The Neighborhood Council of Westchester/Playa has been working on the issue of Homelessness and Vehicular Living for a couple of years now. Led by Booker Pearson, the chairperson of the NCWP Homelessness and Vehicular Living Committee, the NCWP has engaged with PATH (People Assisting the Homeless) to reach out to homeless people in our community. There have been many success stories, including this one that ran in the Daily Breeze.
from the Daily Breeze – After Ed Nash wraps up his work cleaning restrooms at Venice Beach, he catches a bus back to West L.A., where there’s always a decent meal coming to him.
At his temporary home – a multistory building that faces a Smart & Final market – Nash for the past couple of months has been provided with job and housing assistance and a “roomette” where he sleeps at night.
His space is small, and there’s no privacy in the restrooms, he said, but his living arrangement today is a far cry from where he’d spent many nights over the past two years – outside the municipal building in Westchester Park.
The 60-year-old Nash, a part-time employee with the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks, is among at least two dozen people who accepted help recently from outreach workers and representatives from social service agencies targeting the park’s homeless population. Some people resisted, but with the others – including Nash, who got help from People Assisting The Homeless – they’re hoping for success stories down the line.
“PATH has been a big help,” said Nash, a bear of a man with gray hair who speaks slowly in a soft voice. “I can sleep safely. They feed me. The food here is great.”
Nash lives at a transitional housing center that tries to help men, women and families break the cycle of poverty.
His arrival in mid-March couldn’t have been timed better – and it came after a chance encounter with PATH outreach worker Tomasz Babiszkiewicz. They’d both attended a meeting of the Westchester-Playa del Rey neighborhood council’s committee on homelessness and vehicular living.