I am not against St. Joseph's

In response to the L.A. times article:
by Ana Petrova

I am not against St. Joseph's or any other social service organization helping the poor and the homeless! St. Joseph's is a good organization and all of us have our hearts in the right place. On the contrary I want to help and I want to solve our homeless issues. I too have been homeless in my life and somebody helped my family! I want to help and not hide and close the door ignore the problem.

I am not against St. Joseph's I am against the way St. Joseph's does business.

Their hours of operation is very limited M-F 7:30to 4:30 pm except for Wed they close at noon, weekends evenings and holidays excluded. Which leaves these poor souls to wonder around in our neighborhoods waiting for them to open. They have been in operation for over 15 years a few blocks away from here and the problem of "service resistant" homeless just has gotten worse and worse. I don't know about all the statistics they quote of their success rates all I know is the amount of shit and homeless visibly laying around on Lincoln Blvd. and in our neighborhoods has increased over the years and has gotten worse and worse.

The treatment of these poor people is inhumane and cruel, cleaning them up and feeding them once in a while and not requiring them to either enter the system or get mental health care just enables them to stay out there and continue this horrible lifestyle.

This is NOT solving the problem the system is broken!

I've seen the same people out there year after year..... once in a while they have clean clothes and their hair washed and they've had a nice meal at the St. Joseph's Bed and Roses Restaurant on Rose Avenue and a week or two later I see them in the same clothes all tattered and dirty and the cycle starts all over again.

This is not kind, this is not charitable this is outrageous!

I see them on a daily basis and know many of them by name and when I speak to them I hear how life is out there on the streets. It's not a pretty picture. So we need to do more than give them showers and a new set of clothes and a meal and let them make a free phone calls. This is a band aid on gaping wound!

There is nothing more disgusting than human feces left next to your property not to talk about the health hazards. So I'm not against St. Joseph's and helping the homeless I want to help too I want to solve this problem just as much as St. Joseph's maybe more because my quality of life is so dramatically affected. Many of St. Joseph's staff do not have to live here 24/7 and clean up human urine and feces every day.

Last Tuesday at the meeting I asked the city to form a "Shit Patrol" ... yes you heard it right a "Shit Patrol" if you have graffiti you can call the city and they come out and clean it up, well I want to call a phone number so the health department would come out with the "Shit Patrol" and clean up the human feces. If these organizations feed the homeless they have and obligation to clean up after them. Ok maybe we should just call it Poop Patrol in case the Shit Patrol is too harsh for those delicate ears.

What goes in must come out!

Lincoln Blvd. is one of our Main thoroughfares to and from the LAX airport and many visitors first view of Los Angeles is driving down Lincoln Blvd. Recently I met a lovely couple from England visiting the world famous Venice Beach area and to my horror they asked me if this was skid row. They just finished having a fun lunch at Cafe 50's on the corner of Lincoln Blvd. and Lake where many of these lost souls hang out and ask for a hand outs.


Mr. Rosendahl who was recently elected the Chair of the Southern California Regional Airport Authority said

"The Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) is the gateway to our City. It forms the first impression millions of travelers develop of Los Angeles."

Venice Beach is known all over the world and our tourist dollars are needed right here in our community, creating jobs and needed revenue for our city. Cleaning up Venice is not just good for the residents but all who visit, I want to help I want Venice Beach to be the great place I can be proud of and love.