Id rather see Urban Alchemy than the cops.. The woman said she was at a vulnerable place in her life when she began making out with Josh in the bushes near the encampment. Urban Alchemy provided a data sheet showing they supply over 12,000 showers per year. To achieve this, Elliott encouraged landscape architects to continue to design for everyone, not specific populations. In Sausalito, where city officials paid Urban Alchemy $464,000 to run a tent encampment for six months, a photo shows that a worker wearing shorts had a visible 88 tattoo on his right calf, a well-known code for Heil Hitler. (H is the eighth letter of the alphabet.) While campers who come into the lot will still be without permanent housing, Urban Alchemy CEO Lena Miller says this type of site can be a first step towards that goal. They helped pick up trash, brought pizza and smoked concentrated marijuana oil out in the open with the homeless residents, according to Powelson. The collectives co-founder, Aqeela Sherrills, called Urban Alchemy highly effective, saying it builds relationships, helps people with housing and reduces violence. Reduce the number of homelessness-related calls to dispatch, in areas where the CART program's community-strengthening interventions have occurred. Miller said her organizations rise doesnt owe to her relationships with Nuru and Breed, though, but rather what it offered to cities overwhelmed by street problems. However, Clinebell sent another email, stating that Urban Alchemy has investigated the allegations and did not find any of the misconduct allegations to be true.. Fearing retaliation, the campers have remained silent for months about serious allegations against Urban Alchemy employees. We are alchemists, Hammonds told his class, and we want to make where we are a more golden, loving space.. Ian Clark-Johnson and Loving Lou Hammonds told the campers they came to help and make them more comfortable. It was along the lines of the right answer dont be confrontational. Hammonds said employees dont stop peoples addictions and dont force people on sidewalks to move although people usually do when asked. To do that legally, courts have said, city officials first must provide alternatives. It represents a new strategy meant to corral the tents and cobbled-together structures that currently stand in parks, on sidewalks and below freeway overpasses, while providing services to the unhoused. LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Los Angeles is seeking answers to the homeless crisis. So doing nothing also costs a lot of money.. Austin Resource Center for the Homeless. At the ASLA 2019 Conference on Landscape Architecture in San Diego, Brian Elliott, policy analyst for San Diego Councilmember Chris Ward; Brandon Davis with the California-based Downtown Streets Team; and Lena Miller with Urban Alchemy, discussed strategies to reintegrate homeless individuals into their communities, ranging from top-down policy decisions to empowering local unsheltered populations through employment options. David Sjostedt can be reached at [emailprotected]. But the high public cost of the program about $2,600 per person, per month concerns some advocates who worry it will come at the expense of more permanent housing. Most of our team have served life sentences in prison. A parking lot has been turned into a homeless encampment that offers 24-hour security and free meals. And outsourcing government functions to nonprofits can make it more difficult for the public to evaluate whether spending is achieving results. Before that, she freelanced with a focus on the Yemeni diaspora while studying at the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism. Audits by Galperin have shown that a yearslong effort to build 10,000 new subsidized apartments for formerly homeless people in the city has been slow and costly, with a typical project taking three to six years to complete and running as high as $700,000 per unit in some cases. Training consists of two days in class, followed by a week in the field. If you are in need of emergency shelter, please contact the Union County 24 Hour Homeless Emergency Response Hotline at 2-1-1. Now, faced with a ballooning homelessness crisis and a federal judge demanding emergency action, LA officials are embracing the concept. Urban Alchemy asserts that spending 20+ years in a confined environment teaches instincts that cant be learned in a classroom, making their practitioners uniquely qualified to work with homeless people. At the end of the day everybody has to have respect you know? That, however, is a slow process, and the county has a long waiting list. The Ending Community Homelessness Coalition partnered with Urban Alchemy and the nonprofit We Can Now on a grant-funded pilot for a street outreach team. Urban Alchemy offers four core services designed to meet the needs of the people and places in the communities we work. Whether you are an abolitionist or a police cheerleader, we all agree whats been done in the past is not working.. Urban Alchemy made their first contact with Sausalitos homeless residents on Feb. 13, 2021, about two months after the first tent was pitched, according to Robbie Powelson, a former Sausalito camper and president of the Marin Homeless Union. He wasnt trying to sell it., Mike drank a beer while working, according to Kennedy. Robert Milton, a supervisor at the Department of Public Works, the agency that funds much of Urban Alchemys work, said seeing people who served long sentences holding on to a steady job sends a message. Some critics accuse the workers who are not state-licensed as private security guards of improperly policing public spaces. Organizers believe those successes are possible because many were once homeless themselves and use that experience to make connections. The organization conducted a review of its policies in response to the incident, Tyler said. Fax: 1-202-898-1185, Copyright 2008 2019 The woman who spent time in the bushes with Josh had witnessed the incident and explained to the police what had occurred. Was the conspiracy theory label used too early? So we don't want to pick up anything that's theirs," says Sanchez. When a neighborhood, street or intersection earns a reputation as a place to avoid, we turn it around. With the rapid deindustrialization, many people lost their jobs. The ARCH is a City-owned facility providing shelter and resources in downtown Austin, managed by Urban Alchemy and Austin Area Urban League. At least six lawsuits have been filed against Urban Alchemy since it was founded in 2018. Urban Alchemy a relatively new organization primarily employs people of color coming out of prison and last year topped 1,000 employees. Mitch OFarrell, the city councilmember whose district includes both Echo Park Lake and the new East Hollywood campground, declined an interview. People coming out of prison, Harding said, are motivated to succeed and often equipped to help others with similar experiences. The new sanctioned campground on Madison Avenue, off Beverly Boulevard, is a pilot program thats expected to be the first of several across the city. Copyright 2023 KABC Television, LLC. Ill say, Have a good day, sir, the trainee responded. A video shot earlier this year by Deschamps shows Josh yelling at Kennedy. No one wants to touch that kind of liability.. When we became aware of this situation, we quickly identified the resident and helped connect her with emergency medical care. Urban Alchemy is a peaceful and supportive presence, inviting communities to rebuild and restore a sense of . All Rights Reserved. As can be seen below, veterans homelessness spreads across generations. Josh responded that he would take care of it. Some have a trash can on wheels. Los Angeles has opened its first government-run homeless encampment on a quiet, commercial block beside the 101 freeway in East Hollywood. And the Biden administration, responding to a national surge of homicides, is investing $500 million in community violence intervention. That was predatory. Fresh off tens of millions in local contracts, the Urban Alchemy founder now has her sights set nationwide. Plans for continuing education such as computer and financial literacy are also in the works, the organization said. If necessary, employees call paramedics, homeless outreach teams or if confronted with violence or the threat of violence police. Mallory Moench is a San Francisco City Hall reporter. San Francisco's problem with homelessness started to emerge in the 1970s and 1980s. It offers emergency shelter, basic services and connections to housing for 130 men. The idea is that while police are trained to respond to active threats, life has trained CIRCLE team members. This comes one month after LA officials cleared what was one of the citys largest encampments a makeshift community of nearly 200 tents, an outdoor food pantry and a shower stall that spanned the popular near-mile loop around Echo Park Lake just two miles away. The marginalization of homeless individuals often leads them to ignore the social norms of public space. With so few reviews, your opinion of Urban Alchemy could be huge. The number 18 on Joshs left arm refers to Adolph Hitler, with the 1 corresponding to the A and the 8 corresponding to the H. It appears that his left leg has a tattoo of the Iron Cross, which was a symbol used by the Nazis, according to the ADL. Del Seymour, a Tenderloin community leader, called Urban Alchemy phenomenal because it helped calm the streets without police and allowed the city to quickly open homeless shelters. But for decades it was politically unpopular and considered radical. Copyright 2023 Urban Alchemy. These guys were able to come out and talk to young guys and explain to them that they want to do something different, Milton said, adding that it can be inspiring when I see these guys in uniform, just guys out there working., In Los Angeles, Urban Alchemy was hired to provide services to homeless encampments. This academic faction has a narrative that is made up. Urban Alchemys contract to run the Sausalito site expires at the end of June. Ian came up to me and said, Why did you throw us under the bus with that? Powelson said, referring to Clark-Johnson, Urban Alchemys residential services director. We teach that in our training.. Ive had 20 years of homelessness off and on, and this has given me great purpose., David Harding, a professor of sociology at UC Berkeley, said he hasnt heard of another organization as large as Urban Alchemy thats not just willing to hire people with criminal records but actively seeks out those folks as employees.. Security is something totally different. The idea of providing designated areas for unhoused people to camp, with bathrooms and access to social services, isnt new. An increasingly bipartisan chorus is asking where all the money goes for the states homeless crisis. We can give them the training. Urban Alchemys performance the value of the interactions it has on the streets is difficult to measure. Hammonds helps a woman in distress out of the middle of Market Street. SFs most important stories, delivered straight to your inbox, An aerial view of a Civic Center safe sleep site homeless encampment near City Hall in San Francisco, Calif. on October 30, 2021. The Pacific Sun contacted Cook through Facebook for comment on the allegations. The stillborn baby was found at a site that was located in a rotunda in front of San Francisco City Hall. They dont have name tags on, and some were pretty confrontational. Miller pointed to their high levels of emotional intelligence, their ability to read people, and their ability to interact with different kinds of people. Urban Alchemy works with long-term offenders, integrating them back into society in order to prevent them from experiencing homelessness. We dont have weapons, mace. In a Market street building, Louie Hammonds a former gang member who served 21 years in prison for attempted murder and is now Urban Alchemys chief of training role-played scenarios on the streets. 2023 KCRW All Rights Reserved. Council is set to vote July 28 on a $4.14 million agreement with Urban Alchemy that would establish the nonprofit as the ARCH's operator for 13 1/2 months. UA has a no drugs or alcohol policy while at work, and that includes a prohibition on showing up to work under the influence of those substances, Clinebell wrote. In this case, unfortunately, our staff was not informed of the pregnancy by the resident or her partner during intake nor were there any noticeably apparent signs that the resident was pregnant, Tyler said. The stations are dropped off and picked up daily by United. We try to make sure we're not getting into anybody's personal space. They told the class theyve been in jail, homeless and raped. Right now in the City of Los Angeles, it's a free-for-all, said Buscaino, who is a former LAPD officer. Because a city this offbeat deserves a newsletter with some These types of skills, she says, equip Urban Alchemy workers for interacting with people who are having a traumatic time on the street. The police eventually arrived at the camp in response to the verbal altercation, although its not clear who called them. When we arrived on the scene, the Tenderloin faced an unmanageable problem with littering. Powelson claims Clark-Johnson was one of the two men in upper management who smoked concentrated marijuana oil with the campers. With this setup at the camp, you have males preying on vulnerable women.. People like Ronda Briggs, who was once homeless, hope to provide non-emergency help, homeless outreach and referrals to supportive services. We're a social enterprise that engages with situations where extreme poverty meets homelessness, mental illness and addiction. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times) The Clean. What are you going to say, Hammonds asked, when someone comes at you like this and calls you a snitch-ass motherfing police?. When asked about the stories of assault, harassment and misdeeds at various projects, Miller said they paint an inaccurate picture and distract from the good Urban Alchemy has done. LA County sheriff's recruits graduate months after Whittier crash, Highways into the San Bernardino Mountains are closed to drivers, LA County passes motion requiring retrofit of some buildings by 2033. The second worker was shot in April by an assailant who approached from behind, though the organization and police have not discussed a possible motive. Crime has gone up in America, the same old solutions are not working, so were going to see more growth in these areas and there are going to be growing pains, said Jorja Leap, an adjunct public policy professor at UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, who is the lead researcher for Bidens efforts and was not involved in the Echo Lake Park report. Clark-Johnson and Hammonds came back several times. "You don't just pick stuff up and throw it away. Urban Alchemy is moving the needle where nobody else is really able to move the needle, which is because theyre doing the same old, same old, Miller said. Miller earns $220,000 a year, according to the same contract. Once the city increased the contract, we got all these new Urban Alchemy people coming and going, Powelson said. Despite enjoying fairly broad support in the neighborhood, though, the nonprofit has also faced an array of criticism. Some of Urban Alchemys workers have been surprised at the depth of the crisis they are facing in the Tenderloin. The site closed in June 2022 after operating for a little over two years. Josh treated me like trash. While an LA Homeless Services Authority spokesperson says that Urban Alchemys contract includes housing-focused case management, Miller says thats not her organizations speciality, and Urban Alchemy typically partners with other nonprofits for housing navigation. All Rights Reserved. The city formally announced its relationship with Urban Alchemy in a Feb. 16, 2021 online statement. But some advocates worry that officials are investing too much in The Armenian American community has been active in demanding for the United States to be on the right side of history, says Shant Sahakian, executive director of the After years of debate, Californias State Board of Education voted last month to adopt an ethnic studies model curriculum for K-12. "When you can hone in and craft those skills that come from people's life experience into what can be used to work with our homeless sisters and brothers we've seen that it really has an impact.". Traumatized people do a better job of understanding other traumatized people, she and her staffers say. "They've been great," he said. The Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing was contacted for comment. Kirkpatrick Tyler, head of government and community affairs for Urban Alchemy, said it did not house pregnant women at the site as a policy but that staff was unaware of the pregnancy. When our person is wrong, the organization provides discipline and training, she said. Urban Alchemy also runs the safe parking program in the Bayview, cabins at 33 Gough St., as well as the now closed Civic Center tent village, although it is upfront about not providing . The only reason why were where we are is because we get to work. One person claims they had to resort to sex work after the city allegedly destroyed their encampment. The situation came to a screeching halt after another Urban Alchemy employee told her Josh was taking time off work because he was getting married that weekend. Miller grew Urban Alchemy out of her nonprofit Hunters Point Family, which won contracts with San Francisco Public Works to run the citys public toilets starting in 2016. Email: mallory.moench@sfchronicle.com, kfagan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @mallorymoench, @kevinchron. One reason the city cited for retaining Urban Alchemy was the amount of time the Sausalito police were spending at the camp. We can help them recruit. They can go to sleep at night, no one's going to touch them, hurt them, creep in their tent, she said. In 2021, San Francisco hired Urban Alchemy to take on a slightly different task: patrolling areas of the city with high concentrations of homeless camps and offering resources to those living outside. And, its always a firing offense., Theres no such thing as consent here, Clinebell wrote. In our experience, cleaning is one of the . . In Sausalito, where Urban Alchemy was hired to guard a tent encampment occupied by former residents of boats that had been confiscated, media reports described meth use, pot dealing and sexual encounters and assaults involving Urban Alchemy staff. At the time, Powelson and the other campers had no idea Clark-Johnson and Hammonds were high-level managers in an organization retained by the City of Sausalito. All rights reserved. She joined The San Francisco Chronicle in 2019 to report on business and has also written about wildfires, transportation and the coronavirus pandemic. The lawsuit, which also names the city as a defendant, is ongoing. Employees report figures on their interactions after each shift. Dillon said nobody else had achieved what Miller had in Bayview and Hunters Point. (The federal government already operates a similar site on the West LA Veterans Affairs campus in Brentwood.) One organization the city is working with, Urban Alchemy, was founded to provide career opportunities for the formerly incarcerated. The current contract expires on June 25. They allege he is a bully. Kirkpatrick Tyler, who is in charge of government and community affairs for the organization, describes the past prison experience of Urban Alchemy workers as parallel to the story of every single superhero in every comic book that youve ever readthat they have a traumatic experience, [and] they have to make sure that traumatic experience has a sustainable transformational impact on who they are to their core.. The organization said it wouldnt seek to renew because it didnt make sense to keep coordinating a small project from San Francisco. In February, Miller said, a drug dealer shot an Urban Alchemy worker who had told the dealer to stop selling outside a city-run tent encampment. Washington, DC 20001-3736, Phone: 202-898-2444 You have some people who are very inappropriate.. bitea dose of arts, culture and more. All Rights Reserved. The nonprofits unusual slogan is No fuckery., What were trying to do, co-founder and CEO Lena Miller said in an interview, is just make spaces safe and clean and raise the vibration, so to speak, in areas that in the past have been dirty and scary, particularly for people who are vulnerable.. The class laughed. Josh, too, is no longer working in Sausalito. She listed examples as violence, discrimination and disrespect to women. Since 2019, the organization has won $62 million in. A majority of employees are people of color, and some have been homeless. Several co-located agencies offer case management, job placement services, legal . Through emails, Clinebell detailed Urban Alchemys policies about employee drug use on the job and sex with campers. Urban Alchemy has been a controversial choice for the program. They come through word of mouth, walk-ins, job fairs, online searches, and referrals from parole officers or other organizations. In November of last year, the city awarded Urban Alchemy $2.6 million to lead a pilot program called CIRCLE, "Crisis and Incident Response through Community-Led Engagement." Urban Alchemy's 2022 budget shows the nonprofit receiving more than $43 million in total contract and grant revenue from the cityup from just under $36,000 in total revenue during 2018, the year it was founded.