During my dear father’s last days on the earth, he shared the most painful period of his life – his difficult days as a child experiencing homelessness in Southern California during the Great Depression.
Tears welled in his eyes as he described holding onto his father’s neck so tight that he choked him as his family jumped on the moving freight car of a train. It was terrifying! He told me of the embarrassment of living in tents, sheds, even a garage in Compton. The mere fact of knowing he was homeless, an outcast, as he attended school, was a blow to his self-esteem and overwhelming to my Daddy, Carl Lee Bales.
I see their faces every day. Children, just like my father, overwhelmed with homelessness, walking into URM with their devastated parents. Real unemployment at nearly 25%, a housing crisis, and a flawed approach to solving the crisis of homelessness has left 20,000 precious kids experiencing homelessness in Southern California – and the numbers of children, families, and individuals continues to increase.
This is not the 1930’s Great Depression, this is the Great Recession of 2007 and beyond.
On Skid Row in LA, someone’s precious son digs through garbage cans for recyclables during the night and sleeps only sparingly during the day in order to be safe. Somebody’s precious daughter pairs up with someone, even an ex-convict, in a tent on the filthy sidewalk, to avoid being prey to any other vicious predator on the streets.
It is a terrifying, overwhelming scene happening each day and night for my friends experiencing homelessness. Because of my Dad, I know the impact this is having on their souls. We need to continue working to make their plight known, until we’ve ended homelessness as we know it on the streets of Skid Row.
Rev. Andy Bales