Between Something and Nothing...

So many things happening, and not happening. I guess it's all a process. Fortunately, I'm patient and persistent, but it's tough when you know you're trying to reach out and help people get a place to sleep. Just a couple of items before I get into what's happening this week. One, if you're new to this site, please read my first post, it has my mission statement and goals. That will help you to make more sense of what I've been doing here. Two, I don't know where the pic I posted came from, possibly from the National Coalition from the Homeless, but in any case, it seemed fitting. Anyway, on to the show. Here's what's up for this round of updates:

I spoke at length with Oliver Shokouh, the man who founded the Love Ride. He had a lot of good ideas and insight, it was really an eye opener to talk with him. I really appreciate him calling me back and answering a lot of questions. Thanks Oliver, I hope I can make it out to the Love Ride this year!! I also heard back from Michael Stoops, from the National Coalition from the Homeless. He pointed me towards the Los Angeles Coalition to End Hunger and Homelessness, but so far, I've not been able to get in contact with anyone there. I also heard back from the Department of Defense, which was a pleasant surprise. They linked me up to a couple of Veteran organizations. They were quick to point out that they can't exactly endorse any particular group publicly, but it was nice of them even to respond, even if it was just the Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs ;)

I went about trying to contact local LA politicians as well. None of the Congressmen seem to want to talk to anyone outside of their District, so I went ahead and e-mailed all of the Los Angeles City Council members. So far, not a single one has responded with anything more but an automated e-mail, similar to the one I got from (newly re-elected) Mayor Villaraigosa. The exceptions to this is Councilwoman Jan Perry, who sent a personal e-mail saying she would look into it. Nothing new from her recently, but at least she took the time to read my blog. Thank you Ms. Perry! I also went ahead and e-mail The Governator, seeing how he's a Harley rider, but of course, no response as of yet.

On the national front, I contacted the National Veterans Foundation, and they did respond with an e-mail saying that they would look into it and get back to me asap. Phil Mangano, who is a key member of the US Council on Homelessness, also got an e-mail from me, but I haven't heard from them at all, I so wonder if the e-mail was just a public address and not a direct line. Just for the heck of it, I also sent an e-mail to President Obama, but I know I'll never hear back on that one.

I'm planning on going to an AMA Superbike race with my family this coming weekend in Fontana. I was thinking of maybe making some cheap "business cards" or something with this blog address and handing them out, but we'll see if I have time. It seems like an opportunity to get this idea out to a wider audience. We'll see how it goes.

In the meantime, here's an interesting article I found today

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090316/ap_on_re_us/homeless_airports

March Forward

It's been a while since I posted, but that doesn't mean I haven't been cranking away. In the past month or so I've gotten a lot of feedback. All of it has been positive, some a lot more proactive than others. I want to list people and places I've contacted. I hope this doesn't come across as a "shame on you for not getting back to me" list, I merely mean it as a way of keeping track of who I've looked into, for your benefit as well as mine. I'm simply trying to streamline for all parties involved.
To date, only a few people I have contacted have gotten back to me, hence the reason I've been hesitant to post (I don't want to put up negative news). I do want to say that sifting through the pebbles has brought some golden nuggets. First of all, huge thanks to the following people: Angelo Tota, a friend of the family and former teammate. He turned me on to http://www.patriotguard.org/ They have returned my e-mails, and are looking into any further participation. I haven't heard anything more from them, but at least they responded, and they do have some experience in this sort of thing, so I'm hopeful. Also huge thanks to my friend James Ozenne. I find his input on pretty much all things to be intellectual, inspirational and helpful. He turned me on to the President's New Era proposal, which lists Mr. Obama's plans for a budget, including veteran affairs and VA money. You can read more about this at http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/ This has led me on to some other organizations, and in the process I sent an e-mail to the Department of Defense about this blog.
Next up I want to thank Jessica Leung and Debra Ballard for all their suggestions, information, inspiration and motivation. Digging through all of this stuff has been time consuming and at times frustrating, but their input has kept me going. I also want to thank Susan Carpenter of the Los Angeles Times. Ms. Carpenter covers motorcycles and riding for the paper, and she has given me some good advice on how to proceed. Per her suggestion, I contacted Oliver Shokouh, the founder and chairman of the immensely popular and succesful Love Ride http://www.loveride.org/lr25/. He has gotten in touch with me as I was typing this latest post, so I'm looking forward to talking with him. His input so far has been extremely valuable!! Last but certainly not least, I want to give a huge thanks to my friend in the Air Force, Tech Sgt. John Peck, who has been sending me a ton of links and information. Not all of them are hits, but all of them have led to something useful and informative. His interest and participation is literally above and beyond the call of duty!! Of course I want to thank everyone who has responded in some way, it's all been helpful.
I'm not saying this is the "bad news", just the list of entities I've contacted that I've yet to hear back from, but hope will contact me soon. So far, nothing from the National Coalition for homeless veterans http://www.nchv.org/index.cfm
or the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority
http://www.lahsa.org/default.asp
In my mind, their participation is critical, so I'm going to keep trying. I also contacted the Director of Operations at the Amer-I-Can Program http://www.amer-i-can.org/, which was created by Hall of Fame running back Jim Brown. They are Los Angeles based, so I'm hoping they get in touch with me.
In addition, I've contacted the founder of Veterans and Families http://www.veteransandfamilies.org/home.html and am looking into the local chapter of Rolling Thunder http://www.rollingthunder1.com/. I watch the local KCALchannel 9 news on a regular basis, so I contacted them via their website. No pun intended, but stay tuned!
I am happy to report that I was able to get in touch with a contact for Los Angeles born actor and activist Edward James Olmos. Since I don't have a date set for an actual event, Mr. Olmos can't confirm or commit, but to even hear back from them was HUGE motivation to get this going.

That's all for now. The only other thing I want to mention is that I've gotten a lot of info and feedback regarding the military and veteran side of things, but finding info and interest in the non veteran homeless has been slow going. If anyone comes across more non veteran info and ideas, please let me know. Thanks again to everyone!!

Pete