H4WRD Great Reads for January 2025

January's Great Reads offers articles and resources on the recent wildfires, in addition to an overview of H4WRD's "Opportunity Assessment" covered in our H4WRD member meeting on January 21st:

• H4WRD Member Meeting, 1/21: Hollywood 4WRDs' Opportunity Assessment offers a potentially game-changing approach to service provision in Hollywood
  • As we shared at our member meeting this week, Hollywood 4WRD is thrilled to have launched a new opportunity assessment this year, funded by the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS). The project aims to tackle homelessness and housing instability in our community by identifying innovative solutions — and all available funding sources -- to better serve vulnerable populations, including chronically homeless, transition-age youth and justice-involved individuals. We’re grateful to have Ed Ortiz, Fiona Donald, Kerry Landry, and our own Louis Abramson on board to lead these conversations. This team has deep knowledge of both Hollywood’s care landscape and the public healthcare funding system.
    • Another of the project's primary goals is to build a stronger community response to homelessness by fostering collaboration with local organizations and stakeholders. Please CLICK HERE to learn more about how you can participate in this important effort.
• Washington Post, 1/17: For L.A.’s homeless population, the fires upend hard-earned stability
  • The wildfires have burned indiscriminately through Los Angeles and its surrounding communities, where wealth and celebrity abound alongside a sky-high housing market and one of the nation’s most severe homelessness crises. Hollywood stars lost their homes. So did the region’s most vulnerable, who were evacuated from the shelters and hotel rooms where they were rebuilding their lives. Los Angeles County had started to curb homelessness. Will the fires undo that progress?
• Mother Jones, 1/9: Losing Your Home Is Hell—But So Is Being Unhoused in a Wildfire
  • With stately homes burned to the ground, wealthy Angelenos reportedly fled to hotels or other cities. Those who could afford the nightly rate of more than $1,000 stayed at the posh Beverly Hills Hotel, according to a Wednesday night dispatch from the LA Times. Others, the New York Times reported, went to the Sunset Tower Hotel in West Hollywood, where Thursday night’s cheapest rate was listed online at $512. But the plight of people experiencing homelessness in the city have been comparatively invisible in the wall-to-wall coverage. Their struggles range from lacking cell phones and Internet access, which can prevent them from learning about evacuation orders and resources, to coping with health issues from all the time spent outside inhaling wildfire smoke.
• LA City Mayor's Office, 1/15: A One-Stop Website Offering Resources and Relief for those impacted by the fires
  • The Mayor's office is organizing the full breadth of city government to deliver relief to people in need and to clear the way for people to rebuild their homes. In addition to the one-stop website, the Los Angeles Disaster Recovery Center, at UCLA Research Park (formerly the Westside Pavillion, at Westwood & Pico), provides a range of critical services, including:
    • Short term financial and housing relief for evacuees
    • Documentation recovery such as driver's license replacement, birth certificates, and other essential documents
    • Assistance for businesses and employees impacted by evacuations or damage
    • Federal financial assistance through FEMA and the Small Business Administration
    • Social services such as referrals to disability services, and other public assistance programs
    • Mental and physical health referrals.
• Nat'l Council of Nonprofits, 1/24: Executive Orders Affecting Charitable Nonprofits
  • After his January 20th inauguration, President Trump signed dozens of Executive Orders (EOs) covering a broad range of issues, including diversity, equity, and inclusion programs; government grants and contracts; civic engagement; immigration; and certain nonprofit subsectors. Some of the EOs won’t take effect immediately, and many are expected to be immediately challenged in court. This chart outlines some of the EOs that may affect nonprofits directly or indirectly. This document will be updated frequently, so please use this link to see the most up-to-date version.

PODCASTS:

• We The Unhoused, 1/14: The Black Panthers Chronicles: Past, Present and Future
  • We the Unhoused is a podcast created by Theo Henderson with the goal of uplifting voiceless citizens. Begun while Theo was living on the streets of LA for over eight years, the show provides an intimate look at the unhoused experience. Theo is starting the year on a high note, interviewing former Black Panthers, Lorenzo Ervin and JoNina Abron-Ervin. They share their experiences and insights on what a more just world can still look like. In Unhoused News, Theo takes a look at the persistent struggles faced by people transitioning from temporary to permanent housing, and the real dangers of hypothermia in Los Angeles among the unhoused.  
• Things I've Learned with Steve Owens, 1/22: Mark Logan, author of "Hard Pill to Swallow" on police brutality, sexual exploits, and sobriety
  • In this episode of "Things I've Learned", Steve Owens sits down with Mark Logan, author of "Hard Pill to Swallow, My Manic Memoir" (not to mention the subject of this month's H4WRD Community Spotlight), to discuss Mark's incredible life journey. Mark has never before publicly spoken about the events of his childhood that lead him down a hard path. Mark opens up about how he became addicted to shoplifting. He shares how a seemingly insignificant event from his childhood lead him ultimately into a lifelong addiction to it. Mark lets us in on how suffering from bipolar disorder along with manic depression has shaped events in his life – from being placed in a psych ward more than 10 times to stealing more than $200,000 from a friend.