UNDER THE BRIDGES AND ON THE STREETS

Update 2022

9/12/2022

Here at "Under The Bridges And On The Streets" we have not stopped serving the homeless.

Since March of 2020 we have had to restrict the number of volunteers that we have on site preparing our bagged lunches. We have a loyal skeleton crew that shows up every month. At times we have served the homeless twice a month due to the overwhelming need.

Thanks to our loyal contributors we have enough boxes of new socks that we have shared them with "Prototypes" family of services, the "Downtown Women's Center" and we've sent children's socks to several orphanages in Tijuana. When we have extra of anything we share them with our partners.
Once we are through with the pandemic we will once again open our doors and welcome all volunteers.

Stay posted!

Sincerely
John Shinavier
Executive Director/Founder

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A Volunteer's story

9/14/2016

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The route I am on takes us to the blighted no-man’s land encircling downtown Los Angeles, where the web of freeways, the railroads and the Los Angeles River converge. Not too far in the distance loom the skyscrapers of corporate America. I imagine the huge mahogany conference tables, resting on inch-thick carpets, where decisions affecting the lives of the many are made by the privileged few, thirty stories or more above the city. On the streets below, it is a different story altogether. A lone man or woman in need of a bath pushes along a shopping cart crammed with the necessities of survival. An encampment of lean-tos stretches out along a side street in the industrial area. They are made of old blankets, boards, cardboard and anything else that will afford some degree of shelter.

Without the security of a door to lock, it’s safer to sleep in broad daylight than to be at your most vulnerable in the dark of night. 

A man sleeps in a cardboard box on the sidewalk, while a few feet away some more fortunate souls live in the relative luxury of a real tent. Even though the day is bright and sunny, many of the homeless are asleep. Without the security of a door to lock, it’s safer to sleep in broad daylight than to be at your most vulnerable in the dark of night.

We’ve spotted a man sitting beneath the freeway, his possessions spread out in a mess on a narrow triangle of concrete that divides the intersecting streets on right and left. With traffic whizzing by on either side, he has occupied this spot for the past seven years. Our driver knows him by name and stops the car to deliver a specially prepared lunch. Unlike most of the homeless, this man is a vegetarian, and our standard meal won’t do. John takes out a vegetarian bag and hands it to him. They shake hands and we’re off. Meanwhile across town in the beach communities, another volunteer is well stocked with special food for that area’s Muslim homeless.

It is impossible to come back from a “run” without at least one story. Maybe it was the young man who looked at you like you were a visitor from outer space when you appeared on the sidewalk out of nowhere with food and drink. Maybe it was the fellow reclining against a cold, hard building, whose smile was like the sun coming out. Or the half-drunk older man who struggled to say “Merry Christmas” but didn’t know the English words and ended up hugging you instead while his four companions cheered and treated you like an old friend. Maybe it was the time you had only three meals left, and while you apologized, the four homeless folks graciously assured you not to worry: they would share equally. Maybe it was something humorous, like the man who lost his grip and poured hot chicken soup down your pants leg on that cold December day. Or maybe it was the indefinable emotion that surged through you at the beach the day you stopped a woman from rummaging through a trash bin in search of something to eat and were able to give her a wholesome, properly prepared meal.

Here are people who have lost almost all the things we define ourselves by: homes, possessions, families, jobs, the very self-images we create through where we live, what we own, what we wear, what we do, whom we know, how much money we have. All they have left is their glorious humanity, and somehow that shines through even their degraded circumstances. A thought arises: that same awareness that shines through their eyes, shines through mine and yours. It is the light of consciousness that animates and connects us all. Maybe that is what Swami Brahmananda meant when he said that by serving you begin to see divinity in others and then everywhere. Grateful, I drift off to sleep.

--Anonymous Volunteer

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Become A Volunteer

4/27/2016

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EVERYONE is welcome to volunteer and help make lunches! Please join us and feel the benefits of service. When: The last Saturday of every month Time: 9:00am Place: 2261 W. 28th St., Los Angeles, 90…

Source: Become A Volunteer

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……….The Faces of the Homeless…………..

3/18/2016

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These are some of the faces of the homeless. Their just like us, meaning that all of them had jobs, marriages, anniversaries, and children. They are religious, ethical and kind. This would all be discovered if we took the time to stop and talk to them.

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November Blanket Drive for the homeless of Los Angeles County

11/20/2015

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Dear Friends,

We at “Under the Bridges and on the Streets” are having a blanket drive in the month of November, 2015. We are asking for any clean (washed recently or dry-cleaned) heavy blankets that we can give out to the homeless when we meet to prepare nutritious bagged lunches on November 28th at 9:00am. The following is an excerpt from the Sunday N.Y. Times, 6/14/2015

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James

6/22/2012

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He never wanted to be burdened by things; he remarked, "just what I can put in a small box."

In serving the homeless on a consistent basis, you very often become attached to one or two that claim a place in your heart. For me one of these people was James. When I met him over ten years ago, he still had his sight, though it was failing even then. He was probably in his early sixties, though you never really knew how many years of living on the open streets could age someone. He had a kind face and carried the patina of worn dirt that the homeless have as a layer of insulation against the elements. He struck me as someone who took pride in his appearance. Because he was a regular, always under the same bridge, I would always give him several lunches, or a blanket, bar of soap or a pair of socks. He never wanted to be burdened by things; he remarked, "just what I can put in a small box."

James was memorizing the Bible, for he commented one day when I was delivering, that when he went blind, it would be a beautiful thing to read to himself and to share the word with others. He had lived on the streets for the past thirty-five years and felt that this was his way of doing penance for the reckless things he had done as a young man. I knew not to press him on this subject and merely listened as he quoted a particular tender bit of scripture or told a tale or two of what he had witnessed all these years living on the streets.

Years passed, and there were months at a time when James was not to be found under his mural. After an absence of a few months, he was back. When I asked where he had been, he reported to me that he had tried to live in a senior living home, but they had too many rules and were not kind to the people there. "I had to leave and come back out here," he said smiling as if he had gotten out of jail.

"Under the Bridges and on the Streets," is a non-profit that I founded for two reasons: One - to serve and provide food, blankets, toiletries where the most difficult to reach homeless have their homes on the streets, and under the iron beams high in the air supporting the freeways. Our goal is to remove as many social and political barriers to serve the homeless where they live, a practice which has now been banned in many cities in America. We currently deliver 600 meals on a monthly basis. We have served since 1993 over four million meals.

Two - I founded Under the Bridges to build a community of service. Service gets you out of yourself, and gradually with consistency and time, your world becomes bigger. You become more significant and less fearful. You realize that you and the homeless are part of the same fabric of life.

John Shinavier, Executive Director

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Update 2022

A Volunteer's story

Become A Volunteer

……….The Faces of the Homeless…………..

November Blanket Drive for the homeless of Los Angeles County

James