Getting Involved : Donating Prize to a Homeless Shelter Is ‘No Big Deal’
ROB ULIN
Santa Monica
Ulin, 31, is head writer and co-executive producer of the hit television series “Roseanne.” He recently won a $10,000 Humanitas prize, funded by the entertainment industry, for the Sept. 18, 1992, episode in which Roseanne’s teen-age daughter, Becky, returns home after eloping with her boyfriend and reaches a reconciliation with her mother.
The award is given annually by the Human Family Educational and Cultural Institute “to encourage the communication of human values through entertainment TV,” says the institute’s president, the Rev. Ellwood Kieser. Ulin donated the award to Santa Monica’s Ocean Park Community Center, where it will probably be used to help open the center’s planned 55-bed shelter called Turning Point. The center now houses 35 homeless adults and sponsors the Sojourn battered women’s shelter, the Stepping Stone runaway youth shelter, and two outreach programs for homeless mentally ill women.
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I didn’t think it was such a big deal when I gave my prize to the shelter. There are poor hungry people on the streets everywhere, and I don’t know why anyone wouldn’t be moved to help them.
I was sitting with my wife, Ann Payson, just before the prize winner was announced, and I said to her: “If I win, I think I’ll give the money to the homeless shelter,” and Ann said, “Great.” The prize seemed like found money and since it was given for humanitarian values, it seemed appropriate to send it (to the shelter).
About four years ago, Ann and I lived at 4th and Hill across from the shelter, and I passed it many times. One day I went in and asked them to show me around. The staff didn’t know me, but they were very nice. They seemed very sincere, as if they really cared about their work and the homeless. A few times after that I gave a few hundred dollars there. I liked the fact that the shelter was in our neighborhood. It felt more significant to give there because it was part of the community.
I make a good living. I’ve never been poor. I grew up in Boston in a solid middle-class family. I feel very fortunate, and my wife and I are very happy.
It’s difficult living in Santa Monica. Homeless people approach you all the time. You never know if you should give (directly to them) or not. I still give sometimes to people who ask me, especially to a woman or someone who looks especially helpless. But I know it’s better to give every dollar to a shelter.
Santa Monica is now passing some ordinances to keep homeless people out (of various public areas). And I know that some people find homeless people scary. A few are scary to me sometimes, too. And I understand that feeling. The problem of homelessness is very frustrating.
One way to deal with it is to be angry at the homeless themselves. You don’t have to be a terrible person to feel that way. But if you look closely, you’ll see the homeless are not just a bunch of awful people who’ve screwed up their own lives.
It seems to me that the number of homeless hugely increased during the 1980s. The problem has gotten worse and worse. And I think it’s a problem our government should solve. That must have been the case at some point, because we didn’t always have this huge number of people living in our streets. I can’t imagine any higher priority for a government than taking care of homeless people.
Don’t think I’m trying to put off responsibility. It’s my government, too, so actually I’m trying to take responsibility. As far as my giving the prize money to a shelter, it really wasn’t anything extraordinary. Really, it wasn’t such a big deal.
