This letter was originally sent City Manager Reva Feldman.
As I was driving back yesterday after having dropped another Malibu homeless young man at the downtown Greyhound bus terminal with a ticket to Jacksonville, Fla. (with $40 in his pocket for food on the three-day journey), it occured to me that despite all the angst caused by the latest homeless figures, there is at least one piece of good news. St. Aidan’s Church program to identify homeless people, especially new arrivals, and to verify a responsible person to accept them “home,” has over the past two years sent more than 20 people back to where they came from and taken them off the streets of our city. This has included two pregnant women.
All this has been accomplished with donated money in the amount of $3,448. A bargain!
It occurs to me that these figures would be useful in your deliberations on the homeless community and what local faith groups are doing to help. We are also partnering with the Hope of the Valley Rescue Mission in Van Nuys and have—to date—sent 13 of their unhoused clients home (including a family of six with a young child and a nursing baby).
I hope you will pass this information on to the council members.
Rev. Paul Elder