Rescue Mission Reaches Out Into Cyberspace

Having lived on the streets for two years, Kaye Johnson doesn’t like strangers watching him pick through his food.

But for a hot Thanksgiving meal, the 36-year-old knows he must put up with what he calls “the sideshow” of holiday giveaways for the homeless, like the one sponsored Thursday for about 5,000 people by the Union Rescue Mission on Los Angeles’ skid row.

By “sideshow” he means the television and print reporters looking for a heartwarming story on a slow day.

As a cameraman filmed him, however, something didn’t sit right with Johnson when he learned that he and his turkey with gravy had probably just been zapped onto the ultimate venue for voyeurism: the Internet.

In the latest demonstration that, as the world enters the next millennium, there is almost nothing that cannot be virtually experienced from a comfortable distance, skid row has entered cyberspace.

The feeling, Johnson said, “is like Big Brother is peeking over our shoulders. Meanwhile, nobody cares about my not being able to find a job.”

On the contrary, rescue mission officials say that what they call the first “live Webcast” from skid row’s desolate streets is meant to increase sympathy and help for the roughly 240,000 homeless people in the county.

The three-hour cybercast, which attracted nearly 17,000 computer hits, allowed many to “see the face of the homeless for the first time, possibly, ever,” said Michael Teague, president and chief executive officer of the mission.

Even regular donors to the mission, which houses nearly 1,000 people every night and feeds up to 3,000 daily, do not typically come into contact with those their money helps, Teague said.

Usually because of concerns about security, few of the nondenominational Christian mission’s nearly 600,000 donors agree to venture into the infamous neighborhood to see the largest homeless shelter in the country, said Perilla Brewer, an administrator.

“That’s especially the case with the older people,” she said. “They don’t think we have things like secured parking, which we do.”

Though it is not quite like the real thing, the Webcast’s virtual tour of the five-story mission offers another alternative, Teague said.

“We think if they see what is going on and see how their money is being spent, they will feel better about what they are doing and possibly give us more,” he said.

From the comfort of their homes, those who clicked on saw various highlights from the day’s program, whose theme was “Reach for the Moon.”

The Union Rescue Mission offered just one of dozens of feasts for the poor and homeless around the Southland on Thursday.

Nearly 2,000 people crammed into the Laugh Factory in West Hollywood, where for nearly 20 years, owner Jamie Masada has invited the homeless and entertainers awaiting their big break to celebrate the holiday. About 10,000 meals were served at the Los Angeles Mission, and 2,500 people were fed at the Fred Jordan Mission, both just a few blocks from the Union Rescue Mission.

The West Valley Police Activities League fed a free dinner to hundreds at the Guadalupe Community Center in Canoga Park. And in Anaheim, sheriff’s deputies baked apple pies for a Thanksgiving dinner that drew a crowd of more than 12,000. The Orange County Sheriff’s Department donated 200 pies to Frank Garcia and his family, who every year organize the dinner at La Casa Garcia for the homeless, the poor and the lonely.

At the Union Rescue Mission, the sometimes incongruous digital video and audio clips on its Web site revealed guests lining up to enter the outdoor program area on San Julian Street, between 5th and 6th streets.

They were greeted by clowns and a juggling comedian on stilts.

Other clips showed turkeys being carved, a 60-gallon kettle of macaroni and cheese ready to be served and women and their children settling down for the hot meal.

One unidentified man thanked donors in a filmed interview for helping him in his efforts to “get back into society and the work field.”

Sensitive to those, like Johnson, who were uncomfortable with having their faces shown on the Web, the footage was time-delayed and edited in an upstairs mission office.

Geoffrey Rohr, 56, said he didn’t mind the attention.

“If it shows the great work this mission is doing, I’ve got no problem with all these cameras,” he said.

But, Rohr added, “a lot of what is happening here, you can’t get on the Internet. People need to see it for themselves.”

Web surfers, for instance, missed the clusters of giddy children cavorting inside a row of inflated trampoline tents set up near the dining area.

They couldn’t smell the turkey, stuffing and pumpkin pie that would be the only decent meal many there would have for several days.

“It’s a humbling experience to be here,” said Bob Daniels, an attorney from Canoga Park who was one of 600 volunteers helping serve the meals.

The experience helped him realize that “a lot of us are just a paycheck away from being homeless ourselves.”

“Today may be great for them,” he said, “but what about tomorrow?”

That question seemed to plague Miguel Angel as he struggled through a Spanish-language television news interview nearby.

“Why can’t you find a job?” the interviewer asked Angel, as he hunched over his plate of turkey with all the trimmings.

“I don’t know,” he said, looking away from the rolling camera. “I don’t know.”

The television cameraman motioned for Angel to bite into a piece of turkey.

“Perfect. Thank you,” he said, when Angel complied.

Then, he and the interviewer walked away.

The Web broadcast videos will remain available through the weekend on the mission’s Web site, https://www.URMusa.org.