Homeless Support

Millenial’s Eye-Opening Letter to LA Mayor About Homeless Women/Children (But Will He Listen?), by Jason P. Robbins, 8/26/16, Politichicks

Dear Mayor Garcetti,

Lately I’ve been working on Skid Row four nights a week. With the Monday Night Mission, a group of non-denominational volunteers and I hand out over four hundred sandwiches to Los Angeles citizens. Some are drug addicts, some are sick, but most are mentally disabled and incapable of taking care of themselves. They sit against the wall of the Midnight Mission and rot. Rats, cockroaches, and other wretched beasts make homes in their jackets and sleeping bags. These people sit, night after night, eating our sandwiches while patiently waiting to die a death that isn’t too painful.

The children of our city are also present. They patrol the night, sometimes on foot, sometimes on skateboards. Just like regular ol’ kids in the ‘burbs. Some try to sell us chocolate while their ‘mothers’ look on, scratching their faces off and whistling through missing front teeth, one eye on their offspring and one on the street.

Sex trafficking is alarmingly high for what’s supposed to be an ‘affluent’ city’ in a ‘developed country’. We’re not talking girls being shipped out of Eastern Europe here (though I’m sure that’s also fairly common on our docks). I’m talking little girls that should be in school learning to be doctors and architects. Six year old boys that are sent crying into tents in abandoned alleyways behind shiny new bistros. I’ve seen these kids. They have the same distant, glossy gaze usually reserved for vets that survived Vietnam. YOUR kids, Mr. Mayor. Have you seen ’em lately? Do you know where your kids are staying tonight?

The woman of The Row walk around with blank stares, wrapped in bed sheets, mumbling things like “they killed ’em” and “she was raped and now she preg-a-nan”. They seek shelter where there is none so their paths end up being a constant circle. Terrifyingly outnumbered by mentally disturbed men, their chances of being sexually abused at one point or another is pretty much guaranteed. Tampons are one of the hardest things to acquire for most of these women.. I’ll let you paint your own picture there. A good number I see are beyond saving at this point, completely spun out, screaming half naked on the streets while cracked out zombies chase them down the block, hungry for free sex.

There’s a nightmare in your town. A cancer that’s growing steadily every month. It’s spreading roots deeper into the concrete and casting an eager eye to your precious arts districts and sandwich bistros. There’s a giant hole next to the Midnight Mission where Hell has broken through and taken refuge in tents and wayward children. This entire rotting piece of society has been pleasantly forgotten by you, your office, your officers, and every fine folk that calls this place home. I’m a native of Los Angeles, so I’ve seen the many incarnations of Skid Row. In my time it’s never been as bad or as populated as it is right now. It used to only be a concept, now it’s a community.

Great, you named a day after Kobe Bryant. You called Los Angeles a “model city” at the DNC. You’re really getting out there and putting your face on the City of Angels. Awesome, good for you. Hope those future political plans are working out the way you want them to. Just do the job while you have it. Don’t tout this place as the Emerald City when its backside is covered in excrement and addicted to Spice.

Drop the ego and admit there’s a major problem. Go a step further and declare a NATIONAL EMERGENCY. Stop the flow of drugs (primarily Spice) onto the streets. 47 OD’s last Friday, dozens more over the weekend. Bodies are piling up behind the bistros, Mr. Mayor. Open up more shelters, while also focusing a portion of them on women. Get CPS to do nightly runs to pick up the kids that are doomed without intervention. Relocate the mentally disabled to facilities that can give them the care they need. Do SOMETHING down there. It’s a madhouse right now and you’re letting the Crazies run the show.

The next time you frequent the sunny side of Downtown make sure to hang a left and try to enjoy a nighttime stroll down the Row. Wear a nice sweater vest, keep your phone handy, and try to shake a couple hands, win a couple votes. I’m sure you might say “I’ve done that! I was there yesterday!”, and maybe you have done something like it, aides in tow, cameras and all smiles. You know what I’m talking about though. Past the politician and into the soul. Heart to heart here. You’re running a shit show face first into the ground when it comes to the ‘poor huddled masses’ we’re supposed to be watching over.

If you want to see for yourself you can meet us at the Burger King on Caesar Chavez, 730pm, five nights a week. We make the sandwiches (burritos on Tuesdays, all with products donated by the volunteers themselves, no outside funding), then carpool down to the Midnight Mission to hand them out. I know it’s a work night for you, but it’s a work night for all of us, so that’s no issue or excuse. Wear closed toed shoes, and I was joking about the sweater vest.

Seriously though, Mr. Mayor. Do something. Sincerely,

Your Concerned Citizen, Jason Robbins

Comments

There are no “model cities” with populations over 1 million. The Mayor has a responsibility to make sure that the churches have facilities, resources and volunteers enough to handle the homeless population correctly.  Women and children are usually segregated, so are families and so are single men, all in separate facilities.  If drugs and alcohol are involved with some, they need to be segregated from the rest. 

You could make the argument that if the city has recreation centers for seniors, they should have city homeless shelters.  The Salvation Army is good at this.  I would still say neither should be tax payer funded, but should be left to the churches and the families. 

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader