Former L.A. Movie Executive Now Deals in Real-Life Drama : AT Chrysalis, an Agency for the Poor and Homeless, the Focus is on Keeping a Job, Not Just Getting One

Mara Manus spent years as a movie executive at a division of Warner Bros., at Universal Pictures and at Transpacific Film Co. She was involved in the development and production of many movies, including the “Fletch” series starring Chevy Chase. But recently she took a job as director of Chrysalis, a Downtown agency that helps poor and homeless people find and keep jobs. She talked with writer Catherine Gewertz about the career change and the work that has made it worthwhile.

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I was very aware of the extent of the homeless problem in New York because I grew up there and still travel back and forth a lot. But I never realized the extent of it here until I started working for Transpacific in Santa Monica. And there I was, in a city dealing with something for which there seemed to be no answer.

But one Sunday morning in February, 1994, I took a tour of Chrysalis (in) Downtown (Los Angeles) and realized that there was a solution.

Chrysalis tries to help those who want to help themselves get jobs. Lots of places offer food or shelter. But there are few agencies helping the poor and the homeless get back into the work force, and no one in Los Angeles has been doing that exclusively, like Chrysalis.

So I started volunteering. I helped open the Santa Monica office (in October). Then I was put on the board of directors. It was during the interviews for the director’s job that I realized that this was what I wanted to do with my life.

The main idea behind what we do here is that it is as important to keep a job as it is to get one, so we offer whatever people need to do that. We provide job leads, but we also offer telephones, typewriters, a computer lab, resume-writing workshops, and a mail and message center. We give them bus fare and clothes for interviews and teach them how to present themselves in an interview.

Our case managers here are like having friends in the working world that you can lean on for advice or questions. For instance, one of our clients had a job as an accounting clerk and had a problem with a supervisor who didn’t work well with women. One of our case managers was able to suggest some ways she might improve that situation.

We have a high success rate: 63% of our clients still have jobs three months after they get them. We just got a grant to track them longer-term and do more to help them adjust to their job environment and deal with problems. In April, we’ll launch an after-work program, with speakers and a case manager who will address different aspects of holding a job.

In addition to our permanent placement program for those ready to stay in a job, we have Labor Connection, which is designed for those who maybe aren’t ready to hold a permanent job. It reintroduces people to the job force in a more exploratory way, without any major commitments. We have small businesses that provide day labor, ranging from clerical to manual.

There is also street maintenance work. Clients steam-clean sidewalks, remove graffiti, pick up litter. They get paid $5 to $6 an hour, and the money comes from our contracts with business improvement districts.

Our clients need to meet four prerequisites: They must be drug-free, alcohol-free, mentally stable and have residential housing. If they are interested but lack one of those qualifications, we can refer them to programs that can help, and we encourage people to come back.

You have to give everyone an opportunity to succeed, the tools to succeed and people who believe in them. That’s what we’re about.

At our Downtown office, we have about 200 clients at various stages of the program. In Santa Monica, we have 50 or so. There are 50,000 to 100,000 homeless people in Los Angeles County and at least 20% are employable, so Chrysalis should be serving many more people. I hope we can expand, but there is no way we can until people realize that helping homeless people is helping themselves.

It helps the economy because people are not taking, but contributing. Do we want taxes to pay for these people or get them back into the work force, where they can become contributing members of society?

It costs $700 to $800 to put someone through Chrysalis, which is mostly privately funded, and it seems to me that’s a much better investment than having someone draw $212 a month in welfare plus food stamps for months on end.

What really got me into this program was seeing how fed up people are (with homelessness). It’s so in their face. And there are two responses: to shut it out or do something about it. And if you don’t know how to do something about it, you shut it out. But there are things that we can do. That’s why I’m at Chrysalis.