India, dressed as “Elsa” prepares to walk the runway as designer Kara Saun directs her during a costume show at the Union Station Family Center in Pasadena, Calif., on Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2019. Saun, who helped put together the runway show, provided the costumes for the children for them to keep for Halloween. (Photo by Trevor Stamp, Contributing Photographer)
With a wave of a wand, heroes and princesses hailing from all over the Disneyverse and the Marvel Cinematic Universe crossed paths and took center stage Monday at Union Station Homeless Services Family Center.
The Hulk, a Black Panther-Iron Man hybrid and Queen Maleficent Bertha were all there Monday evening in costumes befitting a movie set. One could almost hear J. Jonah Jameson demanding photos of Spiderman.
Although the mishmash of characters may seem random, all had one thing in common: They were played by kids. And they are all currently homeless.
Union Station Homeless Services, the lead agency of homeless services in the San Gabriel Valley, presented its first Halloween fashion runway show for kids, hosted by “Fashion Fairy Godmother,” Kara Saun, costume designer Disney channel’s “Descendants” 1, 2 and 3.
Although the mishmash of characters may seem random, all had one thing in common: They were played by kids. And they are all currently homeless.
Union Station Homeless Services, the lead agency of homeless services in the San Gabriel Valley, presented its first Halloween fashion runway show for kids, hosted by “Fashion Fairy Godmother,” Kara Saun, costume designer Disney channel’s “Descendants” 1, 2 and 3.
She spent two months preparing the children’s costumes, with some brought in and others hand-crafted. Her team, alongside Union Station’s volunteers, helped change the center into a full-on fashion show, with a dressing room and selfie station.
Graphic designer Jesse Pineda put together an immersive room filled with a Halloween mask wall and winter wonderland backdrop. Halloween is his favorite holiday not because of the scary environment, but for the opportunity for kids to get creative and mysterious.
“Sometimes you don’t have resources to be able to partake in something as simple as Halloween. It’s not even about the candy, but some kids never dress up,” Pineda said. This experience alone might change their whole outlook on life … [to] just being able to have the opportunity to pretend to be something else [and] escape your reality for one day.”
Kids and families of all ages walked down a black runway lined with LED lights and purple and black star balloons.
Pirate pair Jeniffer Fuentes and Rosenberg Velasquez carried their almost 3-month-old infant, Rosie, clad in a unicorn costume. The catwalk, Fuentes said, felt real.
“Even though, [Rosie] doesn’t know what’s going on, we’re loving it. We’re kids at heart,” Fuentes said.
As a pediatric pulmonary specialist, she also was familiar with children living in unhealthful conditions — in garages, for example — when their parents couldn’t afford more.
So Margetis faithfully donated to Union Station Homeless Services on a regular basis, believing in its mission to help adults and families facing hunger, homelessness and poverty in the community. But when she read that the nonprofit organization was looking for volunteers to help mentor recently housed homeless individuals, she felt something call out to her.
OUTLOOK photo Union Station Homeless Services’ Community Allies program matches neighbors with companions who were formerly homeless, many of whom become dear friends, like Dr. Monique Margetis (left) and Verlinda Bee. Like a lot of concerned Pasadenans, longtime resident Dr. Monique Margetis was alarmed by what seemed to be the growing number of homeless men and women she saw on the streets, under overpasses, crowding the parks.
“For me, it was kind of putting my money and time where my mouth was,” said Margetis, who’d just retired from full-time work at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and felt she might have time to volunteer. “I’ve long been worried about people who are homeless; I talk about the situation all the time. Living in this city, you can’t walk around here and not see all these faces — it’s just heartbreaking. And, well, here was something I could actually do, something where I could really make a difference.”
Margetis joined a small contingent of Pasadena neighbors who are partnering with the Union Station Homeless Services Community Allies program, a new way for volunteers to engage with the homeless and provide support and kinship through one-on-one relationships. The mission is to help empower those who’ve been homeless to combat feelings of isolation while they achieve self-sufficiency, housing stability and overall wellness.
In short, Margetis offered her time to get to know someone, and that someone turned out to be Verlinda Bee, whom Margetis describes as sweet-tempered and generous. The two hit it off right away and are now celebrating more than a year of friendship.
Union Station CEO Anne Miskey said that the Community Allies program is working to keep formerly homeless individuals permanently housed, and fits into the bigger picture of fighting homelessness on multiple levels. As complex as the reasons are for becoming homeless — whether it’s the loss of a job, lack of affordable housing, mental illness, substance abuse, domestic abuse, cyclical poverty or a combination of all of the above — the methods of helping must be equally matched, she noted.
And Union Station, combined with the city and other area nonprofits, has shown that the groups’ efforts and methods are working: Pasadena homelessness was down 20%, to about 300 individuals, in 2019 from the previous year, and down about 56% from 10 years ago. That compares to the Greater Los Angles Homeless Count results in 2019, which found that more than 58,900 people were living without permanent shelter on any given night throughout L.A. County, up 12% compared with the previous year, according to the L.A. Homeless Services Authority.
Miskey said that although Union Station has made headway by treating individuals on a one-by-one basis, its leaders have found that they need to better engage the community in their mission.
Photo by Staci Moraza / OUTLOOK Masters of Taste co-chairs Rob Levy and Maxine Harris were joined by Union Station Homeless Services CEO Anne Miskey and board chair Jim Moore at the organization’s fundraiser at the Rose Bowl last spring.
“We have found that we need to better engage with the people in our community, help them understand what are the myths and realities regarding homelessness and how we can recruit community members to help resolve this and the systemic processes that are failing our communities,” she said. “If we are going to resolve homelessness — and we believe we can — we need to bring the community along with us to achieve it.”
The Community Allies program represents a method that is tried and true, she noted. It helps those who’ve experienced homelessness develop healthy relationships, a healthy social network and sense of belonging in the community. But it also helps those who volunteer to expand their experiences, meet new people and grow as human beings.
“Homelessness is a very isolating condition; people coming out of it have been disconnected from society for a long time, and the experience and trauma that comes with it is very difficult to overcome. The goal of our ‘friends and allies’ program is to break down that isolation and make a connection with another human being,” Miskey said. “This really further extends what we can do and how we can walk with our clients on this journey to fulfill hopes and dreams and connect with those in the community.”
Margetis and Bee have become one of 60 successfully paired couples in the program. The two have grown their friendship, with Margetis helping to remind Bee of her appointments, offering her rides and companionship to get there when she can. The two like to take walks in the mall and window shop or, when the weather is nice, stroll in the parks. They enjoy lunching together at a favorite, old-fashioned diner, where they’re called “Sweetie” and “Baby.”
Meeting up to discuss their journey together, Margetis recalled how apprehensive she was initially, saying, “I was very nervous she might not like me … this was very outside of my comfort zone.”
Bee laughed in agreement, adding, “I was afraid I wouldn’t get along with her.”
Before getting into permanent supportive housing through Union Station, Bee was homeless and lived out of her car for more than a year, sleeping in parking lots or anywhere authorities wouldn’t ticket her. It’s hard for Bee to retrace the steps that led to that point, exactly, but she recounted that several years earlier, her mother — whom she’d cared for and lived with — had passed away, and her remaining family sold the house, leaving her nowhere to go. Reeling with grief and struggling for sobriety, Bee did the best she could, living out of her car and bathing at a shelter. But she’d gotten used to people not looking at her, or merely looking to judge her. Estranged from her family, she felt alone for a long time.
So when, finally, Bee completed the steps to achieving sobriety and finally received the keys to an apartment through Union Station, she was nervous. Her one-bedroom apartment often still feels too quiet. Its location in Pomona is new to her, too. Getting to know Margetis has been a bright spot in her world, she said.
“When I first saw Monique, I didn’t think we would match, but we did. I really enjoy her — she’s been good to me. She helps me make sure I get my appointments done; she looks out for me, and I appreciate that,” said Bee, adding that Margetis helped her to study to regain her driver’s license after it was suspended because of unpaid parking tickets, many incurred while she tried to live out of her car. (“That’s one of the ways they criminalize homelessness,” added Emily Fredrickson, Union Station program manager.)
Fredrickson acknowledged, laughingly, she’s become the Community Allies matchmaker, and has now overseen the dozens of other successfully paired couples in the program. The nonprofit organizes monthly get-togethers at the Union Station Family Center, including bingo, barbecues, movie or game nights and field trips to Sparks games.
“Having supportive relationships is so important in everyone’s lives … as adults it can be really difficult to meet people in your community, especially in a giant, sprawling place like L.A.,” Fredrickson said. “For people who have been through difficult situations and are trying to change and move forward, especially for those who never really had healthy relationships before, this is doubly difficult. So we are helping them make a human connection and create companionship and friendship.”
As for Margetis and Bee, she said, “All we did was kind of put them together, and it’s been really beautiful to watch that relationship bloom and grow.”
Margetis, who glanced at her friend and said she gets more out of the friendship than Bee (who laughed at that), teared up a bit when describing what she’s learned from the relationship. The two women patted each other’s hands affectionately.
“What I’ve learned from Verlinda … even after everything she has been through, she has retained such a gentle, kind spirit. Verlinda doesn’t have a bitter, mean bone in her body, and it’s so apparent, she just shines,” Margetis said. “Working with her has put such a face on homelessness for me … her persistence and her positive attitude in the face of major setbacks in life and hardships and medical problems. … I mean, she is such a wonderful example of ‘You can do it.’ It’s been a real privilege to be with her and try to be a positive spot in her life.”
Miskey added that anyone interested in helping to make a difference in Pasadena should check out the Community Allies program.
“This is a great opportunity to have a profound effect on the life of a neighbor who was formerly homeless and is now a member of our community. As an agency we walk alongside the volunteer and their companion, making sure it’s a positive experience for everyone involved. At the end of the day, you come away knowing you’ve made a tremendous difference, and as a volunteer, you will gain more than you ever could have imagined from this new friendship.”
To learn more about volunteer opportunities at Union Station Homeless Services or its Community Allies program, visit unionstationhs.org and click on the “Volunteer” link.
PASADENA, CA. (KABC) — Stories from the Frontline is a group that gives audiences just that, it helps dispel the myth “once homeless, always homeless.” “The night that I turned 40, I spent it in the parking lot of an Albertson’s,” said Cynthia Kirby. Kirby is now a 4.0 student at Pasadena City College but lived on the streets of Pasadena for years.
“I didn’t want to admit that I was in the situation I was in and go and ask for help… I didn’t know that I could have gone in there and gotten into a shelter and there would’ve been food and other resources,” she said. She made it out of homelessness with the help of organizations like Union Station Homeless Services. Her friend, Shawn Morrissey, is a director of advocacy and community engagement for that group.
He, too, at one point lived on the streets, hopeless and alone. “Healing begins with being nurtured and loved and offered positive regard. And that’s all of what I received when I came off the street and into the shelter. And that was what began my own healing and journey forward,” Morrissey said.
These Stories from the Frontline are designed to show people the side of homelessness not often in the spotlight. Co-founder Marilyn Wells said many people think of the homeless person as only the addict, or a person with a mental health disorder, when in reality those people make up less than a third of the population.
“The majority of people that are suffering from homelessness might live in their cars, find places to hide, find places to sleep and go to work and find a way to shower so you wouldn’t notice them,” Wells said.
Each Stories from the Frontline presentation has speakers from formerly homeless people from that specific city.
The next event is expected to be in Hollywood on July 18.
While the San Gabriel Valley saw an overall 24% increase in homelessness in 2019, some cities and communities in the region saw dramatic increases while others saw declines.
In the San Gabriel Valley, last year’s count count showed 3,605 people homeless in the area, while this year’s found 4,479.
Azusa saw a 123% increase in its homeless population, from 144 in 2018 to 321 in 2019. The 177-person increase, by number, was the largest of all San Gabriel Valley cities.
“Homelessness continues to be a big challenge for us, and I’m sure it’s the same countywide — a challenge that is not going to be solved overnight and will certainly require a tremendous amount of resources,” Azusa City Manager Sergio Gonzalez said in an email.
While Azusa has a plan in place to help establish outreach protocols, more resources will soon become available as a housing navigator and part-time homeless services coordinator take up residency in the city, Gonzalez said.
After Azusa, City of Industry saw the second largest increase — from 68 to 173, representing a 154% increase. Irwindale and Covina saw similar increases — 89 and 83 people, respectively — while unincorporated Avocado Heights saw an increase of 74 people.
Meanwhile, some cities that saw significant increases in their homeless populations in previous years, such as El Monte and West Covina, counted fewer homeless individuals in 2019. El Monte’s homeless population decreased by 3.5%, and West Covina’s decreased by 44%.
“We know we have made progress, but our work is not done until the number of homeless in our community is reduced to zero,” West Covina Mayor Lloyd Johnson said in a statement. “We will continue to advocate for the city’s share of Measure H funding, and continue to work collaboratively with our neighboring cities and organizations to balance the needs of our homeless neighbors and public safety for West Covina.”
Measure H, passed by voters in 2017, raised the sales tax in Los Angeles County by .25% to raise money to address homelessness.
One question on the minds of residents and experts alike is whether a one-night-per-year count yields accurate numbers applicable beyond that one moment in time — and whether important policy and funding decisions should be made based on those numbers.
The answer to both questions is no, said Jacob Maguire, co-director of Community Solutions’ Built for Zero effort to eliminate homelessness in cities across the country by using real-time data to optimize housing resources and tracking progress against monthly goals.
In both cases, data must be collected much more often — monthly if not weekly — for it to be reliable and useful for determining how best to deploy resources and craft solutions, Maguire said.
“You’re never going to solve a dynamic problem with static data,” Maguire said. “I don’t know why we’ve settled for this giant illusion that gathering data once a year on homelessness is the best we can do.
“To anyone who thinks they can solve the problem that way, I’ve got a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.”
What releasing data once a year does accomplish, Maguire said, is create a culture of blame.
“We created a culture where the only purpose of this data is to blame people when the numbers go up and celebrate them when they go down, even if they didn’t do anything to make it go down.”
While some of the fluctuations can be attributed to direct action taken — like West Covina hiring a part-time case worker — others can be attributed to the movement of homeless people across the region, said Anne Miskey, CEO of Union Station Homeless Services, the lead homeless services provider in the San Gabriel Valley.
“People tend to move around a little bit within the area. They’re not coming from outside the area, which is always the myth that’s out there,” Miskey said. “Some areas are seeing decreases, most are seeing increases, but overall what we’re seeing is more people becoming homeless because of increasing rents, an overall lack of housing and static incomes.”
Maguire’s concern is that in a few years, if the Measure H funding hasn’t solved homelessness in the county, people will deem the problem unsolvable and divest all funding from efforts to solve it.
“People will resign themselves to the intractability of the problem when the real issue was that they didn’t take the time to make sure they understood the problem before taking action,” Maguire said. “Without a system that can guide you reliably on a regular basis, you’re just throwing spaghetti at a wall and hoping it’ll stick, but nine times out of 10, it doesn’t stick.”
West Covina’s homeless population decreased significantly in 2019, according to preliminary data released after business hours Friday by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.
In a point-in-time count conducted one night in January, volunteers counted a total of 139 homeless people in West Covina. That’s a 44% decrease compared to the 249 people counted last year.
Of those 139, 74 were found on the street, 21 were in makeshift shelters, 22 were in RVs or campers, 10 were in vans and 12 were in cars.
The city credited the decrease to the city’s police department and public services maintenance staff, who have worked with nonprofit organizations, residents, LAHSA and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s and mental health departments, according to a statement.
“We know we have made progress, but our work is not done until the number of homeless in our community is reduced to zero,” Mayor Lloyd Johnson said in the statement. “We will continue to advocate for the city’s share of Measure H funding and continue to work collaboratively with our neighboring cities and organizations to balance the needs of our homeless neighbors and public safety for West Covina.”
The 2019 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count, conducted Jan. 22-24, found homelessness had increased 12% across Los Angeles County, excluding Pasadena and Long Beach, which conduct their own independent counts.
This year’s count tallied 58,938 homeless people across the county, up from 52,765 in 2018.
The San Gabriel Valley saw a sharper jump in its homeless population, to 24% this year, with last year’s count count showing 3,605 people homeless in the area and this year’s finding 4,479.
Of them:
3,292 were living on the streets or were otherwise unsheltered
1,187 were staying in shelters
1,055 reported suffering from serious mental illness
1,571 reported being victims of domestic violence
848 people reported having a physical disability
590 people reported having a substance abuse disorder
When senior citizen Stephanie Church got laid off from her job in 2004, little did she think she would become homeless, sleeping wherever she could at night, lugging all that was left of her belongings around by day.
“I had seen the statistics that said many people are two paychecks away from homelessness,” Church said. “I never thought I was one of them.”
Senior citizens are the fastest rising segment of the homeless population in Pasadena, statistics show. And while it is challenging for them to find a place to live, it is even more challenging to find a permanent home for the homeless who have afflictions, illness or who need psychiatric and medical care.
As homelessness becomes more of a national crisis, Church’s story of homelessness in elder years is all too common. When she was a $40,000-a-year administrator for Los Angeles County, she was making a good salary, driving a nice car and living in a beautiful townhome.
“I had been an administrator in charge of a $250,000 budget,” Church recalled. “I was laid off in 2004, then moved away to start all over again. I was laid off again in 2008, and that’s when my homeless journey started.”
Though she has now been living at Heritage North senior facility in Pasadena since it opened two years ago, Church’s shoulders still ache from carrying her belongings around from her time on the streets. She also carries the memory and trauma from her time as a homeless senior citizen. She slept many times on the back porch of a friend’s house, or in someone’s garage.
“I didn’t want to be a burden,” she said. “People offered, but you don’t want to be a burden.”
William Huang, Director of Housing for the City of Pasadena, said the number of homeless seniors is increasing at an alarming rate.
“We have seen an increase in homeless seniors,” he said. “In Pasadena we’ve seen a 116 percent increase in homeless seniors in the last year, and in L.A. County there’s been a 22 percent increase in the last year.
Huang said while 9 percent of the general population in Pasadena is comprised of people aged 55-61, that age demographic comprises 20 percent of Pasadena’s homeless population.
“We have older individuals way over-represented in our homeless population,” he said. “It’s also our fastest segment of our homeless population. It’s a real serious concern for us in Pasadena but also in L.A. County.”
Stephanie used the available resources in Pasadena, where some of her family members live. Through Senior Community Service Employment Program operated by SER National, she received retraining skills for low-income, older workers. She took a position as an intern with the City of Pasadena. While riding a bus to her job, she saw Heritage North being built and put in an application.
“By the grace of God, I was selected from the lottery and I have a home,” she said. “There is no greater joy than having your own key that goes in your own door to your own home. I have a beautiful bed. I have everything I need.”
Like Stephanie, another local has overcome the challenges of homeless yet ironically deals with it every day, professionally.
Shawn Morrissey is director of advocacy and community engagement for Union Station Homeless Services. He was once chronically homeless.
“If you had seen me 17 years ago, I would have looked like what everyone thinks homeless people look like,” he said. “Wild hair, dirty and I had afflictions.”
He said that he was directed to services in Pasadena for treatment and the help he needed. It led ultimately to his new career, of helping others.
Shawn worked with people living on the streets and has a particularly keen insider’s perspective.
“You hear people say how the people living on the street don’t want to be in a home,” Morrissey said. “There is nothing further from the truth. In the time I have been working with homeless I have never encountered anyone who said they prefer to be on the street.”
He said he has seen plenty of success stories. It’s nothing short of remarkable how putting a “housing first” initiative in place helps people find their way, he said.
Morrissey said one public misconception has created a major hurdle homeless advocates face.
“The public thinks ‘Why should these homeless people get a free apartment?’” he said. “But everyone is paying something. Everyone who has an apartment is paying something.”
Those people in subsidized housing are paying at least 30 percent of their salary towards their housing, he said.
Huang said the challenge is getting enough housing. The number of homeless, both chronic and short-term homeless, far exceeds the amount of housing available, he said.
“We traditionally have housed chronically homeless individuals in apartments,” he said. “Those are existing apartments or we’ve had to build developments specifically for that population. But we have difficulty on both sides. Finding the appropriate site and getting it built can take years. And the other difficulty is finding landlords who are willing to house homeless, because rental subsidies are less than market rate. Landlords can rent to private individuals and make more money than they can with chronically homeless despite the subsidy. We have incentives for landlords and we’re trying to build new developments.”
Huang said there is another factor at play.
“The other population — the bigger population — are those folks are not chronically homeless,” he said. “Half of the homeless population is chronically homeless and the other half is not. They need short-term subsidies and some services.”
Huang said the program the City has put in place, called Rapid Rehousing, is a program that helps people in emergency situations.
“This is a program for folks who are employable, they need short term housing and a job and eventually they can pay for their own housing.”
The housing-jobs collaborative helps people who need short term help from six months to two years. The program targets people who are able to work and within a shorter period of time can be back on their own.
Huang said another area of focus that is critically important is to help the people who are at risk of becoming homeless.
“It’s better for us to help people stay housed, rather than let them become homeless then get them into housing,” he said. “If someone is behind in their rent and they get sick and maybe they’re working a job with no sick leave but now they’re healthy and back at work, we fund a nonprofit organization to help them pay their back rent and we work out a repayment plan. We prevent people from falling into homelessness as much as we can.”
Shawn said these programs are working.
“When you put housing first there is a 97 percent retention rate. People do not go back onto the street when they have a place to live and they have a job,” Shawn said.
He pointed out that he thinks that homelessness has developed into a crisis over the last 40 or 50 years in part because of policies in place.
“It wasn’t like whole segments of the population just started to make bad choices,” he said. “There are structural and systemic causes and a lot has to do with policies, the deinstitutionalizing of state hospitals.”
He said when the system bends to the people rather than making the people bend to the system, great things happen. When people have a bed and a roof over their heads they can get the other parts of their lives in order, no matter the age.
Huang summed the sad situation and the City’s dedication to help.
“Our seniors have worked their whole lives, they’ve done all the right things, they’ve done the thing they were supposed to do — but the safety net is not there. They outlived their retirement and they need some assistance,” Huang said. “The City is committed to help folks live out their ‘golden years’ in a respectful and affordable way.”
“It is very easy to give up hope when you are homeless,” Stephanie Church said. “I want to tell all the homeless people, ‘Don’t give up.’ I cry thinking of people living on the street. But now I also cry from happiness when I put the key into the door of my own home again.”
OUTLOOK photo
