Every Little Bit Helps

The streets of downtown Los Angeles often resemble an open-air asylum, with obviously ill people shouting at the world or sitting in door-ways, retreating into themselves. Too few of them have a place to go for food, showers or counseling. That is starting to change, with existing programs for women and now with the opening of the Los Angeles Men’s Place at 627 San Julian St.

The new center, which opened in June and is already at capacity, provides a safe, accessible place to go for men who live on Skid Row and who have been released from mental facilities. It is a clean, low-key environment that gives the men a place to find help if they want it, or at least safety if they don’t. Open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day, the center is used by 35 to 45 men a day.

“If I could clone, I’d like to start two more,” said Mollie Lowery, director of the new men’s center. “There is need for one downtown, even though they don’t want to hear that downtown.” Even her San Julian location is too far to come for some troubled people who don’t want to go through the worst of Skid Row in order to get there.

The center was an outgrowth of concern by Frank Rice, retired vice president of Bullock’s, and Jill Halverson of the Downtown Women’s Center that there was a population on Skid Row that was not being helped. That concern meshed with Lowery’s work with the homeless that had taught her that too often the mentally ill would get pushed aside because they weren’t like the rest of the people. Corporations and foundations have provided much of the center’s $100,000 budget. But the center still needs many staple food items such as soup, cooking oil and coffee, or supplies such as blankets, towels and even men’s underwear.

Lowery believes that the Los Angeles Men’s Place performs its function because the people who use it no longer have to worry about starving. When they are fed, when they can be clean and secure, she says, they see that they don’t have to be agitated to get something. “Then perhaps they can start making the long journey into places where they can get help.”