Thursday, March 31, 2016

COLD WEATHER SHELTERS CLOSED - WE WANT YOUR OPINIONS OF YOUR SHELTER EXPERIENCES

The COLD WEATHER SHELTERS, usually in National Armories, are closed in Southern California as of last week. This means that anyone who was not accepted into a program is back on the streets or parks in sleeping bags, tents, and so on. We want to send our blessings to those who have not made it into a program. But programs are NOT for everyone!

If you are having drug or alcohol addiction problems, or you are a battered woman, THERE ARE ALWAYS PROGRAMS READY TO TAKE YOU, most funded by the government. IF YOU ARE READY TO CHANGE YOUR LIFE FOR THE BETTER BEGINNING NOW, then look into these programs. Some of your friends may have been in them... some may have moved on to greater things.

You may have already graduated from a program and relapsed. Maybe it wasn't the program for you.


We would like to hear your opinions of your program!

Monday, March 28, 2016

SAN FERNANDO VALLEY HOMELESS - LAPD SUGGESTS SHELTERS - DOESN'T GET IT - HUNDREDS OF HOMELESS FOR EVERY ONE BED

NBC NEWS - NORTH HOLLYWOOD OFFICER CATALANO ON DIRECTING HOMELESS TO SHELTERS IN SAN FERNANDO VALLEY

EXCERPT

Volunteers with nonprofits and religious organizations would assist as "navigators" to help in steering the homeless to shelters or housing, under a plan proposed Wednesday by a food bank that works with the growing numbers of homeless in the San Fernando Valley.
 
"I'm proposing a team of interfaith congregations to basically train navigators at their congregations to be a part of their existing outreach programs," said Luis Oliart, director of the North Hollywood Interfaith Food Pantry.

GOOD VIDEO ON THE SITE
 
 
HOMELESSNESS
IS NOT A CRIME
IN THE CITY OF LOS ANGELES
 
 
OUR OPINION IS THAT THERE WILL ALWAYS BE HOMELESS IN A CITY WHERE HOMEOWNERS LUST OVER THE VALUE OF THEIR HOMES INCREASING TO FUND THEIR OWN SENIORHOOD and THEIR CHILDREN'S INHERITANCES, WHERE THERE IS NOT ENOUGH LOW INCOME HOUSING (and low income is now an average wage), and WHERE THERE ARE FAR TOO FEW SHELTER BEDS.
 
THERE ARE WAIT LISTS for LA FAMILY HOUSING and ALL YEAR ROUND SHELTER PROGRAMS.  So the only thing "outreach" people would be doing is "steering" people to wait lists.  Many homeless ALREADY KNOW WHERE THESE SHELTERS and PROGRAMS ARE and HAVE GIVEN UP AFTER WAITING A YEAR OR MORE TO BE CALLED.  (We advice signing up for ALL PROGRAMS!)

What we hear on the street about Officer Catalano is that he plays good cop bad cop with some of the people in the North Hollywood Park area that live in their RVs.

We AGREE that the RED LINE TRANSPORTATION HUB and GREYHOUND BUS STATION are providing transportation for the homeless from around Southern California as well as AROUND THE COUNTRY to the area
 
As for Saint Charles Church http://www.borromeoparish.com/  WHICH HAS A FOOD BANK and CLOTHING DISTRIBUTION SERVICE CENTER   You MUST expect that cleaning up after the people who seek refuge on the church grounds as a place of relative safety IS part of your Christian Ministry!  Yours is a very WEALTHY PARISH!  (remember DOLORES HOPE?) so roll up your sleeves and get to it - and ASK the homeless to HELP YOU!
 

 
 

Saturday, March 26, 2016

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY STUDY PROVES BRAIN FOLD DIFFERENCE - SCHIZOPHRENIA NEWS

UPI SCIENCE - SCHIZOPHRENIA HALLUCINATIONS - BRAIN FOLD

The author of that study, Jon Simons, a neuroscientist at the University of Cambridge, decided to look at the same brain structure among schizophrenic patients. He found a similar pattern.
For each centimeter the a fold was shorter than the average, a patients chance of experiencing hallucinations increased by 20 percent.

"We think that the PCS is involved in brain networks that help us recognize information that has been generated ourselves," Jane Garrison, first author of the new study, said in a press release. "People with a shorter PCS seem less able to distinguish the origin of such information, and appear more likely to experience it as having been generated externally."

The study didn't link the fold with schizophrenia itself. Neurologists have shown schizophrenia to consist of a varied array of conditions linked with several different parts of the brain.
A 2014 study proved schizophrenia is actually eight disorders, not a single disease -- each with distinct genetic signatures.

But in the latest study, published this week in the journal Nature Communications, researchers found the newly discovered correlation accounted for both auditory and visual hallucinations.
"To be able to pin such a key symptom to a relatively specific part of the brain is quite unusual," Simmons told BBC News.

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

PACIFIC PALISADES REACHES INTO DEEP POCKETS TO HELP LOCAL HOMELESS : WE PRAISE PACIFIC PALISADES FOR THEIR CITIZEN ACTIVIST APPROACH

Rich Pacific Palisades is Just Going to Pay to Help Out Its Homeless Residents Itself  Link to this article for more on this subject!

EXCERPT

Homelessness is rising severely throughout Los Angeles (as rents rise, wages fall, and federal money for housing disappears), and the majority of money the city spends on the problem is in law enforcement—kicking people out of homeless encampments, seizing their stuff, and issuing citations. Rich Pacific Palisades can afford to take a more humane approach: it's privately raising $500,000 to provide its own health and housing services to its homeless residents (it's estimated there are about 180 in the neighborhood), reports the LA Times. It's a rare move and probably for good reason—government services for everyone tend to suffer when rich people opt out (see public schools), and LA is already doing a poor job of helping out its homeless citizens. Still, as an immediate solution, it's certainly better than calling in the LAPD.

Pac Pal has contracted with Santa Monica-based Ocean Park Community Center and hopes to employ two full-time outreach workers by January (2016) who will help its homeless residents connect with services, including short-term and long-term housing. (The effort has already raised $100k.) That's another issue with the plan: just because homeless people don't have homes, doesn't mean they don't have communities, and Pac Pal's effort is unlikely to find them housing in their neighborhood. The area has fought a sober living home in the past and is unlikely to make room for much affordable housing. One national homelessness expert tells the LAT "It would be great if the community thought about the creation of affordable housing in their community."

Friday, March 18, 2016

COMMUNITY DISTRIBUTION CENTER - SUN VALLEY - $30 FOOD FOR FAMILY OF SEVEN FOR ONE WEEK

Community Distribution Center  http://communitydistribution.org/
(818) 759-0616

11350 Saticoy Street (Tujunga Ave.)
Sun Valley, CA  91352

$30 fee  150-200 pounds of groceries including meat, eggs, dairy, frozen food, baker and produce food. Enough to feed a family of seven for one week.

OPEN  MONDAY - SATURDAY  8 AM - 6 PM   (CLOSED SUNDAY)

The mission of the Community Distribution Center (CDC) is to solicit and distribute surplus food and non-food items. The CDC is an additional resource for families and people struggling to make ends meet.

 To accomplish our mission of stamping out hunger we will:
  • Make food affordable to needy families
  • Obtain food and other products and distribute through charitable partners
  • Create hunger awareness and education campaign for public support
  • Offer additional resources and services for families and people in need

Tuesday, March 15, 2016

LANCE STEWART and ADIN KOLANSKY CITIZEN POVERTY ACTIVISTS DISTRBUTE BURGERS POPTARTS WATER to the LA HOMELESSa



NY DAILY NEWS MCDONALDS BURGERS FOR THE HOMELESS BY Rebeca Ibarra

Lance Stewart and his lifelong friend Adin Kolansky pass by dozens of homeless people on their nightly jogs down Hollywood Boulevard.

"I always wish I could help them," Stewart told the Daily News.
So Steward did – and Kolansky got it all on camera. ...

Once the burgers ran out, Stewart went into a Rite Aid and spent $100 more on Pop Tarts, Lunchables and water.

They handed out food for about six hours, Stewart said.

Their kind gesture went viral in less than two days. By Saturday afternoon the video had been viewed more than eight million times.

Saturday, March 12, 2016

SOARING RENTS, LOW WAGES, HIGH UNEMPLOYMENT, GENTRIFICATION MEAN MORE HOMELESS IN TENT CITIES

LA TIMES HOW LA HOMELESS CRISIS GOT SO BAD  by S and Gale Holland


"The number of tents, makeshift encampments and vehicles occupied by homeless people soared 85%, to 9,535, according to biennial figures from the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority."



Experts blame soaring rents, low wages and stubbornly high unemployment.

They point to gentrification downtown and in Venice, where cheap hotel rooms, motels and single-room apartments -- once the last refuge of the poor -- are being eliminated
 
 

Thursday, March 10, 2016

LA HAS RECORD NUMNER OF HOMELESS IN NATION

LATIMES - HOMELESS NATIONAL NUMBERS - LA HOMELESS CAPITAL  full article by Gale Holland

Los Angeles city and county have the most chronically homeless people in the country, and nearly all of them sleep on the streets, according to figures released Thursday by the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department.

L.A.'s chronically homeless population has grown 55%, to 12,536, since 2013, accounting for almost 15% of all people in that category, HUD reported. More than one-third of the nation's chronically homeless live in California, the agency added.
L.A.'s spike outpaced New York City's one-year increase, the second largest, 3 to 1, the report said. The number of chronically homeless people nationwide remained basically flat, rising 1%, the report said.

Sunday, March 6, 2016

TERRIFIC TRAFFIC TICKET AMNESTY- HERE IS WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TO GET YOUR TICKETS DISCOUNTED and YOUR DRIVERS LICENSE BACK!

The traffic ticket amnesty program reduces the overall fines owed by those who with eligible tickets.

IT WILL ALSO REINSTATE DRIVERS LICENSES THAT WERE SUSPENDED DUE TO FAILURE TO APPEAR IN COURT (FTA) and/ or FAILURE TO PAY TICKET FINES.  (FTP)

You can apply through MARCH 31, 2017

Tickets before 1/1/13
If your tickets are from before this date you can get your fines reduced (by up to 80%).
You can sign up for a PLAYMENT PLAN BASED ON YOUR INCOME and GET YOUR LICENSE REINSTATED RIGHT AWAY!  ****  You can pay in full if you want.  HAVE EVIDENCE OF YOUR LOW INCOME such as a statement from SS or GR before you apply.  Also get a print out from the DMV showing the CAUSE of your suspended license.

Tickets after 1/1/13

If your tickets are from after January 1, 2013 
You can get a payment plan and your license back but not the discounts.

THIS PROGRAM IS NOT JUST FOR TRAFFIC/DRIVING TICKETS but any TICKET handled by Traffic Court with these exceptions:
DUI
reckless driving
parking tickets

And this program does NOT apply to those who OWE VICTIM RESTITUTION or WHO HAVE ANY OUTSTANDING FELONY OR MISDEMEANER WARRANTS OF ANY KIND.

CHECK THE COUNTY WHERE THE TICKET WAS ISSUED FOR MORE INFORMATION.

****  INCOME DISCOUNTS GO FROM 50% to 80%

AB 60 APPLICANTS - UNDOCUMENTED INDIVIDUALS who have been DENIED a LICENSE because of UNPAID TICKETS can participate in this program...

IF YOU ARE HOMELESS AND IN A SHELTER YOU MIGHT ALSO WANT TO CHECK OUT  "HOMELESS COURT" http://www.ladpss.org/dpss/grow/homeless_court.cfm




Wednesday, March 2, 2016

NORTH VALLEY CARING SERVICES - BREAKFAST and FOOD BANK - MUST BRING ID - ALSO ESL - CHILDRENS EDUCATION - SUPPORTIVE SERVICES

NORTH VALLEY CARING SERVICES   http://nvcsinc.org/
(818) 891-0481  ext. 20

15453 Rayen Street (Sepulveda) North Hills, CA   91343

Provides emergency food on the first and third Wednesday of each moth between 12:30 and 1:30 PM.  Individuals can come both days of the month to receive food.  Need to sign in by the first Monday of the month between 8 Am and 3 PM and BRING ID.

Breakfast program opens on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays between 6:30 am and 9: am.  The breakfast program also requires an ID.

"North Valley Caring Services began as an outgrowth of the Sepulveda United Methodist Church and has been serving the North Hills area for over 35 years. Originally organized as a breakfast kitchen for the area’s homeless population, NVCS continues to serve all disadvantaged residents via its Breakfast Program and Food Pantry.

Expanding our services in 1992, the NVCS campus became a Shalom Zone to advocate, mediate and counsel residents caught in the uproar of the Los Angeles riots. Since then, we have continued to evolve, mature and improve, becoming a 501c.3 organization in 1995.

 From its humble beginnings as a soup kitchen, the agency has grown to offer an array of programs that help individuals and families succeed in life. Today we are proud to provide a comprehensive Family Literacy Program including Adult ESL Courses, Early Childhood Education, and Parenting Classes; a Youth Program and a Supportive Services, including our Breakfast Program and Food Pantry. In addition to these larger programs, NVCS has added further services in response to community requirements, including the Holiday Toy Give-Away, the Thanksgiving Meal, Health Screenings.