By Charles Springer
A few weeks ago, Mr. Colin Hadlow wrote letter about my column about finding a creative response to homelessness in Santa Monica. When I wrote that column I was looking for a response from the community as a whole. I was looking for a brainstorming session from top to bottom to help solve the situation of homelessness here in Santa Monica.
He said he was wide awake to the “problem” of homelessness. Well, if Hadlow was, he would know that most of the homeless who come to Santa Monica are “pushed” and “shoved” here by the same such ordinances which the city council recently passed. Passed by people with the same “let them eat cake” attitude Hadlow had. The few of those who come here, who are trying to put their lives back together again, are going to have an even harder time because of those two ordinances.
Hadlow also mentioned about my not trying to get up off the streets. My friend, I have tried numerous times to get off the streets. The times I did succeed I made errors on whom I lived with and wound up back out here again. I have also checked the room-for-rent board at Santa Monica College more than once, and found that the rent for one room is almost as much as paying for an apartment. They start at around $500 and up with security deposits required. That’s how greedy it has become since rent control was lifted here. Even the foreign students are getting gouged for their money.
I went into a shelter in 1998, and an ex-prison guard was the program director and ran the shelter like a prison. Also, one of the guys who lived there was dealing crystal meth to some of the homeless and housed kids who hung out on the Promenade. One of these kids, who is a 21-year-old mom now, was like one of my own kids and he knew me through her. So he pulled a totally jailhouse move on me and I was kicked out because he was con-trolling the shelter and some of the workers like a prison yard.
These are things Hadlow is NOT aware of that go on in the world of the homeless. I know now that the director of this shelter (whom I know personally) would not allow for that type of behavior and things have changed since I was put out. But my trust in these organizations has been tainted. As has the trust of any of us who have been through similar incidents dealing with the homeless organizations anywhere. Hadlow has never went to these organizations, so he doesn’t really know what it is like to have your trust betrayed by people who are supposed to help you.
Hadlow also made a remark about finding a better job. I gave my portfolio to more than a few places in the last few years for graphic design or animation, and because of I am homeless I was denied a chance. Now you might ask how they found out I was homeless. Well, my personal recovery has taught me to be honest with myself and others. I am honest with anyone who knows me about my living situation.
That’s how I know that the homeless often face discrimination when looking for work. But, I find that the friends who know that I am homeless are REAL friends. And I have asked them for help and have gotten as much help as they can provide over the years.
Hadlow said that about 80 percent of homeless are addicts?
Well, he might be right, but I think he should look around his own neighborhood for a change, and see how many addicts live there as well. Where does he think the drugs come from? I have not met anyone from the Colombian drug cartels living on the street recently, has he?
No, because most of the dealers and suppliers live in homes in neighborhoods like his. And the richer the dealer, the higher a lifestyle he or she lives. Wouldn’t you agree with that Mr. Hadlow?
He also mentioned Sweden’s social programs. Well, my friend, these programs work in keeping that country’s homeless off the streets. I know someone who comes from Sweden and she tells me that, though it has its shortcomings, it works. What is wrong with using a form of that here in Santa Monica? Or would helping a fellow country man put his life back together be too much to ask? Why, my friend, do you think that most countries in this world harbor ill towards America?
It’s because we ARE the richest country in the world, and we don’t even put the interest of the people above greed and power. We have become the hypocrites of the world!
Hadlow said I should change or die. Well, being on the street has changed me forever. It has not killed me so I must be stronger for it. He mentioned Rosa Parks not giving up her seat and sparking the civil rights movement. Or the gays and lesbians who fought for their rights. Well, he is seeing a homeless man fighting for his rights right here. For the right to have homelessness be recognized for the situation that it is and what causes it. Not to be “labeled” and swept under the rug like dirt. To let people who read all this anti-homeless sentiment know that we are living, breathing, intelligent human beings out here.
Whether we have addiction problems, are mentally ill, handicapped or elderly, we are human and Americans and deserve more than being shuffled from city to city because some of the wealthy can’t stand to see what this country has been reduced to by the greed that has permeated the rank and file since Reagan’s “trickle down” economics. And that the corporate greed, which you have seen firsthand in America, which was part of the good economic times under the Clinton administration, kept up.
All I see when I read and re-read Hadlow’s response to my column is someone who forgot what it was like to be out here, even if it was for six months in a car. I see someone who is afraid he might wind up out here again. He mentions his friends who are in college and working. Well, having a place to study is one up on me. I think if these people had to do it from the street, they would fail.
And, lastly, I have a new sticker on my sketch board, Mr. Hadlow, another quote by Mr. Einstein which says, “The problems we face cannot be solved by the minds that created them.” How can the very same people who see money or “quality of life” as more important than the quality of a HUMAN life solve the homeless issue here in Santa Monica? I honestly think that we should think about this, sir.
Hard work is what I am about, and I continue to work hard to achieve my goals, dreams and aspirations. Even if I fail at it, I at least have the satisfaction of knowing that I gave it all I had. Thank you for your response, Mr. Hadlow. Art that gets an emotional response is truly art, don’t you agree?
Charles Springer is homeless in Santa Monica.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 11, 2002. Read the original PDF.