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Gregory Poster: A Landscaper Ready To Start Over At Union Rescue Mission

Wan Xu |
October 27, 2013 | 8:53 p.m. PDT

Contributor

Gregory Poster joined Union Rescue Mission's "Life-Transformation Program" two weeks ago.
Gregory Poster joined Union Rescue Mission's "Life-Transformation Program" two weeks ago.

Gregory Poster, 51, joined Union Rescue Mission’s yearlong recovery “Life-Transformation Program” two weeks ago. He used to live with his extended family back in hometown Virginia, with their own landscaping business. But after his mother passed away from cancer 11 years ago, they all went separate ways. Poster got divorced and his only son landed in prison.

Leaving for Los Angeles alone, Poster followed his father’s career and worked as a landscaper here. Continual sorrow and depression, however, made him start to use alcohol and drugs. Years ago when he was working beside the road, he got hit by a city bus and messed his leg up. He now lives on Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits.

“I was not doing the right thing, and I feel myself would get in some trouble. The only thing I got on my mind was to get some help,” Poster said. He started a program at L.A. Mission but left there not long after, because he was “tired to handle the hard work there” and “didn’t want to be in pain and pressure.”

“They tried to have me to do some maid work, which I can’t do anymore… Like swing a mop,” Poster said, “And I have done it, and I was having a lot of problems on my leg, but they didn't understand that.”

He turned to Union Rescue Mission (URM) for help after he heard a lot about it on TV.

“I guess God led me here. I just came down here, I checked myself in, told my alcohol and drug problem, so here I am,” Poster said.

URM is the oldest non-profit homeless and social-service provider on the Skid Row. Established in 1891 by Lyman Stewart, president and founder of Union Oil Company, it encouraged two million soldiers during the war years from 1940s to 1970s, and helped hundreds of men find jobs during the Great Depression.

“We know for the most part everybody’s homeless, ” said URM Chief Executive Officer Rev. Andrew Bales, “because you wouldn’t come to Skid Row or walking in our door asking for help unless you were homeless.”

There are 130 full-time workers in 8 departments at URM, and thousands of volunteers each year that also help. The agency also has partnerships with 280 other Missions around the country and the world.

Poster is now a member of the “Overcomers Group” at URM. Staff there divides guests into different groups – around 30 people in each group - and pick group names for them. So far, Poster said he can “cope with this one a little bit better.”

The Life-Transformation Program includes 1,000-hour work therapy, 144-hour Bible classes, 200-hour education and vocational training, and 200-hour physical fitness. People would have to pay in “sweat equity” towards completion and independence of the program.

“You do the best you can. They work with you,” he said. Poster gets up at 5:30 a.m. from Monday to Friday and goes to bed at 10:00 p.m. After breakfast at 6:00 a.m., he has chapel and goes to classes with other members in the Learning Center on the fourth floor.

“We catered quite a bit to the individual. They have a coach, a chaplain for counseling,” Bales said, “We also change it. Like now, we’re really working at providing a job when people finish, so they can stay out of homelessness.”

The Learning Center keeps class size small and makes each class about two hours. Besides mandatory Bible classes, guests can learn high school curricula and acquire diplomas there if they didn’t get it before. Starting just last week, Poster has not been assigned to any classes as chaplains there were still testing him on his reading right now. He wants to learn the Bible because he knew nothing about it before.

“That’s the thing when I got here I told myself. I want to get close to God, find God, and learn how to read that Bible,” Poster said, “They got a lot of stuff to offer you here. If you want it, you can go for it, and it’s gonna pay off in the end,” he added.

After class, Poster goes to work in the shower at Union Rescue Mission, handing out towels, hygiene stuff, toothpaste, and toothbrush for the homeless people.

“That’s what I can do, because my leg was messed up, so they got me working, sitting down and handing stuff out,” Poster said, “Before I was homeless, but now I’m catering for their needs.”

Everybody in the program, based on what they’re capable of doing, is assigned a job inside the building: some in the kitchen, some in the day room. The Mission gets them eight hours to work but breaks it down - people do not work the whole period.

“People work couple hours, go kicked back [in their dorms], and go back to work again. We [Union Rescue Mission] open the shower in the morning, afternoon and then midnight. That’s when I work, so I can handle that,” Poster said.

On weekends, all the things guests have to do is a church service at 1:00 pm. They can mostly relax at the rest time, watching football games, playing Ping-Pong, and watching movies.

Union Rescue Mission offers guests almost everything for free, as long as they work. Guests can sign up for beds, eat three meals a day, take showers, get haircuts, pick out fresh clothes, and receive medical care. Every year, URM serves one million meals and provides 250,000 nights of shelter.

Many homeless people are still unwilling to come in URM for help, though. Because while “poverty is a huge reason,” according to Bales, often it’s other factors that lead to homelessness, especially of the men.

“Mental health, not being able to make good decision, distrust, addiction… so they know if they trammeled, they won’t be able to continue to use alcohol, or it’ll be difficult continue to use alcohol and drugs,” Bales said.

Poster now shares a room of six people with bunk beds at the third floor. There is a big day room outside bedrooms, with TV sets, pool tables, Ping-Pong tables, shooting machines, snake machines, etc. People can sit in the patio as well and go to the roof when barbeques are held occasionally.

“I can’t say it’s comfortable, I’m just trying to fit in there. You don’t get big comfort until you have your own place, that’s the way to become comfortable,” Poster said, “But I’m satisfied. It’s helping me in a way instead of being out there in the street.”

The Mission, however, does want everyone to save some money for their own sake. People can save in the internal bank during the year, which can get them a place when they get ready to leave the program.

“Nearly everyone has an income of some kind, and often they’ve been using it to hurt themselves rather than help themselves. We want to teach them to invest in their own lives,” Bales said, “We think people feel better about themselves when they pay part of their own way than getting everything free.” 

Poster will not start to pay until next month. “If I get 950 [from SSI], I can put up about 6 or 700 dollars, maybe 900. I don’t have to spend that much. They get you everything here.” Poster plans to save 10,000 dollars in a year’s time. “In that way, it gives me a big start in life, to start over again.”

Bad habits die hard. It is never easy to stop drinking and using, especially for an 11-year addict like Poster. Union Rescue Mission helps him in all possible ways. Currently on a 30 days’ restriction, Poster is not allowed to go out the building unless he has to go to a doctor or have some business. Staff there also randomly tests him and everyone else in the program.

“Someday when I get up, I’ll be depressed. I need pray more for one thing. I just take one day a time, that’s all,” Poster said, “So tomorrow it promises no, but today I know I’m not gonna drink or use, so that’s a good thing. I’m getting better.” 

Looking ahead to a year later, Poster said he would go back to hometown, where his sister and nieces live. He wanted to “start over again”, having his own apartment and a nice car, and going back to landscaping school.

“My thing was landscaping. Working in the flowerbeds, plant flowers. That’s what I like. It’s been a long time since I did it, so I need to start over again,” Poster said, “There’s good money in it. You’ll be surprise. Get you 10 or 15 yards to do, but you can collect some money.

About 100 people graduate from the program every year right now, 30 percent of the total students. URM’s goal is to reach 300 people per year. There’s about 70 percent success rate of them staying sober and well and finding a place to live, according to Bales. If people fail to graduate or stay in stability, they can come back, reenter and try again.

“My whole goal is to give my place again, be independent,” Poster added. “I need a change in my life. It’s time to move on. I’ve been out all my life. I’m tired of living out here. Everything in Virgina is kinda reasonable. Like living-wise, your one-bed apartment is easy for 600 dollars, no more than 700 dollars. See out here, you gonna look about a grand or more, and I can’t afford it.”

URM announces on website that its goal is to get all people off the streets of Skid Row by 2016, and it has once reduced the number from 2,000 to 600. But now Bales is much concerned about relapse and even expansion. According to Bales, URM plans to change its goal, and attempt to graduate 300 people a year from recovery. It will also try to decentralize Skid Row by getting people in jobs and housing outside Skid Row.

“Because of the economy, and I think the unfocused approach by the city, and the release of prisoners from prison, Skid Row has grown back from 600 to 2,000,” Bales said. “I just saw ten tents set up next to Union Station. I saw tents in Chinatown, and I heard the parts east of Chinatown is full of campers every night,” He added, “I guess it’s so crowded every night that it looks like a concert is going on.” 

 

 

Reach contributor Wan Xu here. Follow her on Twitter.


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