Community Spotlight: Mark Logan - A Survivor Not a Victim

After a series of Community Spotlights profiling folks helping those experiencing homelessness, this month’s spotlight shines instead on someone with lived experience himself; someone who counts himself as a member of our community’s most vulnerable, but who defines himself not by his challenges but instead by how he has responded to them. In his own words, “I’m a survivor, not a victim.”

Please allow us to introduce the singular, inspiring, and mightily resilient Mark Logan.

Mark’s journey began in Tacoma, Washington, where highs and lows were a part of his life from the start. His mom was a registered nurse “who could find work anywhere,” while his dad, a salesman and part-time minister, “couldn’t hold a job to save his life.” 

Mark's childhood was marked by emotional volatility, influenced by his parents' contrasting personalities, and growing up in an area that experienced over 300 days of rain a year. Mark remembers early on having moods that felt dependent on the season. “I was manic in the summer, and depressed in the winter.” In high school, he faced bullying and internalized the message that seeking help was a sign of weakness. Starbucks coffee, founded in the region, was his first form of self-medication. 

By his 20s, Mark exhibited symptoms of mania, characterized by extreme mood swings and impulsive behavior. A series of poor decisions, fueled by untreated mental health conditions, led to financial instability, legal troubles, and at the age of 27, a devastating diagnosis of bipolar disorder.

The label was especially hard for Mark to process, since he had recently come out to his parents as bisexual and as an alcoholic. Now he had to share another “taboo” label with them? No, thank you!

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As he would later describe in his book, Hard Pill to Swallow, his diagnosis “would become a curse for me for the rest of my life.” Indeed, the stigma associated with mental illness made it harder for Mark to seek and accept treatment for his bipolar condition.

Mark’s life cycled between periods of sobriety and compliance with his prescribed medication – during which he would find new jobs and good friends – almost always followed by periods of acting out and increasingly harmful attempts at self-medication.

Over the course of the next 30 years, Mark was arrested over 30 times, often placed on “5150s”, aka involuntary psychiatric holds, and committed to psychiatric wards over 20 times. These darker periods also led Mark to experience several periods of homelessness, the last of which found him living out of his car on the streets of Hollywood.

Homelessness for Mark, as it is for so many, placed him under nearly unbearable strain. Amongst the many indignities he suffered was being separated from his belongings, and finding his beloved longtime canine companion, Gretchen, gone after an overnight stay in jail. During the nearly six months he spent on the streets or in temporary shelters, Mark lived in constant fear of being assaulted. He suffered countless panic attacks as a result, and continued to use meth as a way of numbing what felt like his almost relentless pain.

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Fortunately, Mark’s resilience and refusal to succumb to victimhood finally allowed him to accept help from those who offered it. One of those people was his longtime AA sponsor John L. who never lost faith in Mark even when he was losing faith in himself. The other was Kerry Morrison, the Founder of Heart Forward LA (and one of the Founding Board Members of Hollywood 4WRD) who would become a mentor and ally to Mark and help him navigate the often treacherous justice and mental health systems.

During the Pandemic in 2021, Mark had secured temporary shelter but found himself once again facing eviction and another potential arrest. Through his chance meeting with Kerry, however (which Mark describes as “Divine Intervention”), he was able to connect with LACDMH’s Full Service Partnership (FSP) program. FSP offered Mark a case manager who helped Mark receive the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) he was entitled to, as well as begin the process of applying for a Section 8 low income housing vouchers.

The SSDI payments helped Mark pay off his loans. The process of using the vouchers took more time, and required him to live in a shelter administered by The People Concern in Santa Monica so he could qualify to live in affordable housing in that area. After nine months living at the shelter, Mark’s patience was rewarded with vouchers that allowed him to move into newly remodeled affordable housing in Santa Monica.

In 2023, Kerry introduced Mark to Fountain House, an organization based out of New York that was in the process of opening up their first Hollywood Clubhouse, a primary component of DMH’s Hollywood 2.0 (H20) pilot program. The Clubhouse provided a non-clinical therapeutic community for people living with serious mental illness, and Mark jumped at the opportunity to become one of the Hollywood Clubhouse’s founding members.

For Mark, the Clubhouse truly delivered the “People, Place and Purpose” at the core of H20’s mission. He found people to care for and be cared for at the Clubhouse, a place to spend his days in community, and a purpose: to help others with mental health conditions so they won’t have to face the same struggles he has.

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Today, Mark enjoys what he calls a “happy, simple life.” He spends most of his days at the Clubhouse where he works on their newsletter, meets with other members to discuss their meals and activities, and serves as an ambassador helping to recruit other potential members. 

Mark is “living his purpose” by going public with his story and helping to reduce the many stigmas that surround alcoholism, mental health conditions, and what Mark describes as “fluid sexuality.” In addition to his book, which can be purchased here for a more in-depth look at his harrowing and inspiring journey, Mark was also recently featured on the Things I’ve Learned podcast with Steve Owens.

We’re grateful Mark agreed to share his story with the H4WRD community as part of our Spotlight series. But more than that, we’re thrilled he’s finally found the people, place, and purpose he so richly deserves.

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