Todd Leitz, of KNX 1070 reports on how the global recession has precipitated a new wave of homeless in Los Angeles. Union Rescue Mission’s families were a part of the story. Click the icons below to listen to the report.
In The News
Armory unavailable for shelter next year
Christopher Cadelago of Burbank Leader writes that the National Guard Armory in Burbank, which has served as a Winter Shelter site for the homeless, will not not be available next winter season. Burbank neighbors express enthusiasm that the shelter will not be returning.
Homelessness goes Hollywood
Morley Safer of 60 Minutes reports on a unique urban fable that happens to be true.
Steve Lopez is a newspaper columnist for the Los Angeles Times; Nathaniel Ayers is a troubled man with a brilliant past.
They met by chance on the streets of downtown L.A. – an encounter that would change them both. The story of their friendship is a tale about madness, redemption, and the mysterious power of music.
Some of the footage for the story was shot on the rooftop of Union Rescue Mission in Los Angeles. The story has also been made into a feature film called The Soloist, which will be in theaters on April 24, 2009.
Oasis to hundreds closes doors Sunday – Burbank Leader.com
Christopher Cadelago of the Burbank Leader writes about the closing of the Burbank Winter shelter on Sunday. The Union Rescue Mission and EIMAGO Inc have operated the winter shelter since Dec. 1, 2008. A total of 473 men and women have been provided meals and a safe place to sleep since the winter shelter opened.
Union Rescue Mission’s CEO Andy Bales is concerned about what will happen to the individuals who sought shelter over the last few months and would love to see the shelter remain open.
But the chances of that happening are slim, said the Rev. Andy Bales, chief executive of the Los Angeles Union Rescue Mission, the shelter’s operator.
“Not only do we have to contend with the shrinking economy and growing unemployment, which I believe is actually closer to 20%, but now we’re in the process of listening to complaints from neighbors and doing our best to address them,” Bales said. “It’s something that needs to be done to keep us up and running.”
Bales said he met Friday with Councilman David Gordon, who shared with him some of the community’s concerns. Among them are problems with loitering, public urination and homeless people arriving at the shelter at all hours of the evening.
Another complaint lodged against the Union Rescue Mission and EIMAGO Inc., the nonprofit that takes care of day-to-day duties, is that volunteers have failed to keep criminals away, specifically sex offenders.
To tackle issues of loitering and walk-ins, Bales said, the Union Rescue Mission has spent about $40,000 on increased shuttle service to and from the facility in the last month.
Click Here to read the rest of the article.
Click here for more information on the current situation with the Burbank Winter Shelter.
Proposed state budget adds another layer of tax – Daily News of Los Angeles
Sue Doyle and Troy Anderson, Staff Writers for the Daily News, interview Union Rescue Mission’s CEO Andy Bales about the potential impact of the new state budget.
The California Budget Project estimated 234,400 children statewide could be dropped from the welfare rolls, including 75,380 in Los Angeles County. Additionally, in- home care services for 81,000 Californians, including 34,290 in the county, could be eliminated.
Andy Bales, president of the Union Rescue Mission, said the possibility that tens of thousands of children could be cut from the welfare rolls would only exacerbate the rapidly growing homeless problem in the county.
“We’re already facing a tsunami of homeless families,” Bales said.
“Our fourth floor is completely full of homeless families and we have begun to fill up our chapel with families sleeping in pup tent-like units.”
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.
Rescue mission seeks aid – The Burbank Leader
Tom Risen of The Burbank Leader writes about Union Rescue Mission’s appeal for increased winter shelter aid.
“We’ve been speaking out to public officials, but I don’t think anybody is quite ready to see the gravity of this,” said Andy Bales, chief executive of the Union Rescue Mission, which runs a number of shelters in the Greater Los Angeles area. “We need to take emergency steps for the number of people that are going to be coming our way because of foreclosures and job loss.
“This is alarming, and I’ve been working with the homeless for 23 years. It’s getting a little Depression-like.”
This is the second year URM has run the winter shelter in Burbank, which will close on March 15.
“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.
“Shelter looking for site” – Glendale News Press
Jason Wells of the Glendale News Press reports on Union Rescue Mission’s urgent need to find a temporary site for the Burbank Winter Shelter.
Operators of the winter homeless shelter at the Burbank National Guard Armory are scrambling to find an alternate location capable of housing 50 of their clients during two planned closures of their current site.
The Salvation Army of Burbank has agreed to take in up to 50 homeless people during the planned closures Feb. 6 to 8, and again for the same dates in March, but that would cover only half of the average crowd that uses the emergency winter shelter every night, said Carrie Gatlin, vice president of government relations and special project for the Union Rescue Mission of Los Angeles, which oversees the operation.
“They’re living with cancer and little else” – LA Times
Steve Lopez of the LA Times writes about a mother and daughter who living in their car.
So you think you’ve got it bad this holiday season? Here’s a story that will put things in perspective for you, no matter how grim your job prospects or how invisible your shrinking retirement fund.
The other day, at their invitation, I met Kerry Himmel, an unemployed truck driver, and her 16-year-old daughter, Destiny, at a McDonald’s on Ventura Boulevard in the San Fernando Valley.
But they weren’t there to eat. That’s where they live.
Mr. Lopez goes on to report that Destiny was recently diagnosed with high-risk acute leukemia. Click here to read this heartbreaking story and see how Union Rescue Mission is responding.