Skid Row future with Ron Smith, Lorinda Hawkins, Don Gossett

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Welcome to the Coon Round Report. May the peace and blessings of the life-giving creative spirit be upon you and upon your family. My name is Melvin Ishmael Johnson, coming at you live from Skid Row Studios. And I'm in the studio with my co-host, Ms. Earlene Anthony. Our call number is 800-893-9562. You can listen to us live or download our show and any past show by Googling in Coon Round Report. Now, this week on the Coon Round Report, we will talk about the future of Skid Row with Ron Smith, just recently elected to the downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council D-Link, and community artist, Lorinda Hawkins, who will talk about the new city church and some of the other projects she is working on, and Don Gossett. And then here with us, he's going to talk about some projects that he's working on. Now, at first, I would just like to legally... Welcome to the Coon Round Report. Thank you. Thank you, Mel. Yeah, first, I would like to just legally define Skid Row according to the court decision, Jones v. the City of Los Angeles, April 2006, which Skid Row is an area downtown in Los Angeles defined, in this Jones v. City of Los Angeles, as the area east of Main Street, south of 3rd Street, west of Alameda Street, and north of 7th Street. Now, let's get into talking with our in-studio guests here. So glad to have you here. Let's start off with Ron. Can you tell our listening audience a little about your background? How did you come up in the downtown? How did you come up in the downtown and the Skid Row area? Actually, Mel, I have a background in television. So I'm originally from Chicago, Illinois, and went to school, Dayton, Ohio, to Central State University. I graduated from there, worked at ABC News for a while, at Dayton Daily News, did my time in the pits at Central State University radio station. And so I had a chance to come out here. I went to Hollywood to work, and I did for a while. And some things went wrong in life, you know. I started to enjoy partying a little bit too much. Some things went bad for me, and I landed on Skid Row. I say things went bad for me, but it actually became a blessing because Skid Row actually became a neighborhood that I fell in love with, you know. I've met great people here. I met my fiancé here. And actually, as a part of your drama stage, Kun Ron, we were both working for you at the time. Working with you? Yeah. So yeah, that's how I got to be on Skid Row. And how about you, Lorinda? Well, I am a domestic violence survivor. And basically, that relationship, I'd like to say, brought me to Skid Row. Because there were custody battles, visitation battles. And as a result, money was gone. Money was gone. And yeah, I ended up on Skid Row. And like Ron said, I mean, it became a blessing. At first, though, I mean, I could not deny. Excuse me. The feeling of depression and oppression. And just, it was around 2007. And it was a lot worse. But then you meet people that have these hearts and these spirits. And I've met the most beautiful people I've ever met in Skid Row. And I just love, I've fallen in love with Skid Row community. And even though I'm not currently in Skid Row, I'm just a little bit. Near Main Street. I still have ties and connection to Skid Row community. Okay. And Dawn, I know you're a military veteran also. How about you? When was the first time you came down in the downtown area? Back down in 1999. Mm-hmm. I came to L.A. to seek, see a specialist in Tarzana Regional Medical Center that I was working. And I was working. That. That he was a, he's a neurologist that was helping me work with some neurological deficits I was dealing with. And I was living, I was living with friends. That didn't work out. As soon as the oxygen started, I figured, I ran into someone that lived there in Skid Row to go in the West Hotel. So there was an opening there. And I got in there. I had an SRO housing. And I was there about 11 years. SRO Housing Corporation. Mm-hmm. Okay. All right. Let's jump into, right into. To our subject. We want to talk about the Skid Row area, the future of Skid Row as you see it. What do you see as some of the main problems in Skid Row? Let's start off with you, Ron. Well, when I thought about running for council, that was one of the things that I talked about, Lorinda and I. And I had definite ideas of what I thought was one of the main problems. Of course, homelessness. Mm-hmm. And I, we identified. We identified a few. Homelessness, of course. Lack of education. Affordable housing. Jobs. And Lorinda is really a proponent for equal opportunity housing. So, as opposed to just single room occupancy, we think that families should be housed, too. We think it's important for women with children, women and men with spouses. You know? Mm-hmm. We think that's an important problem here, too. Mm-hmm. Now, how did that develop? You know, the SROs. SROs that were just geared towards males, mostly men. I think Don may be able to answer that question a little better than I. Oh, how come they were geared towards men? Yeah. I guess the, I guess the cliche is like, you had to go back down to the 1950s, is that in the 1950s, it was, you can go back even more, but I don't want to go through all that. But it started out with Caucasian males that were just, you know, just drinking after, in those, in Skid Row was, was an entry point. The railroad was here. There's an entry point. And they had all these single, single occupancy. I mean, they had these hotels that they could stay in when they came down here. Even like the Alexandria, which was kind of interesting as you move, go even further back in the 50s. The Alexandria and the, and the Rawson were the places that, that people wanted to stay. You know, the early movie stars, the politicians. This was, this was, this was, this was, it's Hollywood. This was LA. This is, this was the beginning. Point. But as, as what happened was a stereotype had always been that it was the men that need the services, not, not the women, not the kids. And as we moved into the, to the 60s, when, I mean, when you moved into the, the policies to, to help the mentally ill by closing down the state hospitals and supposedly creating what they call the community mental health centers that never really happened. What we started to see was you didn't. see a big, huge population of the cliched so-called mentally ill on the street. It was a small percentage, but as time grew and then you throw in the drug war, the drug epidemic, the crack cocaine and eighties, then it became a policy of containing the homeless somewhere and containing the services. Nobody wanted any of these people in their communities anywhere in LA. The, you know, this, for some reason it was, it was easy to. Since it downtown had been abandoned, it was easy to just continue to abandon after five o'clock. And so skid row extended all the way from the LA river to basically, um, pixel after five o'clock when I got here, that's how far it would go. And then of course we had the adaptive reuse ordinance that came into play. There were, there's a, there was a lot of, a lot of players that wanted to take over the, the large hotels, even in the historic core, including SRO housing corporation. I remember when I first got here in 99. They went through. Yeah. I just, the USEP and what they wanted to do was they were doing a nuisance abatement on all the large hotels and they wanted them, but then the adaptive reuse came in. The ordinance came into place for the empty office buildings. And, um, then the, the, these people that were putting, you know, converting these office buildings into lofts and condos are like, well, hold on a second. Now this is, this is, you know, we can't, we can't put those people, you know, just half a block away from me. Let's, let's really, let's rethink this thing. And is this a lot, it's a lot of battles. And like you said. Yeah. For the most part, um, it's been nothing but the services have been geared towards the men. And I got a chance to see and watch how the women were treated in Skid Row for a long, long time. And it wasn't, it wasn't a pretty picture. Well, let me, let me ask you just a question. How, how, how do you think that they could fix this problem? Especially, um, um, uh, SRO, you know, Anita Nelson, in terms of making something simple. How do you think that would be similar for females and families, especially families? Um, well like Don articulated so well that, you know, it was predominantly male, male community. So the services were for male, like even the missions and what have you. But then the face of homelessness started changing and it became more females and more children that were displaced. And a lot of times it's economy. It can be domestic violence situations, recession, what have you. But yes, it would be a great effort if SRO, Skid Row Housing Trust also would move from the single room occupancy model to a more family, family space. Because what's happening, whether it be unintentional or not, is families are being broken up. Basically, you have to, if you're married, it's like, oh, well, my wife will get a room and maybe I'll get a room, hopefully, in the same room. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Or what have you. Or women who have children, they have to send their children away to live with somebody else. Oftentimes losing custody, sometimes, behind not being able to have a place to live with, you know, the whole family unit. Also, priority is being placed on whether you have a mental illness or recovering from drugs or what have you. And that displaces people also who aren't necessarily. struggling with those issues. And I feel like that needs to be reexamined, too, as far as like the waiting list, because what's happening is those people who aren't struggling with those same issues aren't getting housed or waiting very far down on the waiting list. So I think it's just a matter of the attention, the attention shifting a little bit more. Okay. Ron, now you are a recently elected member of D-Link, Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council. Can you talk about that a little? How did that come about? And exactly what is the job description for the position that you just got elected to? Yes. How did it come about? I, you know, it's really strange because it's not something that we, Lorinda and I, had planned to do. You know, it was, it became, it's kind of, it happened kind of organically. I started working in this neighborhood. I started with the Union Rescue Mission. I worked in the men's ministry department for a while, for actually more than three years. So I began to become really involved in people's lives, people who were transient in the, in the mission system. So I saw people who would come in and sleep for a week and then go back on the street. And I began to know people and I began to, you know, be involved in their condition. And, and from that, I, I moved to a position with Pepperdine University. So I began to try to actually change the condition of people on the street. So Pepperdine University has a program called the Entrepreneur in Training Program. And they actually, for 26 weeks, take people, men and women from Skid Row, take them out to Malibu and train them in how to run their own business. And so I became, you know, I became a member of the Union Rescue Mission. And I became a member of the Union Rescue Mission. And I became a member of the Union Rescue Mission. And I became a sort of the underground coordinator for that program. So I would interview the people, find out who was interested, and just trying to, you know, make sure the program ran well. And that was really cool. So I began to be more involved in people's lives and, and through some ministry work that I was doing with several churches, especially New City Church. I began the New City Church program of homeless outreach and placement. So, and it just kept continuing. continuing, until finally my job with SRO really got me involved in, you know, seeing people transition from the streets to housing, and then, you know, just be there. And I started to think that, you know, there has to be a little bit more for this neighborhood. There has to be more focus on education, a part of, you know, what I was doing before. There has to be a better focus or more focus on job-specific training. And I just thought that the best way to affect some of the changes that I would like to affect, and some of the, and institute some of the programs that Lorinda and I have talked about, that my pastor and I have talked about, the best way to affect those changes was from working within the system. And so that meant that I needed to be a part of the board. And I know for a long time, the two presidents, the neighborhood council, Russell Brown, and then Patty Berman, always tried to figure out some kind of way to help empower the Skid Row residents. Can you talk about what's the status of that now? What's happening with the Skid Row portion of D-Link? Well, that's really interesting because, again, one of the reasons why I decided to run for this office was because I was a part of the Affordable Housing Committee. And I thought that some of the efforts that were being made in Skid Row were lacking. And so I thought that maybe a better point person could help direct some of the efforts of the board. So I can't speak to what their plans are, you know, but I can't tell you what my plans are. Okay. Okay. Don, you want to say anything on that? About D-Link and what's happening? I was one of the original people that actually was a part of the forming of the downtown Los Angeles neighborhood council way back in 2001. I had a little meeting on the street with James Hahn. And he was running for office again, and he had came out of the police station. And I went up to him and I asked him, I said, so what are you going to be doing about Skid Row? And he said, he looked at me and he said, well, we've put millions, 20 millions of dollars into Skid Row. And I think it's time that you guys take personal responsibility for your part of what you need to do. At first, that kind of ticked me off. But at the same time, that made sense. I said, here was our opportunity. We got a neighborhood council forming. We could, we can, we can begin to facilitate an arena for the residents in Skid Row. And, you know, I think that's a great idea. And I think that's a great idea. And I think that's a great idea. And I think that's a great idea. And I think that's a great idea. And the social service providers, you know, social service providers and others that are stakeholders within Skid Row to begin to form, especially the residents to form their own voice and have their own autonomy. Because most of the social service providers at the time, every one of them, if you saw any of their propaganda, it was all about, well, they're hopeless and they're helpless. And we can only speak for them. They can't speak for themselves. They don't know what they want or what they need. We are the only ones that know what they want and what they need. And we can only speak for themselves. And we can only speak for themselves. And we can only but as I as I got to know the people forming the neighborhood council I started to really see that that there was a disconnect between the actual business community that put the money into the social services and the social service providers themselves and there no there was no there were no people that were being serviced actually talking to the people putting the money into these services and this millions and millions of dollars going in these services there was no accountability what I wanted what I wanted to see done basically was I wanted the people to have their own voice I had a conversation with but Hayes who had was the executive director of SRO housing corporation I had a lot of conversations with heads of organizations and he had been a case manager and he explained it to me very well he says the case manager we have a tendency to want to force what we think that the client needs when in fact they already know what they want and what they need we just got to find a way to figure out how to get that out of them and so that they can move on with their life but the neighborhood council for me especially when we formed the Skid Row residency and the homeless seat there were two seats that were actually created no other neighborhood council no other state chartered or city chartered because the neighborhood council comes under the state charter of City of LA it was and then the neighborhood council system was put into the city charter so what happens is these are actual official government officials these are not you know a you know a representative of the city or a city that's going to vote on somebody to become some representative there's accountability there but what I wanted to see with the resident seat was this I wanted to see some accountability for the services providers but at the same time instead of just holding them accountable also showing that the the business communities and the people that that are trying to solve these problems that as residents we can reasonably come up behind and say look okay yeah we know that that these service providers are doing but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but outside of Skid Row. We want you to understand that, you know, there are people that, like, Ron is talking about. These are the issues that came along, the people that don't have drug and alcohol problems. Why are they still on the street? Why are they not being serviced? The women, why are they out on the street? Why aren't they inside? You know, why do they have to depend on selling themselves to get inside off the street when it's raining? You know? Okay, let me ask this then, because I want to go around. What do you think are some of the causes of the increase of homelessness in the Skid Row area recently? Because, you know, at one time, L.A. is known as the homeless capital of the United States. Any given time, 80,000 to 100,000 people in the county of Los Angeles sleep on the streets. And recently, you know, I know I've observed myself an increase in the amount of homeless people in the city. The amount of tents that I see on the street. What do you think are some of the causes of this? Could I? Yes. Well, I know that we have so many services here in Skid Row that people come from out of state knowing that they can get services here and not have a house or what have you. But I just want to interject, too, just amongst when we were talking about families being displaced also, that also. 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You know, but here they have the services. If you care enough to really keep looking and because I do know there are some people who just rather not use the services. They rather just sleep on the street. And, you know, that's the right. Okay. Again, I and we've had this discussion before and I'm at a loss here because I don't have any hard numbers in front of me. But from my observation, I look at companies like my own company, SRO Housing Corporation and Skid Row Housing Trust, and I see the number of new buildings that we've built over the last few years. We've probably. Close to doubled our capacity for housing homeless people. And I've seen I seen a decrease in homelessness on the streets. And I think I think the methods that we're using now are effective. I think they need to be stepped up. There's still more work to be done. But I think we're getting a handle on it. And and I think we can move forward from here. I think it's a problem that they'll never be an easy or complete solution to because a lot of homelessness stems. From life choice as opposed to circumstantial. But I think circumstantial homelessness is something that we can definitely address and a problem that, you know, can be solved. Now, I think we talked about it earlier. We can go all the way back to when President Eisenhower was president. Right. Long time ago. But when he was leaving office, he mentioned he warned the United States. He warned the United States. About the creation of the military industrial complex where it would take on a life of its own, become a bureaucracy. And we saw that come about. And then people like Michelle Alexander in her book, she talked about the prison industrial complex. And now we look up and we see all of these private prison. We see the growth and all of that kind of stuff. It created a bureaucracy. And now we're talking about the. Homeless industrial complex. Because I've been observing this over a period of time also. And what I've been watching is it creates a paradox because the more money that they put into trying to solve the homeless problem, it creates a bureaucracy. It creates a situation where people jobs in their life. It depends upon the homeless situation. So the paradox is I don't see people who will put themselves out of a job. That's what I think is happening right now. You know, we see instead of a decrease in the homelessness, I see this bureaucracy that keep growing. And I think until we become creative enough to deal with that, because you got people like Home for Good, a lot of organizations. And that pours millions and millions of dollars just into the Skid Row area trying to solve the homeless problem. And it creates jobs for people who somehow connected to that. See. And so I think in the second part of our show, we're going to talk about some possible solutions to that. Now, I'm in the studio with Ron Smith, newly elected member of D-LINK. Talking about. The future of the Skid Row area. Sitting in with us, Larenda Hawkins and Don Garza. Our call in them is 1-800-893-9562. Give us a call if you want to ask Ron, Larenda and Don some questions. Now, the next thing, what do you see as the role of the church in ending the homeless problem? And when I'm talking about the church, I'm talking about the religious organizations as a whole. But especially. The church, because they are more visible down here, the Christian church. Well, before we go into the church, I would like to talk a little bit about a Christian organization called the Union Rescue Mission. Okay. We were just speaking about how homelessness starts, you know, what causes more people to be homeless. And I actually had the opportunity to work for the Union Rescue Mission during the mortgage crisis. And I saw a lot of families, women and children, lose their homes. And I saw something really incredible, man. I saw Andy Bell, the head of the Union Rescue Mission, decide and make a pledge that he would not turn away any family. And it never happened. If a family came, and I mean, we had people sleeping on floors, hanging from the rafters. You know, I mean, the place was completely packed. But here was a Christian man who made a firm decision to make a stand against homelessness. Or against. Against. Against people being directly on the street. And he made a difference. Now, and through counseling, placement, and everything else, I mean, the place is emptied again. Well, not emptied, but it's not bursting at the seams. But during that time of crisis, man, I mean, Christian organizations, that Christian organization in particular. Okay. Really pulled out all the stops. Okay, well, let me ask you this. I remember last week, just before we came into the radio. I remember last week, just before we came into the radio. It's a long time Skid Row resident that we know. She's come to a lot of the drama stage shows. And she was sitting at the subway. And we was talking to her. And she mentioned something about a new policy that the Union Rescue Mission bring in where they got people paying rent. And, you know, that really bothered me. Because I feel that. I'm just totally 100, 200% against that. You know, the organizations like the Midnight Mission, the Wine Guard, Union Rescue, Los Angeles Mission, any of them. That depends upon the community and organizations for support. I just feel if you're down here trying to solve the homeless problem, make things better for it. Then I see that as something. That the community should really challenge and get rid of that. Because what she was telling us, she was on welfare. She said that they charge her 200, something like $200 a month. $200. $10. And she make, at this particular time, she from the welfare, she gets something like $221. And right now she find herself, until she can turn it around, sleeping in the porch area of the Midnight Mission. And this is a lady, you look at her, she's just one of the nicest ladies you want to meet. She seems so out of place, even in the Skid Row area and stuff like that. And so that's what bothered me about. I think that's some, if that's true, because I had heard rumors of it, but I had never heard an individual tell me that. See, and I just feel that never. Should there be any charges? And I don't even, if that's true, I don't even see where they're coming with that. That can charge people in need who have an economic problem. To charge them. I think a dollar is too much. Is the way I feel in relationship to that. So anybody want to comment on? Well, it is an unfortunate situation. Yeah. I'm not sure, and I haven't been privy to all of the decision making and all of the things that went behind the decision. Of the Union Rescue Mission to start collecting monies from people. However, what I do know is that a large portion of that money is actually put aside for the person themselves. So they're not paying to live there so much as they are pledging. Yeah. That while I have free room and board, I will be wise with my money and I will save some. And I think that's important. Now, the other part of it, again, I feel that it's really unfortunate. And, you know, but again, I'm not really. I'm not privy to the exact amounts or how it was structured or how it was set up or even how it's functioning. But I do know that. And I think the wine guard and and other emergency housing shelters practice the same policy that if you're going to live here, if you're going to be here free. And if we are going to extend every courtesy to you, room, board and food, then you need to save some of your money. So I thought that was actually think that's an important step. And I actually applaud that part of it. Mm hmm. And and I have no problem with with the situation with savings, especially if it goes to that particular individual. And let me just point out to one one of the things I really like about the Union Rescue Mission. I know for a long time they were one of the few organizations that actually provided a space for families, for women's, you know, along with the Women's Center. You know, most of the other organization was just centers. And so I think that's a really important step. And I think that's a really important step. And I think that's a really important step. And I think that's a really important step. And I think that's a really important step. And I think that's a really important step. Looking at the males and stuff. And they still do. Mm hmm. Could I interject to just also because of the economic crisis, I mean, it has affected the missions, too. I mean, it does take a lot of money to keep them sustainable. So there have been like a huge dip in donors giving to these services also. So I I think what Ron said is true, you know, about the savings and what have you. But also, I think they needed to start becoming creative. And I think that's one of the things that's so important is that they didn't have to do all of that. They didn't have to do all of that. They didn't have to do all of that. But also, I think they also were looking at the cycle that was being created with people when it was free. They would just just come in and just go back out. And it was just still perpetuating the cycle. It wasn't solving homelessness. And there's something to be said about well, if you pay for something, I don't know. Sometimes you kind of value it more or you pay attention to it more like, OK. Mm hmm. And I think. You know, I'm not privy to it. Yeah. I'm not on the board. I'm not. Yeah. Working for these services. But there's something about paying for it and then just working towards a mutual goal and just just I think there's something in that model similar to like the giving of the food in Skid Row. Yeah. There are a lot of places you can go to get a meal. But I mean, when it's just. It's just given to you all the time. It just kind of makes you feel like, well, there's no reason to go anywhere else. It's like I'm living on the street. OK, you're going to bring me my food. OK, you're going to bring this to me. I don't have a motivation to do anything else. So I'm just speaking upon the motivation. Yeah. And that's and that's where I wanted to make sure I had my two cents. Yeah. I know there's I think for me from watching and dealing with the executive directors of these missions because I got I got them on speed. I'm going to be time I want. And just to do I will do a shout out for Andy. I know that it's you're on a you're on a different wavelength when you lived in Skid Row and you're living downtown. You can spot a family that's down there for the first time looking for a place to stay. But the policy is that any of these social service providers that will are not if they receive any type of county funding are supposed to turn the kids away. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Paul Andy, he had a small baby in a crib with his wife. They've got their suitcases with them. Andy said, hey, security's going to be there. Bring him down before the sun goes down. The door is open. You've got to have somebody like that at one of these missions saying things like that. Protecting the weakest of the weak, and that's where the other part I want to talk about as well. Skid Row is comprised of two types of people. And I think the world is comprised of those two types of people, the weaker and the stronger. And the strong have a tendency to out-shout and outdo the weaker, the sickest. I'm one of them. I have a neurological illness. I was on oxygen. And, of course, every time I opened my mouth, I was speaking for myself because you depend totally and completely. You don't want to believe it, but you depend totally and completely on these social service providers. You'd like to leave. You'd like to be like everybody else. You want to be normal like everybody else. You're even. . . For myself, I don't use drugs. I don't drink. I didn't do any of that. And so as my neurological nervous system is deteriorating, I'm watching all the people around me actually putting these things into their bodies and actually destroying their bodies on their own. But at the same time, you learn how the nervous system works. So it tends to become not. . . Some people, it's not a lifestyle choice. It becomes an issue of keeping the people alive long enough to the point where they reach the point of clarity so that they can help themselves. And to be able to reach that help because that's how they do it. And that is the issue of Skid Row. The prey versus the predators. And we have to realize that. We have to be able to say, yes, there are people in Skid Row that, you know, they have to live there. There's no housing anywhere else. You're thrown there. You have a heart attack. You lose all your money. They're not going to let you live in Beverly Hills. You can't afford to live in Beverly Hills. You've lost your life savings. Now you're able to get a project. . . Get into what we call project-based Section 8, which would be SRO, Skid Row Housing Trust. And now you're inside. Right? But now you're competing against people that, you know, that, well, if, you know, they're in there because of drug and alcohol problems. So now there's more money for that. And then it goes on from there. But the point being is that we need people to be able to speak up for the weakest, for the sickest, the strongest. They won't be able to leave. And then they're left there, again, trying to find a way to speak for themselves. I know Ron is going to start pushing, or he has already been pushing, educational and other things. And Lorinda, too. This is just a big prayer that's been answered in my life, just knowing that these people are going to be doing this. But remember that I was howling at the moon. I'm stuck in my room on oxygen. And I'm like, okay, you're just going to put me in housing. Why can't you find a way to provide me some sort of education that I can do within my abilities or within my disability? Don't just throw me in a corner somewhere and forget all about me and then go home at night and think everything's okay. You know, because what happens if I do wind up building an application that makes me a million dollars? I can give it back. I can help the other weakest in society. Okay, but let me bring it around to a point where we start talking about these religious organizations. Now, I see the Christian organizations who are definitely visible in Skid Row. But what I do see alike. It's an Islamic organization. Islamic organizations have a lot of money, too. And I think it's there. How can I say this? Skid Row is made up for probably about 85% of African Americans that you see land in the streets of Skid Row. So I see this as an African American problem at the top in terms of the community coming up with a solution to deal with this. And I want to ask, how can we get these religious organizations more involved, especially the Islamic organizations who come down once a month during Ramadan or something like that? I think that the willingness or the desire to help starts within a person's own heart. I know that the Christian community has given to charity. And all for. So throughout time. And also, even Islam has the practice of Zakat to give to the poor. So that is a good question. Why isn't the Islamic community here more? Because this is a neighborhood that could definitely benefit from some Zakat right now. However, you know, I think what the Christians are doing in Skid Row, myself being a Christian, of course, I think it's a blessing. And so as a Christian and as a member of New City Church, I'd like to extend an invitation. To the Islamic community to come join us in what we do. And speaking of the New City Church, that's one of the things I really like about the New City Church. I like the location because I like the fact that it's in the L.A. Theater Center where there's a lot of culture that's going on with theater and all that kind of stuff like that. And I was interested to see how they would coexist together. And I think they coexist nice. Anybody you want to talk about? Tell us what the New City Church. Well, what I like about New City Church is a multicultural, multi-socioeconomic place where we're lovers of Jesus Christ. But also it's about us being different and diverse and being messy and broken and still coexisting, even in our church, where there are many churches where you'll see the same type of people, you know, because you feel comfortable there. That's what I like about New City Church. It's definitely not comfortable. And it's okay. Because then when we go out to places where it's not comfortable, it's okay. And I like how we really try to walk the walk, walk the talk. Pastor Ha has grow and serve groups. We used to have community slash Bible study groups. And that's basically primarily all it was. But then he transitioned into. No. Let's have grow and serve groups where you can grow together relationally, spiritually. But you need to do some type of service in your community. He didn't tell you what it had to do, what you had to do, but you needed to be purposeful with what you were doing. So there are certain groups that make a point to volunteer at Los Angeles Mission. There are certain groups that volunteer at Downtown Women's Center, cooking them breakfast maybe once or twice a month or what have you. There's an urban. There's an urban garden group where they will pick a community garden and just serve, pull weeds, whatever you need us to do. We'll do it. We have open night night for the community. What else? It's it's you name it. But what I'd like to see with more religious communities and groups is more of a love because anybody can really serve. And I've been in Skid Row and receiving been on both sides. Giving and receiving have seen both sides. And I've seen the people who just come there. I'm serving. Okay, bye. And you can feel like it's like, oh, because you can actually hurt somebody with that kind of serving. So I think what I'd like to see is more focused on relationship. Okay. Because you don't necessarily have to give me money. You don't have to necessarily give me food, but maybe just listen to me. You know, that can go such a long way. Mm hmm. Okay. Yeah. Let's let's take a short break for our community calendar. And then we're going to come back and talk about some possible solutions for what's happening in the Skid Row area. This is the community calendar for the month of May. This is just a reminder. Sunday, May 11th is Mother's Day. Some people have forgotten or gotten it mixed up. But this coming Sunday, May 11th is just a reminder. That is Mother's Day. And that is Thursday. Tuesday, June the third at 7pm. Drama stage. Cone rod presents a performance of if the shoe fit and the shoe is security housing units. These are voices from solitary confinement and the play is written by ending Griggs and Melvin Ishmael Johnson. In this performance, you will hear the stories of those who have been held in state sanctioned torture. And you'll hear the story of those who have been held in state sanctioned torture. Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az Az 764. We're asking you to please save this date. Thursday, June 19th at 7 p.m. In celebration of Juneteenth, Drum and Stage Coon Run will do a stage reading of The 101 Club, and this play is written by Judith Bowman and Melvin Ishmael Johnson. The 101 Club recalled the Freeman Field Mutiny, a series of incidents at Freeman Air Army Airfield, a U.S. Army Air Force base near Seymour, Indiana in 1945, in which African-American members of the 447th Bombardment Group attempted to exercise their rights as officers to use the base officers club. All are welcome to attend. The location of this event will be the 447th Bombardment Group. Theater, the Edison Plaza. The Ford is located at 2580 Cahuenga Boulevard, Los Angeles. And for more information, please contact Drama Stage 1 at yahoo.com or 213-479-1764. If you have a community event that you would like announced on our show, send the information to Drama Stage 1 at yahoo.com, attention early and Anthony. And a reminder, the call-in number for the show is 800-893-9562. Now back to our host. Okay, thank you, Ms. Earlene Anthony. And we're back in the studio with our in-studio guest, D-Link member Ron Smith. We've got community artists, Lorena Hawkins and Don Garza sitting in with us here. We're going to open up our round tables. There's a couple of subjects I would like to talk about some possible solutions to what's happening in the downtown area. And it would also give me an opportunity to bring in the veterans element because veterans make up 20 to 25% of the homeless population are military veterans. And we've been pushing a solution, which is a two-step solution. I'll talk about it. I'll mention it and then we open it up for discussion. Step one, make the homeless problem the homeless veterans problem. Get the federal government to finance a think tank to come up with a solutions to the homeless veterans problem. And then roll out the solutions for the rest of the homeless population. This is a long-term solution. Short-term solution, get the community organizations, the churches and other organizations to buy or rent some of the city-owned facilities. And then Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec Aztec I want to talk about the possibility of do we need a neighborhood council for Skid Row that's separate from what they have. We still got about five minutes. Anybody want to pick up on that? I'd love to jump in on this. I've been really excited by something that's been happening at SRO Housing Corporation. We've always been involved with veteran services and giving special attention to veterans. But just recently we hired a new veterans coordinator, Trevor, and I don't know his last name. SRO? Yeah, but I think you know Trevor. He's from Chrysalis. He was with Chrysalis for years. So I've known him for years and I've worked with him for years. So I'm excited to see what's going to happen through that program. And I always think of SRO as the leader in providing housing opportunities and innovative ways of providing housing opportunities. That being said, one of the things I did. As part of my campaign, I did a grassroots campaign. So I went door to door knocking on people's doors and telling them, hey, I want to be a councilman. This is what I'm going to do for you and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And right away, after about five or six doors, I learned that I needed to shut up and just actually listen to people and hear what they want. So before I come up with solutions and so I've carried this on into my term. So what I did was after that, I started just knocking on doors. I said, hey, I'd like to be your councilman, your resident director, your representative in this neighborhood. What would you like to see changed in this neighborhood? What would you like to see? So before I started coming up with more solutions, one of the things I've done is met with other board members, you know, other people who've been elected to talk about getting together first with the service providers in this neighborhood. I mean, each and every single one. Find out what you're doing. You know, how are you helping people? Are you helping people? How can we help you serve people? And then after we've done that, to set up those same types of meetings, but on a bigger scale with the residents and the stakeholders in the community. And let's bring these people together for discussions on what's best for them instead of someone or instead of someone like me, especially deciding what's best for someone and how to solve someone's problems. Let's hear what they really want, what they identify as their problems and what they would like to see as solutions. Great approach. Great approach. And just let me mention that. Anita Nelson made the first donation to Drama Stage Coon Run. I'll play Surviving the Nickel and I will never forget that. Oh, that is so cool because I was actually a part of Surviving the Nickel a long time ago, Lorinda and I. So thank you, Anita and SRO. Yeah. That's my company. Okay. Now, what do you think? Do you think we need somewhere down the line if things don't change in Skid Row? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We should begin to consider something separate from D-Link, a neighborhood council for Skid Row to try to help empower the people there and let them make their own decisions and et cetera. Don loves this question. I want to hear his thing. The reason that I went with the larger neighborhood council, because this was talked about and we almost got, when we went for certification, we almost were taken. out of the larger Los Angeles, the downtown Los Angeles neighborhood council. And the department of neighborhood at the time said, once we protested, we said, we request, you know, we want to, we don't want to be certified. They said, okay, okay, we'll go ahead and certify you with Skid Row, but you have to, we'll have a sort of Domicles all over you, which is basically if they are not, if they're not participating, then they can have their own neighborhood council. The reason I went with them is because the social service providers were the biggest voice at the time. And what happens is if you have the strongest, the most educated, the ones that know how to maneuver politics and know how to maneuver with the money, they wind up, would eventually take over any kind of board and the residents wouldn't have a voice. Okay. I guess we got about 25, about 20 seconds apiece for a closing comment before we wind down. And contact information. Yes. Okay. My closing comment is that we're going to be, each board member will be selecting an alternate. And I hadn't made up my mind yet, but after hearing Lavinda tonight, I think I've decided that Lavinda will be my alternate on the council. And I'd like to give a shout out for the arts in Skid Row. I think there needs to be more support for the arts because I think that is so cathartic and healing for the community. You're talking about empowering, you know, let them tell their stories and give them a voice. And a creative outlet. I think that's wonderful. Okay. Now, I would like to extend a special thanks to Ron Smith, Lavinda Hawkins, Don Garza, my co-host, Earlene Anthony. Please listen to past shows of the Coombram Report on iTunes, Stitcher, Tumblr, Googler, Skid Row.LA. Thank you for tuning in to the Coombram Report and from your host, Melvin Ishmael Johnson. May the peace and blessings of God be with you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.