Email: Allison McCullough

Dear Friends and Family,

I hope this finds you well, wherever you are right now. Your support through letters, phone calls, and prayer continues to uplift and sustain me during this year of service. In past letters I have described the D.O.O.R. program and my community, two very important aspects of life here in Hollywood.  But I have shared very little about my service placement with People Assisting the Homeless (PATH). Working with the homeless was not my first choice when considering placement options, but it has proven to be a profound and life-shaping experience. Hopefully, the stories and facts that I impart will help you to understand a little about homeless and what it looks like in LA.

According to the National Coalition for the Homeless, a lack of affordable housing and high rates of poverty are two major factors contributing to homelessness in the US. (I recommend the Web site of the National Coalition for the Homeless as a good source of information.)

 The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has created a definition of homelessness which is generally accepted among communities and service agencies. HUD’s definition of homeless is:

1. an individual who lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence;
2. an individual who has a primary nighttime residence that
   • a supervised publicly or privately operated shelter designed to provide temporary living accommodations (including welfare hotels, congregate shelters, and transitional housing for the mentally ill);
   • an institution that provides a temporary residence for individuals intended to be institutionalized;
   • a public or private place not designed for, or ordinarily used as, a regular sleeping accommodation for human being.

Other cited factors include: a lack of affordable health care, domestic violence, mental illness, and addiction disorders.

PATH focus its resources on serving the people who meet HUD’s criteria for homelessness.      

LAHSA—the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority—does a count of homeless individuals in the LA area every two years. This year I participated in all three nights of the count and served as a lead enumerator. According to reports from the 2007 count, an estimated 68,608 people are homeless throughout LA County on any given night. It is estimated that as many as 10,000 are children under the age of eighteen. When all continuums of Los Angeles County are included, the number is closer to 73,702.

Numbers like these are overwhelming when you consider that the county of Los Angeles has approximately 73 million dollars of HUD funding to address issues of homelessness in the 2008-2009 fiscal year. LAHSA’s Web site has good information about some of the funding available to help the Homeless in LA.

If we consider the 63,608 estimate, this allows the county to spend a little over 1,147 dollars on each person who is homeless. My number crunching here does not account for the people who experience a period of homelessness and return to stable housing. LAHSA estimates that 141,737 people experience homelessness for some time period during the year. The LAHSA Web site also has good information about emergency winter shelter services in LA.  

The infrastructure necessary to support people in their transition off the streets costs far more that 1,147 dollars per person. Some of my clients need that much money just for dental work. While private donors and independent service contracts supplement HUD funding, there is still not enough money meet every need. In LA county there are only about 15,000 emergency shelter and transitional housing beds available on any given night. During the cold and rainy winter months, December 1 through March 15, emergency shelters open there doors to house 1,700 additional individuals. Still, the majority of people who are homeless in LA sleep on the streets, in cars, or in  encampments. My job here is to work with people who are not accessing services to end their period of homelessness.

PATH considers me a “Street Outreach Case Manager Intern,” and each week I spend 32 hours filling this role. My teammates and I begin our work at 7:30 a.m. in the PATH Hollywood shelter. Depending on the day of the week, we visit one or more of five cities in Los Angeles County: Hollywood, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Inglewood, and Westchester. Each city is very different, yet all are affected by homelessness in LA.

The first step of street outreach is establishing a trusting relationship with the client. For me, my God of love and grace is present during the process of creating community with clients, even if I never speak God’s name. We build trust by respecting the clients’ choice to accept or decline services. We visit clients as regularly as possible and offer items to meet immediate needs, such as sack lunches, blankets, clean clothes, and hygiene kits. We listen to what the client has to say and avoid judging them. After establishing a solid relationship we often have the opportunity to begin working with a client at their pace to transition off the streets into shelter. This process can occur over only a few meetings; however, it can also be much more involved, taking three months to years of constant contact. We consider each client an individual with unique needs and allow the client’s goals to determine the pace of progress. This is not to say that we support a client’s choice to stay on the streets, but that we must ultimately come from a position of respect that empowers the client to make positive life choices.

A great many of our clients are physically and mentally healthy. They only lack a job and enough money for first and last months rent. These people are often able to successfully navigate the web of social services with minimal case management and outside support. Other people are far more vulnerable—those with severe physical conditions like cancer, HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C and B, paralysis, MRSA, contagious skin conditions, diabetes, and renal disorders. Some of our clients have untreated mental health issues ranging from mild depression to severe schizophrenia. Others struggle with the abuse of alcohol, illicit drugs, and prescription drugs.

When an individual faces any combination of physical, mental, or substance-abuse issues, their transition out of homelessness is more difficult and requires greater outside support. In these cases, we are able to secure emergency shelter for people as soon as they are ready. Additionally we advocate on their behalf while case management services are setup in the shelter setting. For me, this is the beauty of street outreach. When given the opportunity to make healthy decisions in a safe, supportive setting, most people take full advantage.

I have witnessed people move through homelessness in different ways since I arrived here in September. I watched two young people lose their car, all their possessions, and end up sleeping in a park over a period several months. While this was difficult to observe, our presence during the process made it possible to offer shelter services when the clients were finally ready to make a change. If we had not been present with them throughout this process it may have been much more difficult to get them to accept services.

In another case we were able to help someone over 70 regain housing after the loss of an apartment. This person spent almost six months living in a car in a church parking lot. This incredibly strong individual reached out to the city for help, and we were able to stand by as a source of support, offering emergency shelter through PATH while housing arrangements were made. As a follower of Christ, I am a little disappointed that the city and not the church was the moving force in this person’s transition out of homelessness.

There are times when we bring people into shelter, they refuse to follow the rules, and are then kicked out within days of arriving. There are times when we feel like we are making progress with a client on the street, and the next time we see them they yell for us to stay away. Clients sometimes allow their physical condition to worsen and refuse medical attention to the point that it becomes a life-and-death issue. Some clients turn to prostitution despite the threats it poses to their health and wellbeing. Some clients continue to consume alcohol and drugs even though their bodies cannot handle the chemicals any longer. These cases are hardest for me to deal with, and they leave me with feelings of concern and sadness at the end of the day. However, I know that these people deserve respect and care regardless of their personal choices. It is my job as an outreach worker to stand ready to help the most vulnerable at any time.

For this reason, outreach work resonates with my understanding of Christianity. I believe that every person I meet somehow reflects the image of God, and I am blessed through my interactions with them. The year has caused me to face some of the most broken parts of our society. I am concerned that the Church avoids these parts of society because of fear and anxiety. I know that I hesitated to take a placement at a social service agency that served the homeless because of fear and anxiety. The sadness that I have experienced this year pales in comparison to my experiences of the Kingdom of God here on earth. As I sat next to someone shaking with the pain of withdrawal from alcohol one day several months ago, he called out to God with tears running down his face. I did not talk to him about God, but I placed a hand on his shoulder and promised that in that moment he was not alone. I think that is what we are called to do for each other. Housed or homeless, addicted or clean, angry or joyful, we all deserve to know that we are not alone and that God calls us to be in community with others. My placement at PATH is one more way that I struggle to understand God’s call to community this year.

With Love and Peace,

Alison McCullough