26. How One Person Started a Movement to Heal Skid Row - An Interview with Andy Bales, CEO of Union Rescue Mission

On the 26th episode of Immigration Today! Angeline Chen interviews Rev. Andrew (Andy) J. Bales, the CEO of Union Rescue Mission. Union Rescue Mission (URM) is one of the largest missions of its kind — bringing help and hope to men, women, and children experiencing homelessness in Downtown Los Angeles. URM is an organization that was founded in 1891 which dedicates itself to helping men, women, and children escape the streets of Skid Row through food, shelter, education, counseling, and long-term recovery program. During their early days, URM took to the streets in gospel wagons to offer food, clothing, and salvation to the less fortunate. Over the years, URM has continued and expanded its efforts to feed both the body and the soul, helping individuals and families break the cycle of poverty and achieve self-sufficiency.

On this episode of Immigration Today! Andy talks to us about his upbringing and how he came into the field of service naturally. His father experienced homelessness and alcoholism. That, coupled with his eventual passion for teaching and his faith brought him to lean a hand in and help those in need. Andy Bales has over 35 years of experience in community outreach and service to the homeless community. While at URM, he has assisted in the development of transitional housing and permanent supportive housing for the community of LA. Andy has had a pivotal role in reshaping hospital and governmental policies related to the “dumping” of homeless patients on to the streets of Skid Row. Andy’s present focus is organizing and working with community partners to address the epidemic of homelessness in Los Angeles.

Andy discusses the diverse demographic that exists in the streets of LA, including the growing Latinx and undocumented population. He also describes the work being done by LA Mayor Karen Bass and the strong support she has given to not only get people off the streets, but to treat the long history of mental illness that haunts our fellow Angelenos. 

Andy was named as the 930th Point of Light by President George Bush in 1992, receiving the 1999 Des Moines NAACP Community Service Award, and receiving the 2004 Martin Luther King, Jr. Award from the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance of Pasadena. He was declared a Treasure of LA by the Central City Association in 2017. He has been featured in CBS’s 60 Minutes, NBC’s Dateline, CNN and Social Media, and is a frequent guest speaker at conferences, schools, and clubs. The list goes on.

You can support Union Rescue Mission by making a donating here. You can also register to be a volunteer here. If you or someone you know is experiencing homelessness, URM can help. To learn more about their emergency and recovery services, please call them at (213) 347-6300. Follow Union Rescue Mission on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube!

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DISCLAIMER – This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice or a solicitation to provide legal services. The information in this podcast is not intended to create, and receipt of it does not constitute, a lawyer-client relationship. Listeners should not act upon this information without seeking professional legal counsel. The views and opinions expressed in the podcast represent those of the individual speaker only and are not necessarily the views of Clark Hill PLC.

Transcript

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Hello, everyone. It's Angeline Chen. Welcome to Immigration Today, where I interview leaders, advocates, experts, and volunteers in immigration and immigrant rights on the issues, their experiences, and how you can make a difference. Today we have Reverend Andy Bales, the CEO of Union Rescue Mission. Founded in 1891, the Union Rescue Mission is one of the largest missions of its kind in America, bringing help and hope to men, women, and children experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles. Andy Bales has over 35 years of experience in community outreach and service to the homeless community. While at URM, he has assisted in the development of transitional housing for mothers and their children that reside in the streets of Los Angeles. He has also helped to provide permanent supportive housing for senior women in LA. Andy has had a pivotal role in reshaping hospital and governmental policies related to the dumping of homeless patients from hospitals on the streets of Skid Row. Andy's present focus is organizing and working with community partners to address the epidemic of homelessness in Los Angeles. He was named as a 930th point of light by President George Bush in 1992, also received the 1999 Des Moines NAACP Community Service Award and received the 2004 Martin Luther King Jr. Award from the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance of Pasadena. He was declared a treasurer of L. A. by the Central City Association in 2017. He has been featured in all major media outlets, including CBS 60 Minutes, NBC's Dateline, CNN, on social media, and as a frequent guest speaker at conferences, schools, and clubs. The list goes on. Andy and his wife, Bonnie have six grown children and have multiple grandchildren. They've also welcomed over 25 children in foster care alongside their own children. Andy, welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much. Good to see you. Good to see you too. It's such, honestly, I've been looking forward to this. I really appreciate your time and everything you've done. Um, can we just get right onto some questions? Sure. Awesome. Thank you. Can you tell us a little bit about how and how you developed your passion for helping the homeless? Sure. I just shared with a friend that should have come by it naturally because my dad experienced homelessness from the ages of 4 to 17 off and on. His parents had a tumultuous relationship with His, uh, father, my grandfather, uh, was a World War I vet. They only called it the World War back then. Um, but he came home, uh, with a purple heart and also a drinking problem. And often he would just drink and whistle and, and there'd be violence between mom and dad and, and, uh. They would just pack up and move and take their challenges with them. My dad remembers hanging onto his dad's neck when he was four years old as his dad jumped a freight car, traveled from Des Moines, Iowa to California, lived in a tent in Azusa Canyon, lived in a garage in Compton. I have a picture in my office of my dad and his dad standing in front of a tent in Azusa Canyon. When my dad was about 15, it's the only picture I have of my grandpa. And, uh, um, by the way, my dad's last week on the face of the earth, all he could talk about was the pain and devastation of being that homeless kid. So I should have come by this naturally, uh, but it took more than that. I was teaching school in Des Moines, Iowa at a private Christian school. And, uh, kids were picking on another classmate who they felt wasn't dressed as nice or didn't measure up. And they were calling her a loser and a nerd and a dweeb and all those names from the eighties that, um, that were popular back then. And. I just said, knock it off. Don't treat someone like that in my classroom. But then I went home that night and thought about it and thought, you know, a youngster who feels like a loser can't find love in this classroom. We're in this tough world. Are they going to find it? So I, I developed a message for the kids to change their hearts. And I turned to the Bible, Matthew 25 and verses 31 and following that says, at the end of time, Jesus and his angels are going to return and he's going to. Gather the nations before him and he's going to separate the sheep from the goats or the righteous from the unrighteous into the righteous is going to say, come take your inheritance prepared for you since the creation of the world for when I was hungry you fed me. When I was thirsty, you gave me a drink, and when I was naked, you clothed me, and sickened in prison, and you came to, and you cared for me, and, and, uh, visited me, and, and, and when you were a stranger, and that word is stranger, translated alien, or undocumented, or immigrant, uh, you welcomed me, and um, I stretched it a little bit. I told the kids that I believe that, uh, when you feed somebody, it's like feeding Jesus himself or God himself. And when you turn, turn away somebody, it's like turning away God himself. And when you, and when you give drink to somebody, it's like giving drink to God himself. And when you turn your back on somebody who's thirsty, it's like turning your back on God. And I, I said, I believe also the way you treat another human being, you. Is the way that you're treating God if you, if you, uh, say a hurting word to an already hurting person, that's like saying a hurting word to God himself. And, and I told them the, you know, the worst thing you could do to a parent is mistreat their child. And I believe we're all God's children and worst thing you can do to God is mistreat his children. And not only did I preach it once that day, but I preached it to all six of my classes. And I went home and told my wife it was the best message I'd ever heard, and I preached it, and it was so good I should have taken notes on myself, because I really changed those kids attitudes. Well, that's what I believed. The problem is, I preached six times about how important it is to feed somebody who's hungry. And then, uh, that weekend I was working at my part time job, 38 hours on the weekend at a parking ramp. I'm the guy sitting at the bottom of a seven story parking ramp, taking the tickets and the money. And I saw this guy walk up to me, uh, long, dirty beard, missing coat, uh, long, dirty coat, missing his teeth. soda pop can slung over his shoulder. And I heard him knock on my window and I knew what he was going to ask. He said, sir, can I have your sandwich? I wasn't working very hard. I was watching NFL football and, uh, on a mini screen and eating a sandwich. And I, and after preaching that message six times to the kids about how important it is to feed somebody. I said, I'm sorry, sir, but I need my sandwich. And his face grew with disappointment and he disappeared into the darkness and into the cold. And I realized I'd really missed my opportunity. I preached something six times and then failed the package. So I hoped and prayed for another chance. And I found him on the street and fed him dinner. Uh, and then a few weeks later, I didn't tell anybody this story because it was embarrassing, but my missions pastor came up to me in the hallway at church and said, Andy, there's a job open down at the mission. And I think you should go apply. So I reluctantly went to the mission. And, uh, I walked in and the food was good and the place was clean. The guys were sober and I saw it as a chance to practice what I preach. So, so really the failure that I had to practice what I preach led me to find the passion of my life, which has been, uh, for the last almost 37 years, serve people who are devastated by almost what an amazing. Story. Thank you for sharing that. I think a lot of us have that issue of practicing what we preach. I'm always trying to tell my son one thing, and then I realize I'm doing something else another time. All the time. Don't be mean to somebody. Don't yell. And then I find myself sometimes, you know, being mean, but I try not to be mean. I always try not to mean, um, no, I think that's a beautiful story. When did you, uh, start at the union rescue mission? I started, um, 18 years ago, this, this next April. So in April, I'll, I'll have been here 18 years. I was in Des Moines for, uh, more than, uh, 14. And then I was in Pasadena for nearly five. And then I came, uh, to the Union Rescue Mission and that, you know, that came about. Uh, I got displaced from Pasadena for sticking up for people who were not only devastated by homelessness, but the day laborers, uh, uh, undocumented workers who stand and wait for jobs. And, um, I, I was not only welcoming homeless people, uh, people devastated by homelessness off the streets into church, uh, but I was taking sweet bread and coffee out a couple of times a week and connecting with it. Day laborers who are waiting on the corner for a job and a neighbor and a city council person and a city planning person began to threaten the church about what I was doing. And, uh. I felt the threat. I think the church probably would have tolerated and put up with the threats that were coming, but they kept telling the church, you'll get nowhere in this city as long as you allow Andy to do this. And it was my job description that I was doing. So I ran for city council against the city councilman that was threatening the church and. And, uh, um, the church put me on a paid leave of absence to correct. They felt like they needed to corral my passion. Some thought I was mentally ill and my passion for the poor. And, and my answer was, well, if I, if I'm mentally ill, my passion for the poor, I want to get more that way. And, uh, I didn't, uh, I didn't end up running for city council, but I ended up sitting in my front yard on a paid leave of absence contemplating my future. One of the day laborers told me that when he, when he waits for a job like that, he feels like dirt. And I said, well, you know, I'm thankful for the predicament. I mean, even though it was heartbreaking and I cried for a few days. Uh, I'm thankful because it's the 1st time in my life that I. Feel like dirt and, uh, it helps me understand better what, what you're experiencing and, uh, and the next thing, you know, I'm sitting in my front yard, you know, more went into it than this, but I'm sitting in my front yard and the chairman of the board of union rescue mission, the largest rescue mission in the country. pulled up and offered me the job to come be the president and CEO of the largest rescue mission in the country. So I just looked up at the bushes and said, God, you're too good to me. I totally blew it. And, and, uh, uh, here I have the chance of a lifetime. And so that's how I ended up union rescue mission. Wow. I mean, what an opportunity. I don't understand how you could get in trouble for giving people food. You can't, you can't, but here's the story, right? City Councilman complained about me. Uh, pretty soon. The city, the city manager was complaining about me and threatening me to. to go to jail. Uh, it just went up the chain, just kept going up the chain. And finally, um, it got to the, I think it was the city attorney. And she said, she said, uh, you can't get in trouble for feeding people. You can't get in trouble for handing out, uh, uh, uh, uh, you can't get out. What, what, what's the Mexican bread called? Uh, coffee and sweet bread, you can't Mm-Hmm. you can't go to jail or get in trouble. You, you, you keep doing Yeah. Pond, you keep, you keep doing what you, you're doing and you can't have trouble. But, uh, the problem came when, when the pressure continued and I knew the church was being impacted. You can't put up this sign, you can't do this. You can't do that. And I thought I saw a movie, uh, where it's, where, where the ending, I think it was, uh, it was the one with Nicolas Cage and the constitution and all that. And, and I think, uh, ending quote said, if you have the power to do something and you, you don't do it, you know, uh, it's wrong to have the power to do something and not do it. So I ran for city council to make a statement. I was just making a statement. That, you know, that people have a right to stand up for themselves. Undocumented people have rights. And I was sticking up for for people I remember one of the things that got me in real trouble is a board member got made fun of at their country club, because they walked into their country club and somebody said, What is this with your. Your guy, uh, saying that because undocumented students make up 80 percent of the Pasadena schools that undocumented parents should be able to run for, for, uh, the school council, right? Um, I mean, that's the kind of things I was saying, because. If 80 percent of your school district is undocumented kids, then shouldn't they have some represented representation on the school board? So, so that's the kind of things I got in trouble for. And it caused, it caused some powerful people to come down on me hard and, uh, didn't agree with me. And, and, uh, it's, it's funny because, uh, more radical people follow me. After I left, then, then me, but, uh, but I still like, I, I live in God's kingdom where Matthew 25 is carried out. Right. So the way I treat a fellow human being, whether they be undocumented or homeless or, uh, or in prison is the way that I'm treating my God. And so I go, I live by those kingdom values. Uh, that everybody is precious and everybody has a right. And, uh, uh, still carry it out today. I just tell you real quickly, I was on Telemundo two nights ago, and this will tell you how tough things are too. I was in a story and they showed this story of a young mom who came from homelessness to Union Rescue Mission and went from Union Rescue Mission to living in a permanent home. It was a really wonderful story. I saw it again in DC last night, but. On the Telemundo version, I spoke, and I invited everybody that needs help to come our way. And I couldn't believe it, but I got 39 calls from families and individuals beginning that night. I think I got nine that night, seven in the morning during our chapel service. And by the end of the day yesterday, I had 39 calls from families needing help, living in their cars, living in hotels. There's There's such a need. I can't even describe you. We're overcapacity downtown. We're overcapacity at our South LA site for 86 families. We're overcapacity at our Hope Gardens family site. We are inundated right now with with families in need, especially undocumented families. I think in our gym the other night. 72 of our 98 families in our gym were undocumented from five different countries, including Ukraine and Russia. It's overwhelming. It's, oh man, I, I just, I don't know how you do it. I really don't. And, and I, we will get into a little bit more of the need. I want to go into what your mission does. You've mentioned the gym. You've mentioned hope family. You mentioned the South L. A. I know you have 1 is Skid Row. I had the pleasure of visiting the Skid Row building, the 5th floor building that you, you know, you were, um. So gracious to, to give me a tour of and the, the organization is so amazing. The process, the, the system that you have, I am always in awe. Every time I think about it. Can you give us a little bit of background about what your mission does and the different facilities? Yes, we embrace people with a compassion of Christ. That means we. As you can hear, we always say yes. We never say no, especially to families and women. How could we leave anybody out on the streets when the streets are so dangerous? We're in the, our downtown facilities in the heart of Skid Row. It's the worst man made disaster in the US, 4400 people living on the streets and a 53 square block area. Women on the streets don't have a chance of not being assaulted. Um, the, the violence, it's the most violent neighborhood in the U S according to Forbes magazine. And in the top three, you know, the first three most violent neighborhoods in the top 10 in the U S are Skid Row and, and two adjacent neighborhoods. And so we welcome everybody who wants to come into safety. And Union Rescue Mission downtown is the first stop. We have emergency shelter, we have an enhanced shelter called the Gateway Program. We also have family emergency shelter. We have men's recovery from addiction, and we have a women's recovery program. We have transitional housing. And we have permanent supportive housing the sober version on our fifth floor, and we feed over 2000 meals every day. And during the Great Recession we actually got up to about 5000 meals per day, and we had to cut back, but. During COVID, we had to reduce our size. So at one time, we had about 1, 250 people under our roof. We reduced way down. Now we're back up to about 750 people under our roof. Likely with the new rules will always stay, but we're the only mission that serves single men, single women, moms and kids, dads with kids and two parent families with kids and hope gardens is because of neighborhood restrictions for only moms and kids transitional housing, very supportive 2 to 3 year program to help families recover and get back on their feet moms to go to college or mid training and never experience homelessness again. And move out on their own. Uh, but we also have permanent supportive housing. The sober version for senior ladies at Hope Gardens. And then Angela's house is really family bridge housing or interim housing. Where two parent, uh, and single parent families can move in. And, uh, get a job and save their money. And then move into housing, hopefully in six months. Although it, uh, it's alright if it takes longer than that. So. Um, we hope to, uh, decentralize services on Skid Row and regionalize services throughout L. A. County. We, we hope to end Skid Row as we know it, uh, and, and, uh, move services to every neighborhood so that people in a neighborhood can walk in their own neighborhood to get the help they need. And because of only receiving private funding. Uh, it, it's going to take us a while, uh, to, to accomplish that. We built Angelo's House in South LA for $40 million of all private money. Unbelievable. We're, we're getting ready to start on another building, but we'll have to raise all the money. And the reason for that is because federal, state, and local funding currently. As a requirement that you have to allow alcohol and drugs, even hard drugs to flow freely. If you use federal money, it's called the harm reduction model, and we focus on recovery. We don't want, uh, families and children living in unsafe, not sober environments, so we stick with our policy of only, uh, taking private money and creating safe, sober environments for all of our guests. Interesting. Interesting. So you mentioned. You mentioned cleaning out skid row. Um, how what is your thought process around that? So I love what Mayor Karen Bass is currently doing. She's doing wonderful things. All around and beginning to get close to Skid Row close to cleaning up Skid Row, but she's doing it in a compassionate, loving way. She's offering people through inside safe and I just, I just looked over this chart. So let's see if I can remember all of it, but she's offering people if they'll trade in their tent, they'll receive a hotel room or motel room until they get housing. And, uh, she is bringing along mental health and recovery services, which previous leaders in our city and county have not been mentioning as a, as a need. Um, and I got to be witness on the loss of commission. I'm, I'm on the Los Angeles homeless services commission. So I was chairing a meeting the other day when two people came on and said, I can't believe how well this is working inside state. I traded in my tent. I got a motel room. I'm already in housing. It's wonderful to be inside. That was from Leonard. And then, uh, and then a young lady, uh, Yolanda got on and said almost the same thing. So when that comes to Skid Row, and there are activists who will fight against it. There are activists who fight to keep Skid Row, Skid Row. The gangs benefit, the cartels benefit from it. But I want to see that all end, and I want to see everybody who wants a place to have a place, uh, and, and, and leave the mean streets of Skid Row, um, and, and I firmly believe that it's something that we can do, especially with a leader like Mayor Karen Bass, uh, coming on board. So, uh, it was really disheartening the other day, I got interviewed by a newspaper. And they kept saying, well, at least criticize her a little bit, because our editors want you to criticize her. And so I, and so I said, uh, I said, well, the one thing that she hasn't done, and nobody's done it, so I can't just blame her, but we haven't prepared for these atmospheric rivers that are coming our way. We don't have a plan, an adequate plan. We should have warming centers, we should have immediate shelters, and we don't. We don't have an adequate plan. Well, they ended up, they had talked to me for 30 minutes. They didn't print one positive thing. They didn't print anything that I said, because they, they only, they picked out an activist who only wanted to criticize mayor Karen Bass's inside safe program, and it's the best thing we've seen yet on skid row or anywhere else, uh, uh, come to LA. So, so there is some hope, you know, if you had talked to me before mayor Karen Bass, I would have said we have done everything wrong. It's, it's almost a zero. We couldn't have done worse in addressing homelessness in L. A. unless we had intended to do so. Even if we had intended to do so, we couldn't have done worse because we're the capital of homelessness. We have 50, 000 people left on our streets. No other city has a tenth of the number of people on the streets that we do, not even Seattle. New York had around a twentieth of the number of people we have on the streets. More people die of hypothermia in Los Angeles than die in New York City and San Francisco combined. Five people per day die of complications of homelessness in Los Angeles. It is atrocious, but I, for the first time ever, I can say things are getting better. And hopefully we've had an influence crying out for immediate shelter, an emergency FEMA like approach and, you know, the day Karen Bass Mayor Karen Bass came into office. She declared a state of emergency. Uh, she convinced the county to do the same. She finally, while the lawyers had been fighting with Federal Judge David Carter about cleaning up our city, um, she and, um, Janice Hahn and Hilda Solis, county supervisors, met with the federal judge in his chambers and they all agreed to Up the mental health bags and really go to work at solving this. So she picked a very strong leader to lead it. Also, Felicia Adams Kellum. And, uh, I, I have great hope that. LA is finally doing something it's too early to declare victory. We're, we're just starting. I'm so glad to hear that because I did want to ask you about the current policies and the new policies. I've been seeing the mayor a lot on the media and, and it just seems like it homelessness is a priority for her so I'm glad that you're. You're validating that because what I hear on the media, sometimes I, you know, I'm not sure I'm not on the inside. And so you are, that's really good to hear. Do you think a program like that is sustainable? Does it go beyond her? Um, you know, what do you think about that? Because we're going to put them in permanent housing. That's great. Is that sustainable? Yeah, no, I, I, I have advanced Thanks. Over and over that no permanent supportive housing is not sustainable unless you have billions in tax dollars, a more sustainable model would be immediate triage care, like she's doing. Even the inside safe is is good for the short run but it gets too expensive in the long run. But we need to think about innovative immediate housing, like mobile homes container homes 3d printed concrete homes in recovery communities because we can't continue to, uh, they're right across the street they're building a giant tower of more permanent supportive housing, the harm reduction model I just read an article yesterday. Very strongly opposing permanent supportive housing, because. You put a lot of very, uh, traumatized people inside of a large building, and you don't have the support services needed to care for them. But if you could, if you could build more sustainable housing, like a 60, 000 3D, uh, 3D printed concrete home, or a 80, 000 brand new 3 bedroom, 2 bath mobile home in a recovery community, those are models that could be, uh, could be sustained. And even somebody in very low income could pay their own way, make it sustainable. We will never be able to sustain. 800, 000 current units for permanent supportive housing via via the rent that is paid, it will always take billions of dollars in that in terms of this, these other types of homes that would be smaller than the mobile homes that 3d printed ones, where would you think? Where, where could we put those? I feel like land is always, you know, limited. Always a challenge and Mayor Karen Bass has the had sought out and found the list. I mean, she's done everything that I could have asked. She fought found the list that I've had for 1020 years of 7500 empty units in, in the city. And there's even more in the county and when the. federal government came to me a few years ago, Ben Carson. Um, they wanted to provide federal land, uh, some state land for immediate shelter and housing. I mean, there's land out there surrounding us. It's just been underutilized for people devastated by homelessness. So it's been empty. It's been empty. There's empty. There's lots of empty lots of lots out there. Unbelievable. What a waste. What is just sitting there. Unbelievable. Um, I'm glad things are turning around. You mentioned that there were about 50, 000 people homeless in Los Angeles. What is the demographic of, of that, that population. Yeah, and that's in the county. Uh, and that is, that is a mix of, uh, it's a mix of probably the biggest number is singles. Although, uh, although families are fastest growing, as I described to you, seniors are a growing, uh, so in our count and our count doesn't reflect society at all, but in our we have, uh, about 300 singles here. Uh, uh, that aren't seniors, we have almost 800 family members. That means moms, dads, and kids. And then we have 218 seniors under our roof and seniors are absolutely growing. Uh, and there there's, uh, uh, too many veterans still. And, uh, certainly Latinos is our fastest growing population of homelessness by far. And, uh, blacks are way over, over represented. I think they make up 8 or 9 percent of our total population, but they make up 34 percent of the people devastated by homelessness in, in Los Angeles. That's just the snapshot. Not precise or confidence. Sure. No, sure. That's that's still very helpful. And what about, um, you were talking about immigrants that are coming in more and more. Do you have an idea of the percentage of people who are undocumented? Immigrants, it's getting huge as far as families. It's. It's and, you know, it presents challenges, lots of Google languages on, uh, on Google, trying to translate, um, it also has required us to hire more bilingual staff, uh, it also, all the circumstances, all the trauma that these folks endure as they travel from wherever they're coming from to Mexico, up through our border. And, you know, the threats and the assaults that happen on the way, uh, all of it has called us, uh, including the pandemic to have much, many more mental health workers on our staff to deal with, with all that people have, have endured from homelessness. But, but it's a growing, we have a growing number. I've heard even throughout the country, a growing number of Russians and Ukrainians. On our street, unfortunately, what so. I want to go into the, the politics a little bit because most of my, you know, our audience will be people who agree with us, but I want to play devil's advocate and, and, and, and say what, what do you say to those who comment about comment that people are homeless because they don't, you know, they're too lazy to work. They don't want to work, and they're trying to get free services, or, you know, what would you say to that if people ever say that to your face. Thanks. Well, I tend to disagree with those statements because I meet people face to face. I've never met anyone who really deep down chooses their current situation. It's a choice made out of no other choice. And it's a choice made out of a desperate choice to live on the streets, and people might even bluff for a while. Hey, I live this way because I want to, but it's, that would be an act, because there's always more to the story. There's You know, the IRS is after me for 100, 000 and I'm hiding out under an assumed name and because I still love the person I, I work to help them reclaim their identity and begin a payment plan back to the IRS, not to not face up to life, whatever circumstances. Uh, they are in, um, but I have not found people who feel good about not working, we, we, we, I think our area of the most success this year so far has been finding people jobs and people keeping their jobs. They, they need, they need some light at the end of the tunnel that isn't a train. Coming their way before they'll give life another try and I've made a, I've made a career of going out on the streets and encouraging people to give life another try. And I've rarely been rejected. Sometimes it's taken 32 weeks in a row before somebody makes the decision to come in and get help, but they do come in and make help and and so think about it. We have missions around us and we have housing around us. It's, it's, it's. Low capacity. Our mission has high expectations, high expectations for sobriety, high expectations for, uh, when you can paying your own way, uh, high expectations for, uh, getting through a recovery program, going out, finding a job, getting socially reintegrated, joining community. And we're always overcapacity. So, our, our illustration of how we work and what we do, uh, refutes anybody's argument that people don't want to help themselves. People don't want a job. People don't want, uh, to come in. People don't want to climb out of their addiction. Uh, we're, we're holding people accountable for doing all of that, and we're over capacity all the time. So I guess, you know, I guess our, I guess our mission is, uh, uh, and we have, we have parents with two jobs at Angela's house, you know, they're, they're working and they're still unable to afford something in LA, so they're working two jobs. And then now we are allowing them to live there at Angela's house, save all their money. And, and when they're ready, they can move out and, and start life again. So I guess everything we do at Union Rescue Mission and everything we are refutes. Those arguments about people wanting to stay in their current situation. Yeah, I agree. I agree. And honestly, I don't know how most people can afford to live in Los Angeles. I don't either. I I really don't. And I feel like it, it's more of a systemic issue of, of, you know, the real estate prices and, you know, it's, I, I told Mayor Karen Bass, that, that's the one thing I disagree with her. She wants to address homelessness by equalizing our incomes right. Well, something like that is a few generations away if anybody even cooperates, so that is not going to solve homelessness in the immediate. What we need to do is figure out a way to create innovative, affordable, immediate housing right now for families who can afford this new level of housing. I know it, you know, it won't, it won't match our hopes and dreams that someday live. In a mansion in Malibu, but we have to adjust our view of what we think sustainable housing is and I can tell you, uh, mobile homes brand new are pretty nice. Yeah, they're nothing to shake a stick at. And they last 30 to 40 years. I mean, you know, we know this permanent supportive housing McLean is. These older units 30 and 40 years or are all falling apart and we're having to reinvest in them. Well, mobile homes are real permanent homes and we can do even better. We can do container homes. We can do 3D printed concrete homes, we can do prefab homes, prefab homes, we can, we can adjust and if we could get all the Unions and everybody to say, yes, we need an all out, uh, FEMA like approach to the housing situation that people can actually afford to live and sustain themselves. Then then we could make a huge change. Yeah. Yeah. So I want to know what, what's the process of somebody if let's say a mother and a child show up at the skid row, um, mission. What is the process? And what did they need to go through? Because I know that you have a lot of collaborating with us. See, I mean, UCLA, Pepperdine, I feel like they're, they're, Established there as well because I remember seeing them in a legal department. So tell me how, what happens when a, a mother and child come to the University Commission. Well, we, first of all, we welcome you and if we don't have room, we'll get you a hotel room until we do have room, and then we let you rest. A few days, and then we begin to encourage you to connect with path or connect with Lhasa or see the doctor or, or go to the dental clinic or the USC dental clinic or the LA Christian Healthcare Clinic. If there's a mental health need, we have you see that Pepperdine Mental Health Clinic final year. psychology students, uh, supervised by a psychologist. Our legal department is final year law students supervised by a lawyer. Um, so they're great partnerships for both the schools and the students and us because they bring much needed care and like our legal clinic can help lift the weight off of people's shoulders of all the legal issues that people who are homeless sometimes run into. But the biggest thing is A safe, warm place to sleep tonight, a meal, and begin to work on all the other stuff with a case manager and a housing locator, uh, shortly after. Um, and it's nice because this mom who was featured on the news the other night, even last night, um, she, she stopped at every place. She, she went from Union Rescue Mission to Hope Gardens. To Angeles House and back to Union Rescue Mission and finally decided what she needed the most was housing, just permanent housing, and she was able to find it. But really offering the very things that the Family Recovery Center is an option for people who want to invest in a program to change their life, go to school, and Angeles House is an investment for somebody to make. Who's working and wants to just save money and then move into housing and union recognition is the emergency shelter safe place to come until you're ready to make a make a change. So we offer a lot to families. I wish we could offer more. I wish I, uh, we're working on plans to do more. And what we need is. Say innovative, um, immediate housing for the long run for somebody in permanent housing, um, hopefully that'll be one of our next steps. Yeah, no, definitely. Definitely. So for people who are interested in helping with the homelessness situation, what would you recommend? I'd say come for a visit. Like my friend just did from Iowa, followed my career and followed what we do here at union rescue mission serves and outreach and. In her own city, I'd say, uh, check, check it out and maybe check what's in your neighborhood and find out who's making a difference already an agency in your neighborhood and join them. And, uh, you know, I love it when somebody comes for a tour because as they walk through. They have great ideas for us to improve what we do and, uh, just get involved, get connected and get involved. Come for a tour. You're welcome to come here for a tour. Union Rescue Mission, either, either Union Rescue Mission downtown Hope Gardens, uh, uh, Family Center in Sylmar or, uh, Angeles House in South L. A. Um, but also if you're in another city or another neighborhood, you're welcome Visit the local agency that's doing the most good and get involved. No, that's great advice. I mean, right now, you know, the homelessness situation has gotten worse since I was born in Los Angeles. And I, I think since COVID and it's really everywhere. There isn't really a neighborhood that's completely sheltered from that. Oh, yeah, used to be Skid Row only and now. Every neighborhood is impacted with encampments. And that's the other thing. I mean, think about the courage of Mayor Karen Bass. She took on being mayor at the city most devastated by homelessness in the history of the United States. Think about that. I mean, that is taking on quite a chore. And every little bit we can do to help will be greatly appreciated. I'm sure. No, I can't, I, I can't wait to, to continue to see the progress and how you're doing and how the mayor is doing. I mean, even right now, I, you know, I'm in my office in downtown LA and I don't even wanna walk around anymore. And I, I, I used to and before Covid and now I, I just don't know what to do. It's actually quite overwhelming in terms of, you know, how much should I give this person? And I just can't, can't help everyone. And, and I did wanna ask you, like, how do you deal with that yourself? The, the. You know, you want to help everyone. You're helping thousands of people already. And how do you stay kind of sane and not just give it all your clothes off your back, you know, just. How do you do that? Yeah. Some would argue with whether I'm staying sane or not, but, but, uh, yeah, you know, I reminded my team yesterday, you know, all we can do, we're going to, we're going to make it so our gym can accept more families. All we can do is what we can do. And, uh, at some point we need to depend on others and call others. And I put out an all out cry. About the number of immigrant families we had in our gym and, uh, because I just, we didn't know what to do with just more and more coming our way. And we don't know what to do. Everything's full. And so I, I just cried out at the loss of commission and pretty soon cheerless common path is coming and loss of staff is coming and they're helping. Right. So crying out for help is one thing crying out to God as I did this morning for help. Um, I guess that's how I live with myself. Cry, cry myself home at times. And, uh, and I, it's funny you asked that because I told my wife last night, I still feel like there's more that I can do somehow to make sure kids, especially feel safe, you know, safe at home. Safe in school. Yeah. There's got, there's gotta be more that I can do to make this world safe for, for little ones. Um, I, I don't know what it is yet, but I'm praying about it. Oh man, I don't, I mean, you're doing such an amazing job. Being a leader for so many people, your employees, your followers, whenever you speak on social media, I listen. I'm always smiling. Always. You're always in my heart. That tour that you gave me changed my life and I encourage everyone to do that tour because the. The amount of people who need help and, and the, and the process that, that, that you have the system that you have is, is so amazing. Just, just the logistics of it, you know, of having the different meals and, and, and all throughout the day, um, and the ones for families, one for single men, one for single. I just, it's unbelievable. And, um, and, you know, whatever I can do, I will always, I will always try to send people your way. Um, and I hope, and I know our, our audience will as well and, um, help when they can. So, Andy, thank you. Thank you so much for everything you do for the homeless for us. I mean, it's, it's, it's for everyone. It's for everyone. And I just really appreciate you so much. Thank you for coming. This podcast is intended for general education and informational purposes only, and should not be regarded as either legal advice or a legal opinion. You should not act upon or use this publication or any of its contents for any specific situation. Recipients are cautioned to obtain legal advice from their legal counsel with respect to any decision or course of action contemplated in a specific situation. Clark Hill PLC and its attorneys provide legal advice only after establishing an attorney client relationship through a written attorney client engagement agreement. This recording does not establish an attorney client relationship with any recipient.