SOUNDING OFF:Helping the homeless helps all

Laguna Beach is a wonderful small city, a little place with a great big heart. I’ve been here for almost 10 years now, and when friends and relatives visit, I always show them way more than just the beautiful beaches, stunning galleries and upscale eateries. I try to show them why I really wanted to live in this place one day, and why I call it “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood for Grownups.”

Even places as wonderful as these have parts that aren’t so beautiful, needs that go unfilled, challenges to be undertaken. This city, like all cities today in the U.S., has a homeless population. Is it a huge problem, like it is in L.A.? I don’t think so, but I wonder what other people’s perceptions are.

I know many of the homeless people here in Laguna Beach. So do dozens of others who work with this population, be it individually, or through the great work done at Friendship Shelter, or through the much less publicized, and much smaller staff of volunteers at the Laguna Relief and Resource Center.

Laguna Relief and Resource Center is a not-for-profit organization, staffed by volunteers. I’ve been one of those volunteers for about four years, and the times that I spend working with those people who many of you see only as homeless faces have been some of the most rewarding times I’ve spent here in my own back yard.

Many of the people who have visited with us have come with me when I’ve met with the homeless people, and they’ve gone away with a new perspective on life here in Laguna Beach, and life beyond Laguna Beach for those people who are less fortunate.

These less fortunate people need food and clothing and sometimes just someone to talk to who looks to be “safe.” We make sure that they have lunches, and occasional dinners, the use of a cell phone to call loved ones, or make an appointment to get something as vital as a Social Security Card, or call for a job interview, or something personal.

Sometimes, we see people in real distress and we just try to do what needs to be done to help them. An important thing to bear in mind is that if we don’t do these things, we’ll soon look like L.A., a place where a homeless person knows the real depths of despair, a place where the population of homeless people swells in spite of itself, and most likely because of neglect.

The irony is that the less care these people get, the worse it gets for all of us. One homeless person, who has recently succumbed to terminal illness, told me something I’ll never forget on the very first day I volunteered.

He said, “There are no bad people here. We’re all good people who have had bad things happen to us.” This community has a few beautiful souls who came up with money for meds and a roof for this man, and his last days were a lot better than they would have been in the alleyways of L.A.

I write this letter to those people here in Laguna who have real “heart,” those folks who want to reach out and help, to receive a rich reward in return and to embrace more than just what’s beautiful to us and the summer throngs which have just recently receded. In doing so, you’ll help to preserve this beautiful balance we have here.

If my letter has moved you, then I urge you to do something meaningful with us. Contact our Volunteer Coordinator, Ann Richardson, at (949) 683-6242. She will be happy to discuss our needs and yours as well, in order to help place you as a volunteer, doing one of the many things we always need. Believe me, we can use the help, and you can use the good feeling and rich reward.