A line of homeless individuals was waiting to get in at the former county courthouse building last Wednesday, May 25, when the doors opened for Malibu’s second Homeless Connect Day.
Inside, waiting to provide services, were over a dozen different government agencies and nonprofit organizations. County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl’s office did most of the heavy lifting to coordinate the event.
“Homeless connect days are really important not only to our homeless neighbors, but also to our house communities, as well,” Kuehl told The Malibu Times in an email. “They connect men and women who are homeless to dozens of critical services in a single day, and also bring our constituents an increased level of compassion and understanding about our homeless crisis and the difficult processes needed to end homelessness.”
In an impressive show of community support, over 42 local volunteers showed up and were assigned one-on-one to each homeless person, helping them navigate the various services being offered.
“It really was a day of small miracles; and the numbers don’t begin to reflect it,” Carol Moss, head of Malibu’s CART organization for helping the homeless, shared. “It was a large-scale ‘connect’ at many levels.”
One of the participants, Vince Black, was eager to check out everything. Black, who said he’d been homeless for three years and usually slept on the beach, was carrying everything he owned in a backpack. He once worked as a mechanic, but did not explain how he ended up homeless, with no car or cell phone.
Black’s first stop was the Venice Family Clinic where he had his vital signs checked by medical personnel — he then needed to sign up for Medi-Cal (California’s medical insurance for low-income residents).
The one-stop-shop set up eliminates the need for Black and other participants to figure out which agencies and locations to go to, and which buses to take to get there. In a relatively short period of time, Black was able to talk to the County Mental Health Department, a job training organization and the Citations Clinic offered by the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office (working in partnership with LA County).
Representatives at the clinic looked up Black’s record and gave him a list of five citations (tickets) he had gotten while homeless and had not paid.
Rob Wilcox of the City Attorney’s office explained in a phone interview that the Citations Clinic is an ongoing program where tickets given to homeless individuals for non-violent offenses (like parking, loitering, camping, etc.) will be dismissed upon completion of community service, job counseling, or drug and alcohol rehab, depending on the person.
Black’s record was changed to enable him to perform community service hours in lieu of paying the fines and interest, and he was directed to agencies at the Homeless Connect Day where he could sign up for his community service: St. Joseph’s Center and Chrysalis Job Center.
“The citations are often an impediment to getting homeless people off the street because of the expense,” Wilcox said. “They don’t have money to pay the tickets, and interest keeps accumulating, which only compounds their problems.” His office was able to assist 18 homeless individuals during Malibu’s Homeless Connect Day, and he said they’ve helped hundreds over the last two years.
After taking care of business, it was on to the “fun” stuff: Black got a haircut and beard trim courtesy of Newberry School of Beauty, a “Reiki” treatment, a foot bath, lunch from Corner Bakery, a new backpack filled with supplies from Hope Mills and a new pair of sweatpants from CART.
The hair cutting area was jammed at times; one man had a ponytail cut off that he’d worn for six years.
“We saw some great transformations and makeovers,” Timothy Lippmann, senior field deputy for Kuehl’s office, said.
“I appreciate the county, city and nonprofits working together to overcome the bureaucracy and red tape that can make simple tasks impossible [for the homeless],” Terry Davis, volunteer, said.
The results from LA County’s 2016 homeless count, released earlier this month, show 46,874 homeless countywide, with the West LA area, which includes Malibu, having a total of 4,659 homeless.
