Making Money Off Of Homeless-Themed Clothes Just Isn’t Right

The Wall Street Journal reports on a clothing line that uses a homeless man as its marketing angle. The man is a local homeless person on Robertson Blvd., which is on the west side of Los Angeles, near Beverly Hills and West Hollywood.

A couple of young clothing designers are hocking expensive clothes—$100 “hoodies”, etc.—that have lettering saying things like, "No Money, No Problems".

I for one think this is manipulative.

I was quoted in the WSJ saying, “the branding of Mr. Jermyn [the homeless man] is "like designing a line of clothing patterned after Iraqi refugees fleeing the war." My point is why should people manipulate people’s plight?

It may be cute, and a terrific marketing ploy (even WSJ picked up the story), but I think it is not appropriate.

Do We Need More Walking and Talking? Or More Action?

A Los Angeles Times editor writes a piece today on the LA HomeWalk that occurred last Saturday. PATH Partners was part of the leadership team in this effort.

It clearly knocks LA County Supervisor Yaroslavsky, who did not attend the walk. Clearly, LA Mayor Villaraigosa made sure people knew that his county counterpart was missing in action.

In a deeper note, the piece talks about how, perhaps, the walk could bring together all of the parties who have been pointing fingers at each other for the embarrassing fact that LA is the homeless capital of America.

Here is some of the piece:

“Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is at his cocky best, grinning from a stage toward a Saturday crowd of maybe 4,000, declaring into a microphone that he's been challenged — by an unnamed member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors — to race this morning's 5K to end homelessness instead of just walking the distance around Exposition Park like everyone else.

"I was prepared to run him into the ground!" Villaraigosa shouts to the cheering crowd. "But unfortunately, he didn't show up."

“So here it is: as apt a symbol as any for the fractious and fractured official response to homelessness, one of the Los Angeles region's most public and humiliating failures. Today, the city is here, but the county didn't show up.…

“The entire walk is not so much a fund-raiser — it reportedly raised a respectable half-million dollars — but an exercise in civic recharging. Such things are necessary every now and then, and even worthwhile, especially if they are followed by a wider commitment, or recommitment, to action.”

Here is the full piece.

So hopefully walking turns into action.

When Thanksgiving Ends…

I like the Downtown News’ Editorial on this issue:

Skid Row Help Doesn't End on ThanksgivingThis Thursday, dozens of television cameras and reporters will flock to Skid Row, where they will chronicle the annual tradition of celebrities and politicians feeding the homeless Thanksgiving dinner at various missions. It always makes for good sound bites and news stories.

The awareness of the conditions that human beings endure on Skid Row that is raised from these events is a positive thing. Life on the streets in this portion of Downtown Los Angeles, and the people striving to improve the situation there, needs all the attention it can get. There is a particular tug this year with the recent study showing that one in four homeless persons is a veteran.

But as every employee of a mission will tell you, those veterans and everyone else down on their luck, or in a mental or physical health crisis, also needs help the other 364 days of the year. The need for volunteers to serve food, work as mentors, provide guidance and help the homeless re-enter mainstream society is not limited to Thanksgiving.

That's obvious, of course. But it doesn't make the matter any less significant.

(Pic from ww. lakejunaluska.com)