Tuesday, November 17, 1998
No place to call home
Many students head downtown every week
to make a difference
in the lives of some of the thousands of homeless people in Los
Angeles
By Trina Enriquez
Daily Bruin Contributor
Downtown Los Angeles is merely a car ride away from UCLA, yet it
seems like an entirely different world.
Barbed wire tops chain-link fences, bars cover windows of
buildings with chipping paint and thousands of people with no place
to call home crowd the streets every day.
While attending a top-notch university nestled between Bel Air
and Beverly Hills, perhaps students are unaware that 4,000
college-age youths sleep on the streets of Hollywood each
night.
Perhaps students are unaware that at least 20,000 homeless men,
women and children spend their cold nights huddled in cardboard
boxes.
And 20,000 is a conservative estimate, according to Charles
King, assistant director at the Midnight Mission, a shelter in
downtown Los Angeles
"People don’t get counted in the skid row area because they have
no addresses and aren’t stationary," King said. "I’d say the actual
number is about 80,000."
The homeless often move from place to place to avoid police
sweeps. Just because you don’t see them, though, doesn’t mean they
aren’t there.
"I think college students generally empathize with the plight
(of the homeless), but feel at a loss to help somehow," said Uma
Chandavarkar, a fourth-year microbiology and molecular genetics
student who feels students tend to be more idealistic.
"They may get our pocket change, but is it really helping them?"
she added.
At UCLA, students involved in Hunger Project and the California
Public Interest Research Group (CALPIRG) strive to do what they can
to alleviate the homelessness and hunger that may be overlooked by
others.
Hunger Project incorporates tutoring and job development, as
well as food salvage, into their outreach program.
"There’s nothing different about homeless people," said Cecilia
Leung, Hunger Project director. "It’s not their choice to be
homeless. We try to help get them out of the cycle of poverty."
CALPIRG is currently involved in promoting Hunger and
Homelessness Week with activities like Rice Krispie Treat sales and
"peanut butter and jelly jams" on Bruin Walk. The Rice Krispie
Treat profits and jelly sandwiches are then donated to L.A.
shelters.
The organization also stages "necessity drives", where
volunteers hand supermarket shoppers a list of foods needed by area
shelters and solicit one canned good from the list. On their way
out, shoppers give the goods to CALPIRG volunteers, who then
distribute the food to various shelters.
In an effort to take outreach programs even further,
organizations like Covenant House California focus on homeless
people within the 18 to 21-year-old age range – youths who might
otherwise be in college, but lack the support and the skills to get
there.
"Some kids run away because living on the street is better than
(enduring) abuse," said Patti Wright-Johnson, media relations
director at the Covenant House. "Throwaways are kicked out or asked
to leave for such reasons as coming out with their sexual
identity."
Some of these youths turn to "survival sex" in order to make a
living. One extreme case involved a nine-year-old boy who
prostituted on Santa Monica Boulevard at the instruction of his
drug-addicted mother.
Every night, a Covenant House van drives around the Hollywood
area, picking up college-age youths who are ready to make changes
in their lifestyle. These changes, however, aren’t easy.
According to the Menninger Project, 48 percent of these youths
are weak in job-readiness due to lack of job history and marketable
skills. Ninety-seven percent are unemployed upon admittance.
The Covenant House provides a sanctuary for those 18 to
21-year-olds hiding from abusive relatives, pimps and gang members.
The inside of the complex can’t be seen from the street, which
provides a sense of protection for people looking for a way to pick
themselves up off the street.
Residents can then use Covenant House as a home base while
looking for a job. In the meantime, they can avail themselves of
health and recreational facilities inside the complex.
"Generally we try to keep them as busy as possible," said
Wright-Johnson. "But it’d be nice to have mentors their own age to
talk to."
Clients are required to work or look for a job during the day if
they want to stay at Covenant House.
But what kind of jobs can the residents get? What skills do they
have? Can they go back to school?
Often, minimum wage for day labor, fast food and low-end retail
jobs are the only option for these youths, most of whom read at
only an eighth-grade level.
"Junior college has become an extension of junior and senior
years of high school," said Bill Stierle, Employment Skills Program
coordinator for the Covenant House. "(Plus) the tracking system of
adult school is junky. Giving (our clients) an A doesn’t mean
they’re progressing."
In response to this, the Covenant House is currently
implementing a comprehensive software program that will help
residents progress to a reading and math level which can advance
them beyond low-end jobs and eventually become independent.
A lot of encouragement during this time continues to be crucial,
however, since many of the youths don’t have the support system of
a family. In fact, many were foster-care wards who ran away because
they didn’t get along with their families in the first place.
Volunteers at hunger and homelessness projects sometimes speak
of the emotional poverty that plagues many homeless people.
They hunger not only for food but for the compassion and support
of others.
"We take you. Period. We’ll give our clients chance after chance
to come back," said Melinda Muñoz, a special projects
assistant at the Covenant House. "Sometimes it takes awhile to
realize how rotten it is."
"Try being sick on the street and figuring out who to trust,"
Muñoz added. "Sometimes it takes time to realize that you can
make it."Photos by DERRICK KUDO/Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Thousands of homeless men, women and children line the streets
of downtown Los Angeles each day.
In downtown Los Angeles, police sweeps regulate the times and
places that homeless people can sleep.
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