A"Treasure of Los Angeles", Lamp was honored on Thursday for it's achievements. These men live in an independent apartment building owned and run by Lamp. Lamp has placed Supportive Services into the building to help the tenants transition form homelessness to successful independent adults.
 

Dignity

Even in the shelter, he irons his clothing

 

 
These are some of the men who keep us up and running. They fix everything. 

 


Sometimes I forget to come back and show you the beauty of Skid Row. Some philanthopist will say the beauty is the social work, but I believe it is the faces of the people on the street. Majestic or withered, people are beautiful. 

You know you are on Skid Row when this is how the streets are cleaned!



Yes, the police are guarding the workers. I am dtrying my best not to mention that you can sell drugs right next to the police cars while they are out on guard duty and you won't get arrested and unless an official or reporter are out and about, you won't see them again until the next street cleaning day. Aren you proud of my restraint and self control?

This is Stoney, I knew if Ilooked hard enough I could find a picture I had taken of him,
I told him about the NPR article and he smiled ad said "yeah, they paid me 10 bucks for that".

It is odd to see someone you know in the news . . . this NPR article has a picture of Stoney whom I have known for years.

He is not exactly who I would pick to write a story on homelessness about; but on the other hand, this man is a scrapper. He can sell a single tennis shoe for $4.00 then buy 2 shirts with the proceeds and sell them for $10.00 and on and on. Recently there was a news article about the man who turned a red paperclip into a house through barter, well, he has nothing on Stoney Bob.

I have found this man asleep in my car, under my car, outside my office door, in the stairwell, seen him fleeing the back of a delivery truck, pulled printers from out under his shirt., If it is not nailed down Stoney will find it, get it and turn it into a tool for survival. And really, more power to him. Although I never appreciate being robbed by anyone, including Stoney, he does not have the Entitlement issue so many other people have, He does not think the world owes him a living, he will find a way to survive on his own terms. Now I know you probably just shuddered and shook your heads and said "What a criminal", some of you did, I can see you through the screen! Take a moment to wonder why it is such a horrible thing and why you despise what he does to survive when you cheered on a younger version of him in Aladdin. . . Perhaps it is food for thought.

"One Jump Ahead"
Aladdin:Gotta keep
One jump ahead of the breadline
One swing ahead of the sword
I steal only what I can't afford
( That's Everything! )

One jump ahead of the lawmen
That's all, and that's no joke
These guys don't appreciate I'm broke

Live, Love, Laugh!
These stickers are on the outside of a transitional housing program on Crocker Street on Skid Row.
I like it. I also think there should be one that syas "Eat, Shower, and Be Safe" 

Gil Cedillo - local hero or really good at political double talk
The following is an excerpt from his interview with LA Downtown News Online.

Q: What did you see?

A: A lot of drugs. Lots of drug abuse and alcoholism. I'm familiar with that. I've had my brother-in-law go through recovery Downtown. I don't think there's a family in America that is immune from the challenges of alcoholism or drug abuse regardless of their economic situation.

So from that emerged our desire to create a recovery zone - a place, a sanctuary, for people who do have the challenge of drug or alcohol dependency to seek treatment and to do so in an environment that does not tolerate drug dealers preying upon their vulnerabilities. We're not liberal about that. We wouldn't tolerate that anywhere in the city, why would we tolerate that Downtown?

[One of our bills] would create the drug free zone, and one would enhance penalties for drug dealers. Then we want to [create] a drug court that deals with people who are drug or alcohol dependent or people who suffer from mental illness and who can make those distinctions. And then not criminalize those people but make circumstances for them to make a recovery.

There's also this question of dumping. Many people in this county, many people in this region and throughout the southwest send people to Downtown Los Angeles. They do not embrace their responsibility to members of their communities to provide services. Downtown cannot bear the burden of services for 13 million people.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pardon me for beingCaptain Obvious, however, I thought that the law of the land made all of America a Drug free zone? Is there some special sanctuary for crack that I am yet unaware of? Does Skid Row exist in this magical land? Yes, I know my tone is obnoxious, but Good Lord Man! Could you stop using political Double Talk and just say the following:

“I want the police to enforce out drug laws. I want them to protect these laws with the same effort they protect the Earth Movers on Street Sweeping Days on the Row. I want the police to be a visible presence and occasionally look the residents of Skid Row in the eye. I want the police to see the residence as PEOPLE and not as PROBLEMS. The police might as well not exist when they are never here on the streets and when they are here like the people here are invisible to them.

I want the residents of Skid Row to see and respect and trust the police officers. I want the drug users to know that their use in not unseen so that they either seek help for their addictions and come out clean onto drug free streets, or use somewhere other than the row because we will not tolerate drug use.

I want the police to stop turning a blind eye to the Lexus and Mercedes that stop in the middle of the street on the 1^st and 3^rd of every month, roll down their windows and deal drugs from their cars. I want the police to stop racially profiling and if they have a need to discriminate anyone, let them investigate anyone with a car worth more than my annual wage. If they look scared then they are lost, if they drive a little too slowly they are looking to sell.”

Okay, wait: there is more. Lets talk about this :a drug court that deals with people who are drug or alcohol dependent or people who suffer from mental illness.

I would like to introduce you and Mr. Cedillo to a little thing we call Homeless Court. What follows is a quote from their site "

The Homeless Court (HC) program was created by the Los Angeles County Superior Court, the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office, the Los Angeles Public Defender’s Office and advocates for the homeless including Public Counsel and the Los Angeles Homeless Service Authority (LAHSA).

This program helps impoverished individuals with a history of homelessness to clear tickets and warrants for minor offenses such as traffic tickets, infractions, and various minor misdemeanors including jaywalking, riding the metro without a fare, sleeping in public places, illegal use of shopping carts, possession of an open container of alcohol in public, obstructing traffic on the sidewalk, sleeping on a bus bench, as well as any warrants that arise for failure to resolve these offenses"


Pardon me - I as am in an off mood today. As I read that article it brough back memories of eating at the Green Bamboo watching 8 police, yes, 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8 police officers arrest a homeless man who took a really long time drinking his coffee outside of Starbucks. The SWAT team was seated behind me at an outside table. They left and as they passed the short policeman leading the arrest, the SWAT leader said "We don't want none of your kind of action." My love for our SWAT team grew three sizes that day.

There were more stories about homeless dumping. This one is in the Whittier Daily News. It even made it into international news with the Times Online UK. Perhaps international scrutiny will speed up the change?

You already know my view. We don't need stabilization centers. We need a broad spectrum of services and varying levels of housing to be made available to the residents of Skid Row. It is my hope that Supportive housing models, long term Transitional Living residences, and other new non-traditional housing types will be implemented. I know that non-traditional is scary to the main stream populous, but homeless people live a non-traditional lifestyle so meeting their needs head on with non-traditional means might be the answer we have over looked. I also hope that it will create stabilization levels for people in the process of becoming homeless so the most motivated of them can find somewhere to stick before they are permanently homeless.