Homelessness officially came to Culver City this morning in what greeters described as its only palatable form:
Groundbreaking for the newest Upward Bound family shelter, converting a modest property, formerly a budget motel, on the northeast corner of Beethoven Street and Washington Boulevard.
Opening Day for Santa Monica-based Upward Bound is calculated to be 5 months away, well before the last rose of summer summer withers.
Instantly on that day, as if they had been poised just off-stage, the first 18 unhoused families — families only, no singles — will magically appear and fill Culver City Upward Bound to capacity.
The lucky, or unlucky, 18 families will begin a scripted, maximum 90-day stay during which they will be closely trained for re-entry into a colder world.
Although homelessness is far too serious of a subject to joke about, a number of eyewitnesses who came to hear the Upward Bound success story said that under such pleasant conditions, homelessness almost, but not quite, could be a pleasure.
Conditions Growing Worse
With 73,000 persons, 10,000 of them children, going homeless each night in Los Angeles County, Upward Bound is guaranteed of never running out of clients. The waiting list is 3 months at the present, and Executive Director David Snow said the economic downturn could double the toe-tapping time.
The welcoming party was outfitted in red, white and blue, a bevy of the best known and most aggressive politicians, from downtown Los Angeles to the ocean, where Santa Monica City Councilman Bobby Shriver hangs out.
County Supervisors Mark Ridley-Thomas and Zev Yaroslavsky spoke, and so did Los Angeles City Councilman Bill Rosendahl, Culver City Mayor Scott Malsin and Mr. Shriver.
Standing solo in the Upward Bound showcase was one Kim Valentine. She was introduced as an Upward Bound graduate who not only has made an impressive recovery from homelessness, but has established her own business.
Kim’s Catering, her very own enterprise, in fact provided the layout of noshes for the typically starved guests.
Two hundred mostly city-government types jammed the grounds, and for the enlightenment of future stage directors, Mr. Snow included a classy little theatrical touch in the staging.
Ascending nine challenging steps to a waiting podium, each of the blue-ribbon speakers delivered his oratory from the classic second-story facade to an appreciative crowd below, just the type of architectural hierarchy that politicians crave.
Of those pols who have not yet begun their personal conditioning for the next Olympic Games, all were moved to comment on the climb, but only after their panting began to recede.
By contrast to this morning’s smart ceremony, there was a time not so long ago in this section of west Culver City that no public official, dead, alive or in a more creative third way, would have allowed himself to be caught, at least in his own clothes, on the grounds of the Sunbay Motel.
His appearance might have meant he was posing. But not, friends, for photographs.
A Gross Compliment
A ghost of City Council past made a rare appearance, Carol Gross, who was termed out 11 months ago. She was regarded as approximately a Founding Mother of Culver City Upward Bound, as Mr. Rosendahl pointed out.
“We would not be here today if not for Carol Gross,” he said. As a member of the City Council, “she took the heat and she put the votes together.”
Three present City Council members — Andy Weissman, Mehaul O’Leary and Mr. Malsin — and former Councilman Steve Rose applauded the recognition of Ms. Gross.
While the thrill of groundbreaking ceremonies may have vanished when the Garden of Eden’s successor was chosen, Mr. Snow, with his artfulness and thoroughness, and Mr. Yaroslavsky teamed to make this a lasting civic moment.
This may be the first time that Mr. Yaroslavsky ever was accused of unintentionally stealing a scene.
He captured the show-stopping prize with a burst of uncharacteristic candor and modesty.
He was more than fashionably late, which caught no one off-guard, and people said nice things about him after he arrived.
The slightly husky, curmudgeonly Mr. Yaroslavsky, who has helped to monopolize the Los Angeles limelight since he first ran for office in 1975, was hailed by two speakers as a bulldog force in effectively confronting homelessness.
He thanked his colleagues for “fuzzing over my history.” The implication was that his commitment to the homeless could be measured in decades.
When His Life Changed
Not true, the Supervisor said. His conversion was much more recent.
And this is the story he told.
“When I first ran for office 34 years ago, for the City Council, the last thing on my mind was homelessness.
“I will confess to you that, well into my career, well beyond the early ‘90s I might add (when Upward Bound was founded), this was not one of my top priority issues.
“And then something happened. My daughter was studying at the Kennedy School of Government (Harvard), and during the summer she worked for the city of Oakland in the Human Services Dept.
“She called me one night. She said, ‘Dad, I took a walk up Telegraph Avenue toward Berkeley today. A funny thing happened. A homeless man was sitting on the curb. I sat down next to him and engaged him in conversation.
“‘ We talked for about 20 minutes. At the end, I reached for my purse. I was going to give him a couple of bucks. But he stopped me. He said, I don’t want your money. You have given me something far more valuable. You have given me respect and dignity.’
“That kind of grabbed me,” Mr. Yaroslavsky said, “but not the way I was grabbed when she said the next thing. ‘For the entire 20 minutes we sat there, hundreds of people walked by us. Not one person made eye contact with either one of us.’
“And that shook me up,” said Mr. Yaroslavsky.
“That is when my commitment with the homeless became ratcheted up in a significant way. I realized that if I had been one of those several hundred people walking down Telegraph Avenue, I wouldn’t have made eye contact with my own daughter’s eyes.
“In fact, society, as a whole, has not made eye contact with homelessness for the last 35 years.
“It doesn’t mean you have to get into bed with them or hug and kiss them. But it does mean that with the resources we have at hand, not just financial resources, but political and intellectual resources, pressure can be brought to bear toward solving this problem.”
