People Assisting The Homeless PATHmall (People Assisting
The Homeless) provides the homeless with services, including
helping them conduct job searches.
By Dexter Gauntlett
Daily Bruin Staff
Two recent UCLA graduates are putting their degrees to good work
at West Hollywood’s newest “mall.” But instead of
selling overpriced clothing and distributing perfume samples, these
two alumnae are dispensing jobs, opportunities and dignity to
customers without any money.
PATHmall (People Assisting The Homeless) has been functioning
since February but had its official opening Thursday. The
“mall” is an all-in-one Regional Homeless Center for
Los Angeles that was built to provide free health care, job
placement, housing, meals and training along with other services
that any “urban camper” would need to get back on their
feet.
Associate director and 1995 UCLA graduate Janet Ganaway said
that despite their large numbers, the homeless are almost a
forgotten people.
“There are 75,000 homeless people on any given night in
Los Angeles and there’s only 10,000 beds available,”
she said.
After four years working with PATH, Ganaway continues to be
hands-on in helping the homeless.
Ganaway uses her expertise as a housing discrimination
specialist, a skill she acquired from working for the Westside
Housing Council ““ an organization that enforces housing laws
““ to find homes for people with low incomes.
“Being homeless is a humbling process for people … I
wanted to be in a place where I can create opportunities and also
decrease barriers for people to find housing,” Ganaway
said.
She cited UCLA’s socially conscious atmosphere, mixed
culture and varied socioeconomic environment combined with her
studies in sociology as the driving forces that led her into the
field
She remembered a professor who told her once to strive to make
an impact, advice that has remained in her mind ever since.
Ganaway said that the fastest growing population of homeless
people are families with children resulting from being taken off of
welfare, specifically money coming from the Transitional Assistance
to Needy Families program.
She also said many people have been laid off since Sept. 11.
Even people who had steady, secure jobs have found themselves on
the streets, she said.
“We even help people who were in the tech industry, like
Yahoo ““ we’re creating an opportunity so people can get
back out there,” Ganaway said.
Dressed in a Pierre Cardin suit, former “urban
camper” Charles Berg, 50, is one of the PATH success
stories.
“PATH helped me build and write a resume, they gave me a
clothing voucher, bus tokens, new glasses, three meals a day and a
place to stay,” Berg said.
After taking classes at El Camino Community College and working
as a security guard, Berg bounced from shelter to shelter three
separate times. With each bout of homelessness, he found himself
without a place to sleep or even a secure place to put his
possessions, for an average of six to seven months.
Berg said he longed for the opportunity to at least try to hit
that glass ceiling in the working world and recalled carrying his
belongings around Torrance while trying to come up with a way to
get off the streets.
“Once you get to the street level you can’t produce
a business level appearance to an employer when you have
homelessness at your feet,” he said.
He has lived in the PATH facility for a week and a half, but
said he has already turned his life around.
“Now I feel confident to go into a business and present
myself in a professional way so that I can get a job,” Berg
said.
Berg is four classes away from acquiring his Associate degree
and has ambitions to work in business. He has 30 days to find a job
and then he may keep his bed at the facility until he saves up
enough for his own place.
PATHmall consults with 60-70 homeless people every day who come
from across Los Angeles to see people like development director
Sarah Vallim, people who help them find work and cope with the
psychological issues that come along with being homeless ““
issues that Vallim herself confronted while attending UCLA.
Vallim’s father is schizophrenic and was homeless the
entire time she was attending UCLA and, without financial support
from her mother, Vallim worked 30-40 hours a week to pay for
school. She also saw a weekly counselor in attempt to curb her
bouts with depression, she said.
Now she helps those with similar problems get off the streets
and get back on their feet just as people she reached out to at
UCLA provided for her when she was a student.
“I didn’t come to UCLA a healthy person but UCLA
provided an avenue to deal with the issues I brought with
me,” Vallim said.
Vallim led a $2 million fund-raising effort that brought home a
quarter of the money needed for the opening of the mall. This
included grants from the federal, state and local governments in
addition to donations from private companies and individuals.
“I felt I had come a long way in the last few years and I
wanted to give back to that,” Vallim said.
Her personal experiences coupled with her degree in Latin
American studies and the “Work to get it done” attitude
she said she acquired while at UCLA have inspired her throughout
her three and a half years at PATH.
The organization has been around for 17 years, providing
transitional housing and health services in addition to special
treatment for people with HIV or AIDS, substance abuse problems and
homeless families.
Next week the facility will be opening up a women and
children’s center, sponsored by actor Rhonda Fleming. Its
dormitory setup will allow families to sleep in the same room and
participate in a community housing atmosphere equipped with a
living room, kitchen, meditation room and library.