Unhoused women in Venice reflect on how they hope to rebuild their lives (via latimesopinion )
Sometimes it doesn’t take much to tip a person’s life into disarray and homelessness. That humbling fact should shape how we think and feel about our unhoused neighbors. It should also shape how our new mayor, Karen Bass, handles the “state of emergency” facing Los Angeles. There’s a corollary fact that should give us hope: Sometimes it doesn’t take much to stabilize an unhoused person’s life and allow them to rebuild.
I did really well in school. I was put in an accelerated [AEP] program, and, even then, I got all A’s. I got one C, in the fifth grade, and I still remember it. It was based on a social studies project, which I completed, but the teacher didn’t let me present it. I worked really hard on that project; I still don’t know why he didn’t let me present it. My favorite subjects were math and science; Iastronomy. But I also liked to prank the other kids.
After high school I went to a private vocational school in Louisiana , and I got my associate’s degree there, in information technology. You learn how to take a computer apart and put it back together again. I went into that field knowing it was high paying, and for a while things were great. I had a job in Lake Charles as a contract technician. I had an apartment, money. I was making $20 an hour. Then my mom got sick. I left my job to be with her.
A funny thing: Growing up in L.A. you see homeless people downtown, on skid row. When I’d see them I’d think, why don’t they go to the beach? They have showers there. It’s so much more comfortable. It doesn’t look as bad. I thought, if that ever happens to me I’m going to the beach. Way back when, as a kid, I thought this. I guess I always knew. So when it happened to me, that’s where I went. Here — to Venice.
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