Last issue of Venice Update had erroneous numbers for various Venice organizations finding housing for homeless or reuniting homeless individuals with their families. Since then, each organization has been contacted and below are their figures. Figures for the first six months from January to last of July 2017 were the ones sought.
HomelessTask Force
Regina Weller of the Homeless Task Force said she had found homes for 68 this year as of 31 July. Five of the number were reunited with their families and three were sent to detox. The cost (all expenditures, including labor) to place 68 people this year was approximately $77,000.
VNC Homeless Committee
Will Hawkins, chair of the Venice Neighborhood Council (VNC) Homeless Committee, says his group has reunited 12 with their families this year to 31 July with the help of SPY and St. Joseph Center. This is the first time for a neighborhood council homeless committee, an unpaid group, to get involved with reuniting homeless with their families.
St. Joseph Center, C3
Stephen Butler, assistant vice-president of programs for St. Joseph Center, said “Since hitting the streets last November, C3 has been able to get 66 people off of the streets of Venice, and into some type of shelter, recuperative health/mental health setting. They have been able to permanently house 15 people, and have 40 in the pipeline.”
Safe Place for Youth (SPY)
Rachel Pedowitz, director of housing advocacy, wrote “From January to June of 2017, 46 young people who engaged in services at Safe Place for Youth found safe and stable housing or returned home to trusted family.”
Should state “Regina Weller of the Homeless Task Force” – not Rebecca Weller. The cost (all expenditures, including labor)to place 68 people this years was approximately $77,000.
Regina Weller
Executive Director,
Homeless Task Force
Amazing Regina. Just amazing. Thank you and thank you. St. Joseph’s take in mega multi-MILLIONS and more, continually and endlessly, to ‘permanently’ house way less than a quarter of what you’ve done. Let’s not discuss the other ‘non profits’ at this point. $ And targetted locally too. Steven a 24/7 Chaplain too; called me TWICE in the middle of his chemo treatments! in Westwood to accompany me thru some extraordinary stress concerns here and etc…!! love you guys. !
For any of you who have doubts about how serious the situation is becoming here in Southern California, check out this video that was sent to me by a friend in Fountain Valley – he wrote:
“We used to use this as one of our premier bike trails to the beach in Orange County. No more!”
https://youtu.be/rLHNq9hGxIY
The amazing thing is that the government is spending millions building crap like that is planned for the Venice Blvd parking lot that will do little for the situation at hand while scenes like this and what is happening at the beach build. That, and the present feeling in Washington is to transfer this concern back to the states. I mean, California SHOULD house and finance all the homeless people from all over the US, right?