Keep All Families Together

PSA: All of my friends who are American citizens—especially those in Los Angeles—when you’re done rallying for and posting about keeping families together, please drop by Skid Row or whatever shelter or homeless encampment your mother, father, sister, brother, uncle, aunt, cousin, baby daddy, baby momma, grandfather or grandmother is at and pick them and […]

LA has a shelter bed shortage

There is a homeless shelter crisis in Los Angeles. We have 23,114 people living on the streets and in their vehicles. There are 10,201 existing interim and transitional housing beds, and another 274 coming in the City. We are short 12,639 beds. Even if an estimated 15% of folks weren’t willing to accept shelter, we […]

Dear White People, People of Color are Just People

People can be your friends, if they look different than you do if they walk differently than you do if they speak a language you don’t if they wear clothes you don’t expect if they have toys you thought they wouldn’t if their family has different types of members than yours if their God is […]

Darla at #Shedoes

Last USC TRAINING

Meet the Skid Row Police Leadership, Captain Marc Reina

You may remember that I started this blog when I worked on Skid Row. I have a love and hate relationship with the police. My absolute adoration changed when I began working in Skid Row. It was hard for me to tell the difference between “the Purple Shirts” and other area community forces. I learned to say […]

Aging in place

Being homeless takes a decade off your life if you’re young… imaging wjat it does to the elderly. Younger honeless people can actually measure as senior citizen s in all areas except for age… how to house them? oh, and watched an @invisiblepeople @hardlynprmal video

#walkup with care

Listen to your gut on this #walkingup business. #walkup to anyone you’ve always wanted to get to know, but somehow haven’t chatted with If you avoid some people because they set off alarm bells for you – keep on avoiding them. Don’t put yourself in danger because it is “the nice thing to do”. Especially […]

Let’s take a walk Todd

Feral? Pc’s Todd Spitzer called some of his citizens feral

Re-turn-ment Camps

Homeless Services Committee considering an ordinance to allow motels to convert to homeless housing with onsite services. I was not ready for this stakeholder comment: “We need returnment camps, someplace like Lancaster. You know, like internment camps but RETURNment camps for the homeless to give them a chance to return to society. We could have […]