Fox News 11 reporter Hal Eisner interviews Union Rescue Mission CEO Andy Bales about the recent closing of the winter shelters in Los Angeles.
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CEO Andy Bales interviewed by CNN for AC360
Dave Schechter, CNN Senior National Editor, interviewed Union Rescue Mission’s CEO Andy Bales about the work being done by the mission to assist the increasing number of individuals who are homeless.
Most of the families living at the Los Angeles shelter are homeless for the first time in their lives. They’re coming from everywhere around Southern California, an epicenter of the nation’s mortgage meltdown and foreclosure crisis.
“These are not people who have been in the cycle of poverty,” Bales tells me. They are working people who have lost jobs, who juggled expenses for food, utilities, clothing, health care and housing until they no longer could keep a roof over their heads.
As a result, the number families at the shelter is up 300 percent in a year and the number of individuals up 25 percent. The number of meals served is up 40 percent — to more than 1 million in a year.
“Homeless deaths on skid row have decreased” – LA Times
Union Rescue Mission was glad to read the latest article from Andrew Blankstein and Cara Mia DiMassa of the Los Angeles Times about the decrease in deaths on skid row.
The number of people who died on downtown L.A.’s skid row has declined by 36% in the last four years, according to city records, the latest sign of major changes on what for decades has been the city’s epicenter of homelessness and drug-dealing.
Excluding murders and suicides, 60 people died in the skid row area in 2008, according to Los Angeles Police Department statistics. In 2005, there were 94 such deaths.
60 deaths is still far too many, 1 is too many, and we won’t slow down our efforts until the day when no deaths are reported and we live up to our title as the City of Angels with no human being having to live on the mean streets and sidewalks of Skid Row.
At Union Rescue Mission we have taken several steps to assist in this effort. During the summer heat in LA we deliver over 1500 bottles of cold water each day that the temperatures rise to 85 degrees or higher. You can see a documented case on video of a man whose life was saved through URM’s efforts by watching the video below. URM has also played a major role in slowing the dumping, or improper dropoffs of patients on Skid Row by area hospitals. We’ve worked hard to make URM more welcoming and added 210 beds to help move people from the streets and supported the Los Angles Police Department with their Safer Cities Initiative.
Click here to read the rest of the article.
Los Angeles County shelters brim with families – LA Times
Jessica Garrison of the LA Times writes about the increase in families who are homeless this season. Several individuals from Union Rescue Mission were interviewed.
The economic crisis and cold weather have created a larger than usual influx of families to shelters in Los Angeles County this year, according to shelter officials and other service providers.On Wednesday, officials at the Union Rescue Mission, which runs the county’s cold-weather shelters, held an emergency meeting to figure out what to do when they run out of hotel vouchers for families, which could happen this month. The numbers, said Chief Executive Andy Bales, are sobering: The region’s winter shelters and the skid row mission have seen 86 families in the last three weeks.By comparison, last year the agency took in 20 families at its emergency shelters over the entire cold weather season from Dec. 1 to March 15, with 15 to 20 more at its downtown mission. Two weeks ago, the mission downtown opened up its fifth floor to two-parent families and single fathers with children, something it has never had to do before. It may also convert its chapel to sleeping quarters.
Shelters see significant rise in demand – KABC Channel 7 News
KABC news interviewed Union Rescue Mission’s CEO Andy Bales about the increase in individuals facing homelessness this year.
Officials at a winter shelter in Burbank say they have seen a 1,000 percent increase in demand since their doors opened on Dec. 1. They blame it all on a very troubled economy.
As they are dealing with increased demand in the valley, shelters in Downtown Los Angeles are retrofitting offices to accommodate more families.
“I’ve been doing this nearly 23 years and I’ve never seen anything close to this,” said Andy Bales, Union Rescue Mission.
Andy Bales runs the Union Rescue Mission on skid row in Los Angeles. He said homeless shelters like his are being inundated with young families.
“I believe that we’re going to have to take emergency steps to make sure that no family and no children spends time on the streets and suffers the devastation of homelessness,” said Bales.
Merrill Lynch Day at the Union Rescue Mission
On Saturday, December 13th over 100 volunteers from the Greater Los Angeles Region of Merrill Lynch will spend the day serving meals at Union Rescue Mission. The day was originally slated for the company Holiday Party. Instead, Regional Managing Director Chandler Root cancelled the party and encouraged his entire team to spend the day serving those in need.
Employees and family members from each office in the region will be participating including Kelly Caves, Resident Director – Long Beach; Nadia Allaudin, Resident Director – Century City; and Richard Rozman, Resident Director – Manhattan Beach. In addition to sharing their time serving people who are homeless, the group will be bringing donations for Union Rescue Mission’s annual Christmas Store.
Subway partners with Union Rescue Mission
For the twelfth consecutive year, Los Angeles area SUBWAY restaurants will partner with Union Rescue Mission during the holidays. SUBWAY staff members will collect toys and volunteer to prepare and serve over 1800 meals for guests at Union Rescue Mission.
SUBWAY will also distribute flyers to their LA area patrons asking them to make a donation to Union Rescue Mission at urm.org/subway. As a thank you to those who donate $10 or more, SUBWAY is offering a $10 discount coupon that can be used toward a catering order of $30 or more (some restrictions apply).
Bell Ringing Ceremony
Here is a quick video of a recent bell ringing ceremony. One of our donors made a generous gift to Union Rescue Mission. These gifts make it possible for us to provide love and care to our homeless friends in Los Angeles County.
More middle-class professionals join homeless ranks – LA Daily News
Troy Anderson interviews Andy Bales and some friends of ours at Union Rescue Mission regarding the increase in middle-class professionals who are struggling with homelessness.
Colin never thought he’d wind up on Skid Row.
As a middle-class father and business owner, he had achieved the American dream. But that all came crashing down recently when his coffee-bean importing business went under and the home he was renting in El Segundo went into foreclosure.
With nowhere else to turn, the Westmont College graduate sought shelter for his family at the Union Rescue Mission in downtown Los Angeles.
Andy Bales, president of the Union Rescue Mission, said he’s also seeing professionals and other middle-class people coming into the mission who are experiencing homelessness for the first time, including former mission donors.
Economic Crunch Hits Downtown Non-profits – LA Downtown News.com
Richard Guzman writes about the drop in donations to organizations working on Skid Row.
Andy Bales has seen a lot of hard times during his years as CEO of the Union Rescue Mission. But now, the organization that for more than a century has helped those down on their luck is in need of desperate help of its own.
“We’re down about 25% over our normal donations, so we’re barely hanging in there,” Bales said. “I’ve never seen it this bad.”