“Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” –Emma Lazarus
Nothing gives me more pleasure than to start out the new year with an outrageously inspirational story, one which encompasses all the many elements of redemption and hope.
Meet the “General” — Jeff Page, LA’s only elected “homeless” official. In a time of economic recession, in a nation racked by debt and job loss, in the state with the highest unemployment rate in the country, in the city of Angels (and more often than not… Demons), on the street with the highest homeless population density in America — lives the unofficial “Mayor of Skid Row”.
The fact that he’s tall (6’4″), handsome with the muscular build of an NBA wholeset (indeed he was a star baller in highschool), and wears a suit jacket and tie might throw the generally wary and prejudiced public for a loop . But make no mistake, Jeff Page IS homeless. And he’s out to change more than just people’s perceptions. He’s busying changing lives.
Jeff landed in Skid Row three years, after a string of hard times combined with mental and physical disabilities forced him to the streets. Crammed with addicts, ex-convicts, post-traumatic veterans and other social pariahs, Skid Row is considered, and resultantly shunned by many, as the most desperate and dangerous neighborhood in America.
But that’s not how Jeff sees it. To him, and to the thousands of homeless who call this square-mile home, it’s a community of people trying their best, just like anywhere else. And even though they’ve hit rock bottom, just like anywhere else, people want to be recognized and respected. They want their voices to be heard. In Jeff’s own words: “The bottom of the barrel doesn’t have to be that deep.”
So Jeff adopted an activist attitude and determined to make a difference. He began small, walking the streets and jotting down broken street lights, towering trash heaps, or clogged storm drains. He then fired off emails to city agencies and officials from borrowed internet kiosks around downtown. To his surprise, he got few replies but lots of action. The city responded to Jeff’s requests by sending out crews to fix lights and clean out trash.
Empowered, Jeff expanded his one-man campaign to bigger platforms. He organized community street cleaning events, mural beautification projects. He took charge of security at the homeless shelter he moved into. Petitioned Nike and LA city to renovate Glady’s park, a rundown drug and prostitute-haven into community center with a basketball court, bleachers, exercise bars, chess tables and water fountains.
From there, Jeff was elected as Skid Row representative onto the Downtown LA Neighborhood Council, where he advocates homeless rights, such as education for homeless kids. He’s reached the highest halls, yet still walks the streets everyday, watching after people and helping as many as he can. It’s his mission to turn this outcast neighborhood into a decent place to live. A place he himself as already set permanent roots.
Talk about small things with great love! No one is lower on the totem pole of the American psyche than homeless people. You see them everyday, just like anyone else. But you don’t wave, you rarely stop, and you never ever make eye contact. Why do we ignore the homeless? Why do we make deliberate efforts to avoid them? Is it simply because they smell bad, because they demand food, money, attention from us?
Or is it something deeper, more primal. The realization that we with our comfy homes and steady jobs are only the tiniest push from the edge. That when it gets right down to it, there is almost nothing that separates us. We are all human, all struggling, all trying to get by, to live our best lives. And sometimes the chips fall away and you cartwheel over the edge, with no one to catch you. No one to cushion your fall.
The scary truth — we are all one or two pay checks away from desperation.
All the more reason then to applaud Jeff raising not only himself, but his entire community into the light of public awareness. And yet, to not need or even demand our help, but to take action himself. To inspire his whole community to get involved where no one else will. And to infuse hope and promote self-empowerment in a place often filled with hopelessness.
Should we all be as resilient and compassionate as Jeff Page, the world would be a better place. Starting with us, starting with our small sphere of communities. And expanding wide.
“General Page”, Superforest salutes you!
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