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!

 



 

 

OPEN YOUR WALLET TO THESE HOMELESS and POVERTY ACTIVISTS INSTEAD OF SPENDING IT ALL ON BLACK FRIDAY! OUR 2015 PICKS

OUR EMPHASIS THIS YEAR IS ON SMALL GROUPS or ORGANIZATIONS WITH "ROLL UP YOUR SLEEVES" TYPE MANAGEMENT and VOLUNTEERS who personally interact with the homeless and poor or organizations whose work benefits thousands - but through smaller settings. 

MY FRIEND'S PLACE - Hollywood Homeless Teens (Many coming in from other parts of the Country)
MY FRIENDS PLACE  100% privately funded

"In 1988, Steve LePore and Craig Scholz initiated a volunteer-led, mobile meal program to distribute sack lunches to the homeless youth in the Hollywood community. Soon the volunteers built trust with the young people and realized that youth are driven to the streets by abuse, abandonment and neglect by families and caregivers. The needs and challenges of homeless youth go well beyond the critical condition of hunger.

Two years later, the volunteer group first opened the doors of a facility they called My Friend’s Place where they began to offer social services and creative opportunities in addition to basic needs . Today, My Friend’s Place is a thriving, professionally staffed drop-in Resource Center serving more than 1,400 homeless youth ages 12 to 25 and their children each year. Our primary goal is to lower traditional barriers to service and provide homeless youth with the opportunity to improve their psychological, intellectual and physical capacity to reach their potential...."

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Curt's Kitchen serving the poor hot meals in San Pedro

137 N. Pacific Avenue , San Pedro, California.
(between First Street and Santa Cruz)
If you'd like to volunteer or donate contact
Helen Grove at 310.831.3480   San Pedro Catholic Worker lay ministry group
INFORMATION LINK for CURTS KITCHEN
HOLY TRINITY PARISH LINK  (source of outreach workers)

BE SURE YOUR DONATIONS ARE MARKED FOR CURTS KITCHEN.  San Pedro has become a very expensive area to live in, situated next to the Palos Verdes peninsula.  Many of the low income residents are people who have lived in the area since before it became so expensive.

*****

Angel Hanz for the Homeless (and their Pets) serving in North Hollywood at the park near the library.

ANGEL HANZ FOR THE HOMELESS

Angel Hanz for the Homeless assists the homeless with keeping their animals out of the killing shelters by supplying the animals with comfort and care, including medical, while they are on the streets. This non profit has the potential to expand services but is in need of volunteers and donations.  This group has an increasingly vegan point of view.

The group recently provided FREE RABIES SHOTS FOR CATS and DOGS by a vet!  Angel Hanz has deep empathy from personal experience.

"We always appreciate additional VOLUNTEERS!"
Call 818.358.3663 if you would like to help or if you would like more information.

You can donate via PayPal
or by mail: ANGEL HANZ FOR THE HOMELESS, INC. P.O. BOX 10716, Burbank, CA 91510

***** 

LOS ANGELES REGIONAL FOOD BANK (the source for 680 other sites for distributions.)
LA FOOD BANK - STATS and links to how to donate

One in SIX people in LA experience HUNGER.  1.7 MILLION

The bank has 680 distribution sites/agencies.

 

97Cents of every dollar you donate actually used for services including food in the parks and food for seniors on fixed incomes. 

 

 

  

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ANY ORGANIZATION THAT PROVIDES SHOWERS FOR THE HOMELESS

POPE FRANCIS MAKES HOMELESSNESS and POVERTY A PRIORITY in his VISIT TO THE UNITED STATES

Pope Francis told the bishops that they should be close to the poor, close enough to carry their scent.

USA TODAY- POPE SEES SAINT JOSEPH in HOMELESS  full article

"Addressing about 200 clients of Catholic Charities and 60 parishioners of St. Patrick Catholic Church in downtown Washington, Francis compared the poor to St. Joseph, the father of Jesus.
"Your faces remind me of his," Francis said in Spanish. "I can imagine Joseph, with his wife about to have a child, with no shelter, no home, no place to stay. The Son of God came into this world as a homeless person. The Son of God knew what it was to start life without a roof over his head. We can imagine what Joseph must have been thinking. How is it that the Son of God has no home?"

CURT'S KITCHEN SAN PEDRO - KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS, SAN PEDRO CATHOLIC LAY MINISTRY, HELEN GROVE, PARIS THOMAS and OTHERS SERVE THE HOMELESS

DAILYBREEZE - SAN PEDRO MAN WHO KNEW HOMELESSNESS PAYS IT FORWARD

EXCERPT:  About Paris Thomas

The 37-year-old has been sober from alcohol for two years and sober from drugs for almost a decade. A motorcycle ministry helped him overcome his addictions and get back on his feet, and Thomas emerged from the experience determined to lead a life of service.
The lifelong San Pedro resident decided to reach out to different congregations in town — Thomas was raised Catholic, once identified as Mormon and now considers himself a nondenominational born again Christian — about their ministries for the poor.
“I talked to Father Augustine at Holy Trinity and I asked him what the Catholics were doing for the homeless in San Pedro, and he gave me Helen’s phone number,” he said.
Helen Grove, founder of the San Pedro Catholic Worker lay ministry group, has served meals to the homeless in San Pedro for over 20 years. In 2013, she was gifted with the rent-free use of a 4,500-square-foot kitchen-equipped building that would become Curt’s Kitchen,  named after her late husband.

KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS - SERVICE CALENDER

Curt's Kitchen
137 N. Pacific Avenue , San Pedro, California.

If you'd like to volunteer contact Helen Grove at 310.831.3480 San Pedro Catholic Worker lay ministry group

POPE FRANCIS GIVES OUT 400 SLEEPING BAGS TO HOMELESS ON HIS BIRTHDAY

THINK PROGRESS - POPE GIVES OUT SLEEPING BAGS TO HOMELESS  by Scott Keyes

EXCERPT:

Francis has also been quietly sneaking out of the Vatican to minister to homeless residents living on the streets.

Addressing poverty and economic inequality has become a central theme of Francis’ nearly two-year tenure. He has attacked unbridled wealth accumulation, pointing out that Bible calls for a “legitimate redistribution of economic benefits” in order to care for the poor. “How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points?” said Francis last year. He has also been highly critical of trickle-down economics.

ST DOROTHY CHURCH IN GLENDORA HAS A WINTER SHELTER - POLICE SERVE HOMELESS CHRISTMAS DINNER!

ST DOROTHY WEB SITE  - CATHOLIC CHARITIES and SAINT VINCENT DEPAUL SOCIETY

241 South Valley Center Avenue, Glendora, CA 91741

Phone: 626-914-3941


SAN GABRIEL VALLEY TRIBUNE - GLENDORA POLICE OFFICERS SERVE HOMELESS DINNER   That's what we want to hear!

For the 13th year, St. Dorothy Catholic Church is one of the two-week host sites offering showers, food, shelter and various services through the East San Gabriel Valley Coalition for the Homeless and the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.

SAINT VINCENT DE PAUL SOCIETY - 200th ANNIVERSARY 2013 - WALK FOR THE POOR

SAINT VINCENT DE PAUL SOCIETY - A CATHOLIC CHARITY

Walk for the Poor
Saturday, September 28, 2013, 10am - 2pm. To benefit those living in poverty served by SVDPLA.
Lincoln Park, 3501 Valley Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90031. Registration $15. All walkers receive a T-shirt.
Register at: www.walkforthepoorla.org

NEW POPE FRANCIS A WORKER WITH THE POOR

The new Roman Catholic Pope, who has decided to call himself Francis, after Saint Francis of Assisi, was elected yesterday in Rome by a conclave of Cardinals. It's said that he was the person who came in second during the election of Pope Benedict, who has resigned due to fragility. 

From all we've read, YOU COULD SAY THAT THIS NEW POPE HAS BEEN A POVERTY ACTIVIST in his lifetime and that he HAS TAKEN AS A ROLE MODEL A SAINT KNOWN TO HAVE GIVEN UP ALL PERSONAL WEALTH and TAKEN A VOW OF POVERTY.

Those of us who are concerned about poverty in the United States and the World, await to see what, if any influence this new Pope will have on attitudes about those who have not.

This article in the NON PROFIT QUARTERLY is called WILL NEW POPE RENEW CATHOLIC FOCUS ON POVERTY  link cites the Washington Post.

"Such a message from Rome might invigorate the charitable activity of Catholic Charities and other institutions, offering a reinforcement of their social justice mission."

CATHOLIC CHARITIES LOS ANGELES

Catholic Charities seem to have homeless shelters around the country and each has it's own web site. This is the one for Los Angeles. We noticed that there is a shelter in LANCASTER, CALIFORNIA run by Catholic Charities. They also run the GOOD SHEPARD HOME FOR WOMEN near the city of Los Angeles.



http://catholiccharitiesla.org/what-we-do/transform-homelessness/good-shepherd-center-for-homeless-women-and-children/


LINK UPDATE DECEMBER 2016