On the rooftop of the Union Rescue Mission, Wednesday April 8th, 2009, Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo announced that a settlement agreement has been secured with College Hospital for the dumping of as many as 150 psychiatric patients in and around skid row over a two-year period.
PRESS RELEASE FROM THE OFFICE OF THE CITY ATTORNEY ROCKARD J. DELGADILLO
L.A. City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo Secures Settlement with College Hospital Over Dumping of Psychiatric Patients on Skid Row
Groundbreaking Injunction Against Dumping of Psychiatric Patients
His office has secured a settlement agreement with the hospital that will establish a groundbreaking injunction prohibiting College Hospital’s Costa Mesa and Cerritos facilities from dumping psychiatric patients in and around skid row, new protocols for the discharge of homeless patients with mental disorders, and $1.6 million in civil penalties and charitable contributions.
College Hospital has agreed to pay $1,200,000 in charitable contributions to a number of organizations that care for the mentally ill and the homeless, including Hathaway-Sycamores Child and Family Services, Men Chabad Residential Treatment Center, Lamp Community, the Midnight Mission, New Image Emergency Shelter, and the Union Rescue Mission.
“To think that medical institutions that are charged with caring for this extremely vulnerable population would then turn around and dump them in the streets is despicable. Today the City is saying think twice before you do it again.” ~Councilman Jose Huizar
Heroes for Hope Fundraising Lunch
June 10th, 2009
12:00pm
Saint Vibiana’s Cathedral 210 S. Main and 2nd Street
Los Angeles, CA
Valet Parking
For more information or to make a reservation, please contact Rosie Perez at (213) 673-4593 or rperez@urm.org
Come see what goes on at the Union Rescue Mission! Formal Tour Dates:
April 8th, 13th, 25th at 11am-12pm and 1pm-2pm
May 6th, 15th, 23rd at 11am -12pm and 1pm-2pm
June 3rd at 11am-12pm and 1pm-2pm
If interested in attending a tour please contact Rosie Perez at (213) 673-4593 or rperez@urm.org
The first annual Hearts and Souls for Homeless Families was held on Saturday April 4th at Soul Studios in Hollywood. World renown celebrity photographers Jack Guy, Bill Curry, Sheryl Nields, Jason Willheim, Scott Miller, Eric Raptosh, Gregg Segal, Jordan Nuttall, Lee Jeffries and Alfredo Falvo donated their work for a silent auction that raised much needed funds for the Union Rescue Mission.
Hollywood celebrities Sean Brosnan, Christian Gibson, Catherine Mary Stewart and Michele Scarabelli joined URM CEO Andy Bales in honoring Steve Lopez–Los Angeles Times columnist and author of The Soloist. Mr. Lopez was awarded as Union Rescue Mission’s first ever Hero for Hope Honoree for his long-standing support of URM. Through his influential journalism, Mr. Lopez played a vital role in the success of URM’s battle for Hope Gardens Family Center. His writing continues to significantly impact the community at large, raising awareness, compassion and change toward the homeless cause.
During the event Mr. Lopez shared inspirational words, encouraging the crowd on hand to care for the less fortunate.
Foreclosure Home Articles referenced Union Rescue Mission, stating that the flood of foreclosed homes is primarily leading families to seek emergency shelter.
The flood of homes to foreclosure has left hundreds of families in California homeless and in despair. Most of these homeless families were forced to seek emergency refuge over the winter. In fact, the number of families of foreclosed homes who were seeking emergency refuge in Los Angeles County has increased twice as much as last year.
Los Angeles Homeless Service Authority executive director Rebecca Isaacs pointed out that families bore the brunt of the economic crisis. She cited several factors that trigger homelessness, including increase in rent, eviction, unemployment, domestic violence, foreclosures and health tragedy.
On the other hand, Los Angeles County reported a 4 percent increase in the total number of individuals who sought shelter this winter. The Union Rescue Mission reported a 14 percent rise in individuals and 631 percent increase in families at its four affiliated winter shelters.
Reverend Andy Bales, chief executive officer of the mission, noted that foreclosures are affecting more families than individuals. He added that individuals who recently lost their jobs were more likely to stay with a family member or friend.
LA Times writer Steve Lopez To Be Honored Soul Studios Opens Its Doors for Auction
LOS ANGELES CALIF. —– On Saturday, April 4, 2009, Soul Studios and the Union Rescue Mission will have its first ever fundraiser at Soul Studios featuring a silent auction of photographs by some of the top celebrity and fashion photographers in the industry. Iconic works by Jack Guy, Bill Curry, Sheryl Nields, Jason Willheim, Alfredo Favo, Gregg Segal, Jordan Nuttall, Scott Miller, Eric Raptosh and Lee Jeffries. The 30+ images, some of them stark and disturbing, some of hope and some of tragedy, are all part of the new Great Recession happening right in our own backyard.
Skid Row in Los Angeles is what many people call the epicenter of homelessness in our Nation. Los Angeles is now experiencing a “tsunami” of families, single dads with children, single women with children and two-parent families coming for shelter at the Union Rescue Mission. Many have never experienced homelessness before. The numbers are incredible – 47% more individuals and over 400% more families than Union Rescue Mission saw last year. 32% more meals served everyday and the number of food boxes given out to local residents is up 7 times.
Union Rescue Mission CEO, Andy Bales said “As I walk down the streets of Skid Row, it looks like a sea of broken hearts. Families priced out of housing, victims of foreclosure, breadwinners downsized out of jobs, women battered out of relationships. But, I think the most heartbreaking people I meet are parents agonizing for their children who bear a terrible burden of fear, illness and insecurity from homelessness. ” He continues “Skid Row is especially difficult and dangerous for women and children, and it breaks my heart to know that as I write this, the numbers of homeless families are growing.”
With the plight of the national economy resulting in decreased donations, Soul Studios owners Sandy and Chuck McKnight are determined to do something to help raise much needed funds. Along with their studio manager Shell Bilyew, the McKnight’s have pledged to make this an annual event.
During the course of the evening, LA Times columnist Steve Lopez will receive the first Hero for Hope award for his support to the Mission. Mr. Lopez was instrumental in helping the Mission secure Hope Gardens Family Center in Sylmar. A bronze bench with Mr. Lopez’s full-size likeness will be placed in the gardens at the Sylmar facility.
For more information contact: Kitty Davis-Walker @ (213) 673-4585 or (213) 507-5562.
About Union Rescue Mission
Union Rescue Mission is a non-profit organization dedicated to serving the poor and homeless. Established in 1891, URM is one of the largest rescue missions of its kind in the United States and is the oldest in Los Angeles. It provides a comprehensive array of emergency and long-term services, including food, shelter, clothing; medical and dental care; Christian recovery programs, transitional housing, legal assistance, education, counseling and job training to needy men, women, children and families. For more information, please visit our website www.unionrescuemission.org
A young lady came into my office, disappointed with a gentleman that she really looked up to. She asked me, “Are there any good men left?” Her righteous anger was good for me to see, it reminded me of how easy it is to fall into temptation, and how hurtful it is when a leader is the one who falls. Her question caused me to prepare a message for Union Rescue Mission’s Chapel last Tuesday (March 24th). I answered the question from the Bible, especially from Romans 3:22 (ASV) 22 Even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ unto all them that believe; for there is no distinction; and
Romans 6:23 (ASV) 23 For the wages of sin is death; but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. ,
And then to provide a practical, living example to answer the question, I shared the story about my Dad, who is struggling in his last days with kidney and heart failure.
I shared what my Dad said to me as I sat at his bedside the other day;
“Can you imagine a family riding in freight cars during the Great Depression, Andy, with 3 little ones, and me the littlest at 3, hanging on my Dad’s neck until my Dad said “you are choking me!” I said, “I have to hang on to something!” I asked where they went to the bathroom. “We went wherever, right on the railroad car. We would have died if my Dad hadn’t dug through the wall of the car with his pocket knife and yelled for help. His hands were all bloody.”
They traveled on freight cars, lived in a tent in Azusa Canyon, a garage in Compton, another garage in Baldwin Park, and in a tin shed in Des Moines, Iowa
“I came home from Boy Scout Camp one time expecting to be greeted and welcomed home, and found that everyone had left, gone. I was featured in the Des Moines Register, the local newspaper, praying beside the bed in my Grandma’s house, praying that my Mom would come home. My Grandpa would say, where would you be if you didn’t have us? It was a nightmare to live that way, drunkenness, fighting, I’d come home and they would be drunk and shooting a rifle in the back yard, right in the neighborhood. My Mom was never home, out running around. My Dad did his best, helped me when I was sick, or hurt, but Mom was never there. I can’t figure out why it took me until I was 17 to move out into my own place, and then I took my Mom in with me when she ended up in need.”
My Dad said it was on one of those weeks when he stayed with another family, that he saw how a normal family worked and operated. He determined in his mind to live in a way that was different than the way he had grown up.
The Bible talks about the curse that parents can put on their children for generations, but it also says that this can change;
My Dad enlisted in the Army and became a paratrooper. He married a beautiful, nice Catholic girl, my Mom. He struggled a bit until he was invited to a local church by my Aunt and Uncle. I was in my Mom’s womb when they heard the Gospel presented in a powerful way. That night my Mom and Dad walked up the aisle of the church, and accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior. That same day my Dad dedicated their unborn baby to the Lord. I was blessed from even before my first day on earth. What a difference that made in my life.
Deuteronomy 5:9 (TLB) 9 You shall not bow down to any images nor worship them in any way, for I am the Lord your God. I am a jealous God, and I will bring the curse of a father’s sins upon even the third and fourth generation of the children of those who hate me; but I will show kindness to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.
My Dad’s choice to follow the Lord and dedicate my life to the Lord made an eternal difference in my life and the lives of my children and their children.
At 5, I heard a message regarding the Rich Man and Lazarus, and that night I knelt by my bed and asked Jesus Christ to forgive my sins, and come into my life.
At 7, my Dad and I were on the way to AWANA’s, a group like Boy Scouts with a Christ emphasis, and I was having some doubts about my faith. “Andy, he said, “that is just the devil trying to work on you. Did you ask Jesus in your heart? Yes! Then you are saved and Jesus will never leave you nor forsake you!”
My dad’s one fault that I recognized early, and I adopted, was that he worked too much and too hard. I found out why later. For many years he struggled as a butcher, doing that for 15 years. He was the guy in the slaughter house who knocked out the cow so others could cut up the meat. He then moved to another business as a warehouse worker at $2.38 an hour. He worked himself all the way up to Vice President. It was a feed company. He then designed one of the first spray washers and launched his own car wash business. He was working so hard to provide for all of us, so that our lives would not be like his when he was young. He spoiled me. One Christmas he gave me a motorcycle helmet and I said, what do I need this for, I don’t have a motorcycle! “Check the garage!” The gas crisis hit and the car wash business tumbled. He struggled. We lost everything. Overnight we went from living in a house with 5 acres and an indoor pool and driving a new Cadillac to moving into a duplex and driving an old Volkswagen. I went from completely spoiled to not even affording football shoes so I could play football until someone helped us. Those were tough times, my brother was in prison, my folks had lost everything, I had become a diabetic and spent time in the hospital, but an interesting thing happened; My Dad spent a few weeks, depressed, laying on the couch, contemplating ending his life until I went into the room and gave him a strong pep talk. I was only 14, but I told him he was going to have to get off the couch and get going. I said it through tears and fearfully, but he did just that. He took a job he didn’t care for much, but then got a fantastic job. He also lived a more balanced life, and I saw him put in as much effort in church involvement and living for Christ as I saw him put into work. He went on Missions Trips with me and the youth group. He visited the local Mission and preached at their services, and I went along with him to sing. My faith was greatly impacted by watching him bounce back and live his life for the Lord.
Proverbs 24:16 (ASV) 16 For a righteous man falleth seven times, and riseth up again; but the wicked are overthrown by calamity.
My Dad prays every day for Union Rescue Mission, Hope Gardens Family Center, our donors, and all who enter our doors. We talk every day on the phone.
As I left his bedside and hugged and kissed my Dad and said a possible last good-bye, he called me in, weeping a bit, and said, if I give you this diamond ring, would you wear it, and not give it away? He knows me well! J I told him that I would wear it proudly, and that I would never give away a ring that was given to me by him. I told the young lady on Tuesday, that, yes, there are good men left in this world, and my Dad is one of them!
Reverend Andy Bales
CEO, Union Rescue Mission
Todd Leitz, of KNX 1070 reports on how the global recession has precipitated a new wave of homeless in Los Angeles. Union Rescue Mission’s families were a part of the story. Click the icons below to listen to the report.
