Oh, Thank Goodness

In 1989, the Earth trembled, skies poured, killer winds howled, tankers spilled and revolutions swept the globe. In Los Angeles, gang violence claimed yet more victims and traffic seemed to grow ever worse. Still, amid the tide of oft-tragic happenings, small rays of hope keep shining through. Here are a few of many stories worth sharing on a day of feasting, family and friends. They’re enough to remind that it’s still worth saying: “Oh, Thank Goodness.”

Last Thanksgiving Day, 35-year-old Joseph Williams was unemployed and living on Skid Row with 12,000 other homeless men and women. There was no turkey, no family, no hope of ever getting work or finding a place to call home.

“This Thanksgiving, my life has turned around,” Williams says. “I have much to be thankful for.”

For starters, he is working at Robinson’s Department Store downtown in his first job since he was laid off more than a year ago and ended up on the streets after unemployment benefits expired.

And now that he’s earning a paycheck, Williams says he can afford a one-bedroom apartment. His plan is to move from Skid Row’s Weingart Center, a temporary residential shelter, sometime next month.

“I feel God has truly blessed me this Thanksgiving,” Williams says. He will spend today with his mother.

As a homeless person, Williams says he has learned many valuable lessons not only about living but also surviving. He knows what it’s like to be hungry. He knows what it takes to fight the violence and self-destruction that often strike men and women on Skid Row.

In the past year, he has moved in and out of six shelters, sleeping wherever he could find a spot. He has gone to bed hungry because “I was too embarrassed to stand in food lines.” As a result, he lost about 30 pounds.

He also lost his self-esteem and almost gave up on life until he met John Dillon and Judy Alexander of the Chrysalis Center, a free employment service for the homeless. Through counseling and job workshops, Dillon and Alexander restored Williams’ pride in himself.

Williams remembers the day he was hired at Robinson’s six weeks ago: “It was a bad day for me. . . . I was feeling real down, but I decided that I wasn’t going to be defeated. So I walked into Robinson’s and told a lady that I had some data entry experience, that I had been laid off, that I had been living at the Union Rescue Mission and I had been studying the Bible.”

He was hired.

These days, Williams spends his time in search of affordable housing.

“Last year was really rough,” he says. “I didn’t have a permanent address. I was mentally drained and it was getting cold outside. Now when I lay in bed, I think about my future and I count my blessings.”