Categories: Press
08.19.2013
Los Angeles Times article offers heartfelt portrait of a supportive housing tenant
Los Angeles-based writer Steve Lopez has written another superb story on the transformative effects of supportive housing for people with mental illness.
Mr. Lopez, if you recall, wrote a series of articles that inspired the screenplay for The Soloist, a 2009 feature film starring Robert Downey, Jr. and Jamie Foxx. The film tells the true-life of Mr. Lopez (played by Downey, Jr.) and his relationship with Nathaniel Ayers, a schizophrenic musician living on the streets. The film makes mention of LAMP Community, a supportive housing provider operating in Los Angeles.
In his new piece for the Los Angeles Times, Mr. Lopez tells the inspiring story of Step Up on Second, a supportive housing residence that’s home to 36 adults in Santa Monica.
The piece, available here, offers a profile of one tenant in particular: Alex, a formerly incarcerated man who’s life has changed dramatically since entering Step Up on Second. Alex estimates that he’s been incarcerated “maybe 20” times. He’s also cycled through numerous mental institutions.
His 25 years of turmoil ended in 2004, when a social worker helped connect him to Step Up on Second. At this single room occupancy (SRO) residence, Alex receives counseling, help with his medication and received job training at a culinary school. As Mr. Lopez notes in the piece, Alex’s supportive housing “intervention made financial sense, too.” California prisons cost taxpayers $47,000 per inmate per year. Supportive housing at Step Up, on the other hand, costs a paltry $17,500 in comparison.
Mr. Lopez ends the piece with some truly moving words about both Alex and our treatment of individuals with mental illness as a whole. “Andy asked me not to use his last name because he's worried that his history could be a problem when he looks for another job or applies for housing,” he writes. “But he wanted to tell a story of what's possible when, rather than punishing people with a mental illness, we help them.”
You can learn more about Step Up on Second over at their website. Earlier this year, the organization held a charity fundraiser, which included guest speakers President Bill Clinton and Kobe Bryant. You can view President Clinton’s eloquent comments on mental illness below.