Pride, loss and second chances: L.A.’s unsheltered take stock before giving thanks
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It is the day before Thanksgiving, which makes it feel like an especially good time to reflect. But that’s just a way to mask the fact that it’s been a rough year.
The City of Angels is full of people who have lived through the losses of loved ones in the last year. So while a lot of us are out here in our cars, in the streets, doing something for the first time, others are still in mourning because they lost loved ones. There have been funerals and family gatherings and reunions that would have been impossible without their loss. And for some of us, people are still grieving the loss of children and spouses and parents and friends.
Those are the emotions that have come up in the discussion board at The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority because of the recent death of its executive director.
In this time of tragedy, it is important to remember all the hard work L.A.’s residents have done to survive and to keep the homeless services people of this city together. That means recognizing that L.A. homeless services is a city-wide ministry. And that means that all L.A. residents have to pull together to make sure that the homeless and unsheltered stay safe.
The city-wide services go a long way to making sure that all L.A. residents will be able to recover from the loss of their loved ones. But that is especially important now.
Since this is the holiday season, it was a good idea to take a look back at what it means to be homeless in Los Angeles, and to the people who have taken so much to keep the homeless and unsheltered in this city safe.
In the first hour of this new year, it was not uncommon to see people walking around town, seemingly happy to be alive and making their way to the streets to enjoy the cold night air. There was even a few people out walking, which is something we are used to. The problem was, though, that they were walking along the sidewalks of the city, not the streets of downtown. The sidewalks in Los Angeles were a dead
