Skid Row

New Year’s Resolve!

I don’t know about you, but I made more than 1 New Year’s Resolution this last week.  I started the first one this morning.  When I arrived at Union Rescue Mission, I took the stairs rather than the elevator – good for my heart and my waist line!  I was fortunate enough, or unfortunate enough, to battle an illness and busyness through the Holidays that helped me lose 15 lbs!  I have resolved to lose another 15 lbs by March 1st.  I am avoiding desserts, fried foods, and I am determined to eat more vegetables!  I am going to make time to ride my bicycle enough each week to strengthen my heart as well.  I also re-committed to taking time each day to read a couple of Read Through the Bible programs and daily devotionals, something I committed to last November 1st, after hearing my friend and mentor John Perkins say, “How did I persevere?  By being discipled in the Word of God!”, but I let that one slip on too many days. 

However, my biggest resolve this year is to do what I can and say what I must to change the heart of this great city of Los Angeles, and help us live up to the title of the City of Angels by ending our reign as the Capital of Homelessness in the U.S.  I know hearts can change towards people who are experiencing homelessness, because I had my own change of heart 24 years ago.  One day, one of my students mistreated a “weaker” student and it broke my heart.  So I preached Matthew 25 verses 31-44 to them, where Christ returns, separates the sheep from the goats, and He says, “come and take my inheritance prepared for you since the creation, for I was hungry and you gave me food.  I was thirsty and you gave me drink. For whatever you did for one of the least of these, you did it unto me.”  It was the best sermon I have ever preached!  The following Sunday, just days later, I was eating in my booth at the parking lot that I worked at on the weekend.   A man who was homeless asked me for my sandwich.  I said, “No, I need my sandwich.”  His face dropped with disappointment as he walked into the darkness and out into the snow.  Immediately, I heard that still small voice. “Andy, here was your chance to practice what you preached, and you missed it.” I prayed for another chance.  I found the man and fed him dinner.  That’s the day God truly changed my heart.  I’ve been working in Missions and with people who are experiencing homelessness ever since.

Today I would strongly suggest that it is impossible to be a true believer or a faithful religious person if we practice spiritual disciplines like prayer, bible study, worship, even fasting, but do not respond with love in action to human beings, brothers and sisters who are living on the streets of our city.  These struggling people represent Jesus Christ on earth, and our response to them is our response to Jesus himself.  Matthew 25:31 sums it up well, but it finds its root in  Isaiah 58:6-11 (ESV):

6 “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?
8 Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.
9 Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’ If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,
10 if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday.
11 And the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.

Will you resolve with me, to work toward the day when not one precious human being will be left sleeping on the streets of our city?  Learn more about how you can take action at  youarethemission.com

 

Hiltons Host Shopping Event to Benefit URM

On Thursday, December 17th, Paris and Nicky Hilton hosted a shopping event at House of Petro Zillia.  The owner and head designer, Nony, said the Hilton sisters asked that the event benefit an organization of their choice – and they chose Union Rescue Mission!  

 

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The shopping extravaganza was from 7:00pm to 10:00pm, and there was a great turn out!  Thanks to Paris & Nicky, as well as House of Petro Zillia, for being such great supporters of URM!

 

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2,260 Subway Sandwiches Served at URM!

Thanks to 100 volunteers from Subway restaurants, URM residents enjoyed delicious Subway sandwiches for lunch on Tuesday, December 22nd.

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Subway restaurants have been great supporters of URM.  This year they also helped raise about $14,000 to help with our Christmas Store!

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Some of the leaders from Subway even joined us in our tradition of ‘ringing the bell’ to celebrate donations received; they have been strongly supporting Union Rescue Mission for 14 years! 

Thank you, Subway, for all you do- you are greatly appreciated!

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Disney Volunteers Deck the (Dining) Halls!

For the past two weeks, volunteers from various departments at Disney have given their time to helping out here at URM!  They have spent 8 days working very hard in our kitchen.  One of the kitchen staff said, “It’s really been great having them volunteering this week – they’ve helped out so much!”  Disney also spent a day decorating our Dining Hall, so it is now filled with Christmas spirit every time guests come in to eat!

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In addition, they even sponsored and hosted a Christmas Party for the kids at URM!  It was a fun-filled event, with a carnival, music, treats and lots of dancing!

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Thank you, Disney, for your continued support – we appreciate all you’ve done for us!

Annual Christmas Store Opening Up!

UNION RESCUE MISSION to hold 18th Annual CHRISTMAS STORE

ON DECEMBER 18TH & 19TH

“1,000 Families In Need Invited to Shop for Free”

LOS ANGELES, CALIF. (December 18 & 19, 2009) — More than 2,000 children will receive Christmas gifts this year after their parents shop for presents at the Union Rescue Mission’s (URM) 18th Annual Christmas Store starting on Friday, December 18 at 9:00 a.m. to closing at 6:00 p.m. and again on Saturday, December 19 from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. at URM headquarters located at 545 South San Pedro St. in downtown Los Angeles.

Union Rescue Mission CEO, Andy Bales, said “It’s our joy to provide an opportunity for a unique shopping experience to 1000 families that might otherwise miss out on the joy of personally giving gifts to their children at Christmas”.                                                     

URM, and the Missions offsite facility for mothers and children, Hope Gardens Family Center as well as neighboring missions and service providers helping children and families on Skid Row will be invited to shop free of charge. With so many families in need this year, our goal for 2009 is to provide enough gifts to meet the needs of 1000 families. These families will be given tickets to shop for Christmas gifts in the Mission’s Christmas Store.

 Mothers and fathers will be assisted by volunteers to pick one toy or gift for each of their children ages infant through 17 years.  They will then be assisted in wrapping the gifts in the department store like atmosphere.  While parents shop, kids will experience a visit to our Kid Zone where they will enjoy holiday crafts, games, and treats and also shop for their parents in their own special store.

Each Year URM’s Annual Christmas Store is made possible through the generosity of private donors, and partnering corporations and companies like Verizon, SUBWAY restaurants, Shea Homes and ERA Realtors to name a few.

 

Schedule of Events:

  • Moms begin Shopping for their children…………………………9:30 a.m.
  • Children retreat to Kid Zone….…………………………………..9:30 a.m.    

ALL MEDIA are encouraged to attend.

Union Rescue Mission is a non-profit organization dedicated to serving people experiencing homelessness.  Established in 1891, URM is one of the largest rescue missions of its kind in the United States and the oldest in Los Angeles.  It provides a comprehensive array of emergency and long-term services, including food, shelter, clothing, medical and dental care, Christian recovery programs, transitional housing, legal assistance, education, counseling, and job training to needy men, women, children, and families.  For more information please visit our website at urm.org

Project Homeless Connect Coming to Skid Row

 The fourth annual Project Homeless Connect Day- Downtown LA will be held on Thursday, December 10th.  The event will be held on 6th street, between Wall and San Pedro, and will run from about 10:00 am until 2:00pm. 

Project Homeless Connect is part of a national initiative designed to bring together service providers, agencies, and organizations to provide housing, hospitality, information, health-care and other services for our nation’s homeless population.  Los Angeles County, along with Santa Monica, Long Beach, Pasadena, Downtown LA, South Los Angeles, and the East San Gabriel Valley will each be hosting an event to bring awareness and connect those experiencing homelessness to much needed services.  The goal is to provide area homeless and working poor access to the assistance they need to become self-sufficient and to ultimately obtain affordable housing.

  

Some of the day’s activities will include:

  • Health related services – HIV/STD testing, flu shots, screenings, education
  • Public information distribution by DPSS, DCFS, DMH, LASD, LAPD
  • Legal Support and Advocacy
  • Hygiene Kits (i.e. toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, shampoo, etc.)
  • Dental Education
  • Community Referral Service
  • In addition to Music & Entertainment, Food to be provided, Jumper, etc.

 

Project Homeless Connect Day will:

  • Unite government, volunteers, non-profits, businesses, civic leaders, social service providers, and faith-based organizations, to create single points of engagement and entry for homeless individuals and families.
  • Engage the general public in offering assistance to people who are homeless through volunteer opportunities.
  • Create a unique opportunity for homeless citizens to access services in a supportive community-type setting.
  • Provide the necessary connections for homeless individuals and families to get started on the pathway to self-sufficiency.

 

Get Involved and Help Make a Difference

Project Homeless Connect Day is a great opportunity for you and your organization to get involved with doing your part in trying to reduce the County’s homeless population.  There are several ways to be a part of this special event.

 

  • Monetary donations are needed for supplies, activities, lunches, security, logistics, and other items that will be identified as the planning progresses.
  • In-Kind donations of all sorts are needed.  Hygiene supplies, phone cards, food products, beverages, t-shirts, catering, socks, and much more is needed.
  • Volunteers to assist on the day of the event. Hundreds of volunteers will be needed to serve lunches, escort people through the service providers, provide hospitality services, and assist with various tasks throughout the day.

If you are interested in getting involved in any way, or would like more information, please contact Sara Farnsworth at (213) 316-2752 or via email at projecthomelessconnect@urm.org.

 

Union Rescue Mission Helping to Change Skid Row into Hope Central

As I worked with the Los Angeles Police Department this morning to solve a major crime (more details to come in weeks ahead), I began to reflect on all that URM and our staff have accomplished to bring change to the streets of Skid Row. Many others rightly get credit for the major turnaround on these difficult streets. Our friend, Steve Lopez, author of The Soloist—the book on which the soon to be released movie, The Soloist, is based—opened the eyes of all of LA to the realities of Skid Row in his series, Life On The Streets in 2005. Commander Andy Smith, labeled Super Cop during his time serving at Central Division, and his courageous officers brought order to what he described as Mardi Gras on crack. Less apparent to our great city, has been the work of URM and our staff.

In 2005 we took decisive, bold action and purchased a safe place called Hope Gardens Family Center, so that we could move our women and children from the streets of Skid Row and make sure that no women or children were left living on the streets of Skid Row. We fought a lengthy battle to win the right to move our women and children to Skid Row, at a time when there was a great deal of talk about opening regional centers to serve people who were homeless. In the words of Steve Lopez, “Union Rescue Mission was the only one who succeeded in opening up one of those regional centers, and it is called Hope Gardens!” We welcomed LA County Family workers on site and provided offices for them so that we could work together to make sure that no woman or child was left on these mean streets.
We recently received a nice Thank you, from LA County CEO William T. Fujioka for doing our part.

When Chief Bratton moved ahead with the Safer Cities Initiative, we were one of the few and the first agencies to support them in bringing extra officers to the streets of Skid Row. We helped prepare the new officers with how to deal with our sensitive friends who are homeless and struggling on the streets; we joined them in outreach as they went out to enforce the law; we are still called on by the LAPD to go out and alert our friends who are homeless before the LAPD carries out a maximum enforcement of the no sleeping ordinance in effect from 6:00 A.M. to 9 P.M.

In March of 2006 we caught a hospital drop-off on video, a video that played throughout the world and provided strong evidence that “hospital dumpings” were not an Urban myth. This led to proper care for this particular patient, helped lead to the development of a proper protocol for the release of future patients and even led to a city law that prohibits such patient dumping. Just last week, a press conference was held on our URM rooftop, as a hospital and the city came to a settlement over the dropping off of 150 mental patients onto the streets of Skid Row. URM and our staff found the first fellow wandering the streets. We gathered evidence and turned it over to the City Attorney’s Office, which led to the finding that at least 150 mental patients, our most vulnerable citizens, had been dropped off by this Orange County Hospital—40 miles away—onto the mean streets of Skid Row. This has now led to the development of a new, Patient Safety Zone, and a proper protocol for the referral of Mental Health Patients.

When the economic downturn hit hard last Fall, we recognized early that 2 parent families were losing their homes, and while other agencies cut staff and services, our Board of Directors provided the leadership that allowed us to transform our 5th floor from volunteer housing to temporary living quarters for 2 parent families and single Dads with children. We utilized our Chapel as a kind of Red Cross like Emergency Shelter for families living in tent like structures called EDAR units. We stepped up to meet the growing need as we assisted nearly 4 times the number of families than we had the previous year. URM has not done this alone. Our faithful staff and bold Board of Directors have played a key role in making a powerful impact on Skid Row, and we move ever closer to the day when we truly can describe our city as the City of Angels, and Skid Row will be better known as Hope Central. I am honored to serve here at Union Rescue Mission. It is the greatest honor in my life.

Bless you,
Andy B.

“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.

Pray for My Friend G.

Yesterday, as I walked back to Union Rescue Mission from the Los Angeles Mission where I had just completed my term as President of the Los Angeles Central Providers Collaborative, I ran into one of my friends/guests from the Mission. He was weeping uncontrollably. He kept telling me, “You are the best person in the world, thank you!” Then he said, “Union Rescue Mission is the greatest place on earth! But I can’t stay!” My friend G. had been drinking. I believe that though he was intoxicated, he was absolutely sharing his heart feelings with me. I had some tears in my eyes as well. I grabbed his hand, and I told him that if Union Rescue Mission was truly the best, then he could certainly come back with me to the Mission and get some immediate help. He refused. I tried to direct him to a local 24 hour drop-in center where he could detox. He refused. I grabbed his hand, looked him in the eyes, and told him, “Remember G., if URM is the best, that means you can always come back, right?” As he walked into some of the meanest streets in the United States, I yelled one more time, “Go to one of our Winter Shelters!”, another man tried to direct G. back toward my voice, but he was gone. I walked back the remaining block to URM with my head down, praying against the evil forces that had taken hold of G. and were weighing him down, telling him he was not worthy of our love or care or anything else. As I continued walking I prayed for God’s hand of protection to watch over him on these mean streets of Skid Row. One of our (CLDP) program men caught me as I walked by our loading dock and asked me what was wrong. “That is hard on you isn’t it, Andy.” I answered, “Yes, it really is.” Our gentleman said, “What you have shared with us will stay with him, you’ve planted a seed of hope. When I was out there hitting bottom — that seed was always with me and brought me back here when I needed help.” Those were extremely encouraging words that I needed to hear at that moment. Please pray for my friend, G. Please also pray for the 150 men in our Christian Life Discipleship Program who are making it through one day at a time. Thank you.

Andy B.