Warren Currie
For the last five years, the debate on the best method to manage the homeless problem has focused on whether it should be handled by government-funded programs or “faith-based” organizations.
For Warren D. Currie, president of the Los Angeles Rescue Mission, the evidence weighs heavily toward religious-based programs. He sees them as the most efficient means of determining the cause behind an individual’s social breakdown and for helping them back on the right track.
He has criticized the government’s institutional approach as being inadequate and often unsafe for the most vulnerable homeless population: women and children. “A more realistic approach to the homeless problem is for government to work alongside existing social agencies that have much more experience with the issue of homelessness to pursue long-term solutions,” he wrote in response to the opening of a government-run homeless camp in the eastern part of downtown.
Currie, 61, worked nearly 40 years at Hughes Aircraft Co., managing 2,500 employees and overseeing a $1.4-billion budget for a surface-to-air-missile systems project, before leaving in 1993 to work full time at his current job as head of the world’s largest homeless shelter. Today, he controls an $11-million annual budget, a growing endowment, 88 full-time employees and 11,000 volunteers (a 300% increase since 1994) who serve meals to more than a million of the city’s disadvantaged each year.
The mission has grown astoundingly from its start, 106 years ago, when more than 500 Angelenos were fed daily from just one gospel wagon at the site of today’s City Hall. Eventually, the mission took up permanent residence on Main Street, where it remained for 80 years until its relocation in 1994 to a five-story, 225,000-square-foot structure in the heart of Skid Row, on South San Pedro.
To ensure its independence to maintain a “spiritual-based approach,” the mission’s yearly budget is 75% from individuals, 20% from bequests and estates and 5% from corporations. Much of the money is generated through monthly mailing campaigns. However, over the last four years, Currie has directed his energy to building the mission’s endowment fund.
Currie has been married to his wife, Fran, a homemaker, for 38 years, and they have four grown children and seven grandchildren. The interview was conducted in Currie’s office at the mission’s headquarters on Skid Row.
Question: How does Union Rescue Mission differ from other faith-based missions?
Answer: Today, most missions are “Three Hots and a Cot,” or basic food and shelter and that was basically true of us until 20 years ago. But at that time, we started thinking of the significance of the biblical story of “teaching a man to fish” or, rather, how we could have a permanent impact and have long-term success on the homeless problem. So we developed a “sustained recovery program.”
What we found, on average, was if a person stays in a very disciplined program for one year, regardless of their sex, they have a substantially higher success rate, because they developed new habits of life and the old negative pulls don’t seem to have the same influence.
Q: Why do you think people are against faith-based organizations taking a more active role in helping the homeless?
A: I can’t really understand, because it seems like such a natural thing. Even if you look back through the annals of history, even with the history and development of hospitals, you will find they were started by faith-based organizations. When you examine the Bible, which talks about taking care of the poor, and even in Jewish theology, they have a very clear understanding of this, and this was just continued once Christianity came along. But I believe some people’s reservation centers around the issues of power and control. . . .
Q: Why are you reluctant to accept government funding?
A: The government has always said, “We’d love to fund you.” However, when you receive government funding, you may not discuss the spirituality of an individual. You can discuss an individual’s health, responsibilities, job performance and other life issues--but not spiritual aspects.
Q: Then how are you able to accept food from the U.S. Department of Agriculture?
A: We have to do additional accounting for the government, however, the food comes without strings. We also contribute the food to other smaller, faith-based shelters, which can’t receive these items in the volume we are able to.
However, 65% of our food comes from markets, like Vons and Hughes, and we have a van that starts every day picking up expired, date-coded food items from various markets. It’s a win-win for them, because they get a tax deduction; and it’s a win-win for us, because we serve approximately 3,500 meals per day. Last year, we served over 1.2 million people.
Q: Why do you consider spirituality so key to your recovery program?
A: For an individual whose life is absolutely broken, they can be given new life through the spiritual approach.
If you examine the empirical data on the success of programs the media calls “faith-based,” the results are dramatic. Most government programs’ long-term success rate is between 4% and 10%, whereas we’re around 70%; and when we treat a family, we’re in excess of 90%.
Q: Can people enter your program if they are not interested in the religious aspect?
A: We market ourselves as a Christian organization, and we don’t apologize. I also think that is why they come to us. We have a lot of members of the Nation of Islam, and they are welcome, but they have to attend Bible class like everybody else.
Q: What do you provide?
A: We have two basic programs. The first is our emergency services program, which helps people on the street by giving them food, clothes, showers, dental and medical care.
Normally, when volunteers come, they work in our emergency-services sector, and we continue to attract volunteers, because they see progress. In 1996, we had 11,000 volunteers providing 51,000 hours--and this is without recruiting. It’s just the word getting out.
Presently, we have one man who puts 330 men to bed in our emergency services. Once the beds upstairs fill up, we still have between 200 to 400 men who don’t have a bed. So we allow them to sleep downstairs in chairs. . . .
The emergency guest program is the feeder program for our 12-month program . . . . If someone wants to come into our 12-month program, generally our beds are full, but while they’re waiting, we put them to work serving food. That way, we can tell if the person is for real. Because it costs $9,300 to put them through the program.
The first day of the 12-month program, we do a complete assessment and start developing structure and accountability and reinstituting work values.
If you’re going to live here, you have to work. The key word for us is “consecutive,” because we have uninterrupted hours--five hours of classes and eight hours of work. Our classes consist of Bible study, learning lab and physical fitness. We also do counseling. And this is where the efficiency of what we call “ministry of management” all come together.
There are different stages in our 12-month program . . . . Everybody here wears a badge and they are color-coded. Red is for the first 30 days, because they are detoxing and it’s also our greatest turnover point. So we treat them kind of delicately. A yellow badge means you’re starting in the learning center and, finally, you receive the green badge, which means you’re on your way out.
It can take from six months to nine months before we deem you ready for graduation, and when we return them to society. they have their health back and a job skill.
Also, part of our program is that we try to rebuild relationships with their family, so they have a network of support. We require family to attend group meetings, to learn about their loved one’s addiction. You see, the whole family is in recovery and we’ve found this to be the key to our success. We consider ourselves to be reparenting.
Q: Is there a typical profile for the homeless?
A: It varies, because everyone has their own story. When a person reaches us, we’re not the first place they’ve come--we’re generally the last. Usually, there is some form of a breakdown that hasn’t been addressed and they have self-medicated themselves. Homelessness was not always associated with chemical addiction, as it is today. Twenty years ago, homelessness was associated with alcoholism.
However, for many homeless men, it’s not unusual to have some form of sexual abuse or mental illness in their background. As for women, 11 years ago, you wouldn’t have seen a woman on Skid Row. But the profile of a homeless woman and her children often times has something do with spousal or physical abuse from a significant other. Or it may be some form of addiction. In some cases, it’s mental illness.
Q: How long do people generally remain homeless?
A: The longer you’re on Skid Row, the more likely you’ll be on Skid Row. So if we can get that person in the first year, it’s better. The average age of our men is around 36; and if they’ve been using drugs since they were teenagers, they’ve been on the streets for a long time.
Q: Why is homelessness more devastating for women?
A: On a national level, women make up 21%, but in Los Angeles, women account for almost 30% of the homeless. We have 110 emergency beds for women, but we are still overflowing, with 20 to 30 women per day. So we put mattresses down in the rec room, because there are no other emergency services available around here for women.
When a woman ends up on Skid Row, often times she is so battered and abused that she is absolutely concerned about whether she is going to be raped again . . . . So we need anywhere between five to seven staff members to put the women to bed and calm them down and tell them, “Yes, you’re going to be fine.”
Q: Why are you the largest mission in the nation?
A: The weather, and it’s Los Angeles. Other large cities have problems, but not in comparison with L.A. Because when it’s minus-16 degrees with a windchill factor, there is no way to stay outside. So they get on trains and come to L.A.
Also, this is Hollywood, the “land of dreams.” We had one program graduate who came expecting to make it “big.” Instead, he ended up at the mission, but now he’s finally a TV star.
Q: What are the medical and dental services?
A: . . . In our medical clinic, we see about 10,000 people per year, and their major problem is respiratory-related, because when you’re sleeping on the street, you get bronchitis and tuberculosis.
The other major issue is their feet. Many do not have access to showers and they keep their socks on day after day, so they develop feet, skin and bone problems. Frequently, gangrene sets in and they have to have their toes and feet amputated. . . The dental service is critical, because drugs mask and suppress dental problems. As individuals come off cocaine, their teeth just kill them.
Q: What percentage of your population is mentally ill?
A: About 30% of our guest population are mentally ill. If they are using drugs, we don’t know if the problem is mental illness or the drugs. And it is not unusual for them to be dual diagnosed. However, we don’t have program services for the mentally ill, so we do referrals and try not to put them back on the streets.*
