By Peggy Lee Kennedy There has been an upsurge of homeless deaths reported this winter, especially with the recent cold snap we had in November and December.  There should be distress and horror regarding this happening here in Los Angeles, but not surprise. Los Angeles has for years carried the shame of being the Homeless...

By Brian Connely On the streets between Venice and Santa Monica, the LAPD handed out twenty $160 tickets to homeless individuals the other night. Their crime? Where they’re going to sleep that night. It’s against the law to place a sleeping bag, etc., down on a Los Angeles sidewalk before 9:00 p.m. No camping. A...

by bETO “I’ve laid around and played around this old town to long. summer all most gone and winters moving on.” by Bill Monroe I love Southern California but Venice, my lovely Venice: the last refuge of innocence, is home. A few months ago as the crow fly’s, the friends next door had their house...

By Greta Cobar Equal access to justice is just another one of the many American dreams that we are still dreaming about. This is a story about a group of committed individuals dedicated to closing the access to justice gap. The dedicated staff of the Eviction Defense Network, a nonprofit community based organization, provide affordable...

By Greta Cobar Shelter is a big deal – according to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, it is just as important as food. With the aim of preventing friends, family and neighbors from getting kicked out of the neighborhood and/or being homeless, Venice Community Housing (VCH) was formed in 1988. It has since provided low-income, affordable...

By Brian Connolly I’ve been supporting the rights of the un-housed as a political activist who dresses like John Lennon, pitching my tent overnight at different events, and then going back to my apartment. I’d made some mistakes in my life recently, though, and found myself un-housed. This is what it’s been like: I ran...

By Mary Getlein The third annual Venice sleep-out went on without a hitch. Beyond Baroque lawn was filled with tents and people sleeping, talking, laughing, and eating. The performance stage was filled with with various and different performers raging from Ross Altman, a local folksinger, the the hard-working Carol Sobel, who has represented many homeless...

Political Cartoon by Khalil Bendib By Eric Ahlberg Get a job. Nothing seems to disturb the gentrifiers of Venice like unemployed youth hanging out on their block. Why can’t they just get a job like us decent hard working American middle class people. Well maybe the jobs suck, the pay sucks, and often the employers suck.Venice has it’s share of...

One of the state’s most powerful tools to assist the vulnerable homeless population is hardly being used. Buried within California’s legal codes is a 25-year-old statute that allows counties and municipalities to declare a state of emergency when a “significant number” of homeless people exist in a community, allowing them to convert public facilities into...

By Ronald McKinley There is a bike parked just left of the multi-use utility pole on the corner of cold and homeless. We mill about; I mean “we”, not French for more sex. It’s cold, my hands barely work. I am writing with a pen. I prefer a lead pen. I make mistakes. Just right...