More Comments about Skid Row Organizations

it is 2:15PM. Some one called me over to see how I was doing. " IT is hard to believe that your sister would want you in this type of environment, melton. You do not belong here. It is not you. I do not know how you make it", Jay said.

He said some other things. Everyon thinks she is using this situation to get me out of the way. What can I do about it? I wasted 7 months sitting in that place when I could have been in a place that would have had me do what the court wanted me to do.

That is my point, I guess. The more I hear followed with the more I see, it is clear that nothing will change down here unless alot changes. Everybody talks about the police. The people of Skid Row do not talk of the police. Few have contact with them. The ones that do, sell drugs or do drugs. People come up to me every day and they believe that homelessenss is big business No one wants to put themselves out of business. When they discuss the Safe City Initiative, I never hear anything about the missions involvement in it. Are they involved in it? What is their opinion of it? I did not see anything in the Heather Mas Donald writings about them. I did not hear anything about them in the press conference. Those organizations are stakeholders in Skid Row. It is rather ominous, now that I think about it, that they have been omitted from any discussion concerning Safer City Initiative.

More on the missions. Today three people walked up to me and started talking about the missions. They feel the drug users just go to one mission after another. The person who told me this used to do drugs. He finally was tired of drugs and went to a program. He works for SRO Housing now.
"Man, first of all, most of these people are not serious about walking away from drugs. They walk around here like it is fun and the party will never end. They are so blind. I saw that in me and I became disgusted with myself. People live for drugs down here. It is set up for drugs to be done down here. They do not want to change this down here. IT is crooked. EVerything about Skid Row is crooked. Look, no program is going to help you quit drugs. You have to want it. You have to want a different life. Being in a program, if you are lucky, can give you time to think about what you want to do. That is it. However, if you are not focused, you will do drugs or get swallowed up in the BS down here. You see it everywhere. Everybody is for themselves.
It is too competitive. The missions compete for money. State, Federal and donations. They do not compete to see who serves the public the best. They do not have to do that. they know that people here are hostages,in one form or another. It is sad. I was lucky. I just lucked up and got a job. It is hard. They say they care but their success rate is terribly low. How can they keep getting funding if their success rates are so low? It beats me. You have to depend on yourself to get better down here walt. The organizations have a low success rate. That is just how it is. With all of those millions how can they have such a low success rate?"