in the last year.

Project 50 will place each of these folks in permanent supportive housing, and surround them with special support services, health care, counseling, support groups, case management, and whatever is needed to help them live a quality life.

Just yesterday I watched one of the 50, a very troubled, agitated elderly Asian woman who often wears a construction type safety helmet while walking the streets. As I watched her struggle to organize her belongings between two buildings, surrounded by drunken men on one sidewalk and violent drug dealers across the street, I thanked God that this kind of special help is on the way to her.

There is concern about the cost, but what value can we put on saving the life of a human being? There are plans to rescue 50 precious lives, and if even this one little lady is saved, then I believe it is worth the cost.

We applaud the group from New York City, Common Ground, for their part in bringing this idea to Los Angeles and we are committed to assisting Skid Row Housing Trust, the local group involved, in helping Project 50 be such a success that one day Project 50 can expand and provide permanent supportive housing to all 471 identified chronic homeless individuals on the streets of Skid Row.

I shared on Channel 7 KABC that this is a step toward living up to the title of the City of Angels, a day when not one human being will be left sleeping on the streets of Skid Row. Union Rescue Mission is committed to doing our part as we work towards that day.

How do you feel about the $5.6 million dollar cost?

Are we living up to the title of City of Angels?

Do you have some innovative ideas on how to end homelessness?