On Thursday, June 25th, a momentous thing happened here in Hollywood. I'm not referring to Michael Jackson's death, either, although it has been crazy to be living in the city he was living in while he died...
I'm talking about Project Connect, a nation-wide program of services available for the homeless. Here in Hollywood, we call it the Y!MBY, meaning Yes! in my backyard. Many people today have the opposite, or N!MBY (Not! in my backyard!) mindset and for that reason each year it becomes more and more challenging to provide low cost, permanent affordable housing, and to build shelters and other service centers to help the homeless and other high needs populations. When I was in high school and living in Michigan, there was talk of a new county jail being built in a residential neighborhood. Many residents of that neighborhood combatted the jail being built there. They said they did not want a jail in their backyards.
This illustrates the idea of N!MBYism, the current attitude that yes, the homeless should be helped, but let's send them on a bus away from our community to get them help somewhere else.
Project Connect Day's goal was to assist our clients who are homeless in Hollywood, actually in Hollywood. It took place on Thursday, June 25th, and we saw 518 homeless people that day. Everyone completed an intake and was seen in an orderly fashion. There were representatives from many agencies, a church group was doing foot washing, there were free haircuts, and many persons were placed into shelter. All in all, it was a very successful day. To give you a picture of what the day was like, I've included this link:
http://www.epath.org/yimby/Connectday2009report.html
At this site, you can view a video of the day. Although I'm really not so sure that it complies with HIPAA, since the clients signed a consent form when they came in but I can't remember if it said anything about putting their pictures in the media.
Whatever the case may be, the same day that Michael Jackson died, 518 people in Hollywood were given a meal, some were given a place to stay for the next 3-6 months, and much much more.
