warning Hi, we've moved to USCANNENBERGMEDIA.COM. Visit us there!

Neon Tommy - Annenberg digital news

From Drugs To Independence: The Men Of The L.A. Mission

Sara Newman |
November 27, 2013 | 10:20 p.m. PST

Associate News Editor

Gabe Echeverria  (Sara Newman)
Gabe Echeverria (Sara Newman)

Gabe Echeverria wakes up at 3:15 each morning to begin 4:30 breakfast preparations to serve the hundreds of Los Angelenos who come to the Los Angeles Mission each day. He is four months into the intensive 13-month rehabilitation program that the mission runs to help people overcome their struggles with homelessness, drugs and alcohol abuse. 

“Amazingly there’s always enough food,” said Echeverria. “Even serving upwards of 1200 meals a day, we never run out. We end up either saving or giving away the extras to people who need them more than we do.” 

Echeverria is one of approximately 115 men progressing through the program. 

READ MORE: Skid Row Does Thanksgiving With The Help Of L.A.'s Top Chefs

Like Echeverria, Chris Duran also works the morning shift in the kitchen six days a week.

Duran recently relocated from Fresno to Los Angeles, hoping that the Mission program would help him break clean of his drug dealing past. 

Duran considers himself lucky that his job is to set up tables and wash dishes.

“It’s one of the better jobs to be honest,” said Duran. “There’s more food and it’s not as nasty—not like scrubbing toilets.”

Unlike Echeverria, however, Duran isn’t as thrilled by his overall experience at the Mission. 

“I talk to people from the program, but I don’t really run with them,” admitted Duran. “I act rough because they act rough. A lot of people are court-ordered to come here and just like to fight. We are living 60 per dorm, 8 per room, so there’s a lot of drama. Some people treat it like jail.” 

“And if I’m going to be working this hard,” Duran added. “I at least want to get paid for it.”

Confident in his ability to stay clean after leaving the program, Duran plans to work in the hotel business or do something with food. “I’ve been working with food since I was 13—first in my middle school cafeteria and then in a pizza place—so it comes naturally to me,” he said. 

READ MORE: L.A. Mission Brings Good Friday Message To Skid Row

Chris Duran (Sara Newman)
Chris Duran (Sara Newman)

CEO and President of the Los Angeles Mission, Herb Smith puts on events like the Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, and summer feasts to attract community members and bring media attention to the Mission’s work in order to find more donors. 

“Skid Row isn’t this scary place that people assume it is,” said Smith. “I actually feel safer here than in West L.A. People know me here and look out for me because they realize how much I care about this community.”

But unfortunately, the streets are as packed with desperation as ever. Los Angeles is notorious for its lack of public services to help people who can’t afford to pay for housing or even food. As a result. people come from all across the county—and even the country—to reap the benefits of the Mission program. 

Recently the Mission began charging a small fee to help cover living costs, but it’s minimal compared to similar programs. The Mission’s Urban Training Institute helps residents get their GED, undergo job training, acquire life skills, and seek spiritual guidance. 

“The men here are open, kind and really enthused about changing their lives,: said drug counselor Tony Monaco. “They’re willing to do things they didn’t think they could ever do. It’s a real privilege working with them.”

“You can’t just think that because they’re down here at the Mission they’re homeless,” he continued “ They’re simply trying to pick up something they lost—just like the rest of us.”

READ MORE: Los Angeles Mission Cuts Jobs To Feed Homeless

Omar Burnett (Sara Newman)
Omar Burnett (Sara Newman)
The Mission also partners with the Los Angeles satellite campus of the Chicago School of Psychology to provide residents with mental health and sobriety counseling.   

“Most people come in here because they are homeless or near homeless, usually with drug and alcohol issues,” explained Smith. “Almost all of the people who enter our live-in program have addiction issues—admitted or not.”

In the future, the Mission plans to expand its Anne Douglas Center for Women, build satellite locations throughout the city, begin providing outpatient care, start using technology to share their programs online and develop a stronger emphasis on family reunification. 

“The trend in homelessness is to give them services, but we really want to work on moving more people into permanent housing and help them rebuild their lives,” said Smith. 

READ MORE: Skid Row Homeless Get "Fresh Start"

For Omar Burnett, however, the restrictions that accompany these services sometimes get in the way of his attempts to rebuild a life for himself. The program is “way more than [he] expected,” reported Burnett. “I was just trying to find some housing and drug counseling, but after looking around online, I found this.”

The curriculum at the Mission is largely geared around helping students find their way through faith, with biblical classes, daily prayer and one-on-one counseling with the chaplains.  

After finishing his 8-hour stint as head chef each morning, Burnett often takes the hour bus ride to Compton where he sees his wife and his 5-year-old son, regaining a sense of family that he almost lost after his relapse into drugs led him and his wife to separate. 

“As soon as I’m about to break through to a really good place, I get scared and fall back into drugs and alcohol,” explained Burnett. After starting with marijuana in high school and progressing to hard drugs in his 20s, Burnett is determined to finally break his vicious cycle. 

“I’m really hard on my son about following directions because I don’t,” admitted Burnett. “I see my same patterns in him and it scares me.”

While he is deeply indebted for the ways in which the Mission have helped him turn his life around, Burnett refuses to comply with some of the program rules.

He is currently a third year college student, taking online courses with Grand Canyon University to get his bachelor’s degree in business to help him run his father’s hair care line. 

“According to the program, we aren’t supposed to be in college,” said Burnett. “But I got back into the whole college thing 16 weeks before coming here, and I really don’t want to have to loose my financial aid and start all over again.”

Despite his criticisms of some program policies, Burnett is determined to stick with it. 

“Other people drop out because of reservations that they can make it different this time after only a few month or weeks in the program. And some people don’t really want to change; they just want to catch their breath before getting back into the same stuff,” explained Burnett. 

READ MORE: The Midnight Mission Aids The Homeless For Almost 100 Years

Randolph Butler, however, made it all the way through the program and returned for Wednesday’s Thanksgiving feast as a volunteer. 

A 2011 alumnus of the Mission program, Butler is now living in his own apartment and with a stable job, two huge benefits that he credits the Mission with helping him attain. 

“I was homeless and living on the streets; one and a half years later I’m living on my own again,” said Butler. “Life is good. I’m back here volunteering with the people who gave to me.” 

Contact News Editor Sara Newman here. Tweet her here.



 

Buzz

Craig Gillespie directed this true story about "the most daring rescue mission in the history of the U.S. Coast Guard.”

Watch USC Annenberg Media's live State of the Union recap and analysis here.

 
ntrandomness