Made in L.A. Streaming music, news & culture from KCRW Santa Monica, Live streaming music, news & culture from KCRW Santa Monica. Criticisms of Urban Alchemy run the gamut, from being a mercenary organization to inadequate staff training. Urban Alchemy provides four core services: community engagement and outreach, interim housing, hygiene services, and street-cleaning services. 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. 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 . That, however, is a slow process, and the county has a long waiting list. Security is something totally different. A UA employee fucked [a female camper] in the tent next to the tent Im in, Deschamps said. And the Biden administration, responding to a national surge of homicides, is investing $500 million in community violence intervention. (The federal government already operates a similar site on the West LA Veterans Affairs campus in Brentwood.) LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Los Angeles is seeking answers to the homeless crisis. 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. Many . With Urban Alchemys contract ending this month and their denial of the allegations, it appears the trauma the campers say was caused by the employees will not be addressed. Not even base metal. Urban Alchemy works with long-term offenders, integrating them back into society in order to prevent them from experiencing homelessness. sues owner of Tenderloin boba cafe linked to alleged theft operation for horror story health code, housing violations, Mayor London Breed vows to fight for more police officers in upcoming San Francisco budget talks, Your Privacy Choices (Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads). 5 stars. Ill say, Have a good day, sir, the trainee responded. Employers arent bending over backwards to hire returning citizens. 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. And they were also hired to help clear out Echo Park last summer. Urban Alchemy Theyre not just getting out of prison and putting them out there.. One person claims they had to resort to sex work after the city allegedly destroyed their encampment. At about midnight on Jan. 7, 2022, the fire department responded to a report that a stillborn baby was found in the portable bathroom of a tent village referred to as a Safe Sleep Site.. 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. 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. Nothing that we have [achieved] is based on corruption or cheating or something unethical or immoral, or illegal. These types of skills, she says, equip Urban Alchemy workers for interacting with people who are having a traumatic time on the street. Los Angeles is seeking answers to the homeless crisis. The person in question could be Powelson. Montrell Dorsey, a former director of workforce development with Urban Alchemy, said that people getting out of long sentences in all-male prisons dont get proper training and that allegations of harassment and assault by workers are not adequately addressed by the organization. Miller pointed to their high levels of emotional intelligence, their ability to read people, and their ability to interact with different kinds of people. Exactly how campers might transition to permanent housing, however, isnt clear. COVID mightve come from a lab leak. Urban Alchemy has been a controversial choice for the program. Urban Alchemy first came to Los Angeles in 2020 as part of an effort to provide showers, handwashing stations, and cleaning to Skid Row. When a neighborhood, street or intersection earns a reputation as a place to avoid, we turn it around. Fresh off tens of millions in local contracts, the Urban Alchemy founder now has her sights set nationwide. Urban Alchemy secured the bulk of its work during the pandemic. 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. I can attest to the fact the meth was real., Kennedy said he knows two Urban Alchemy practitioners who brought meth into the camp, although neither works at the Sausalito location any longer. But at Urban Alchemy, their skills are sought-after. ECHO's executive director, Matt Mollica, said Urban Alchemy has been active in training opportunities and expanding on-the-ground outreach. During the public comment period of a Dec. 7 city council meeting, he alleged that Urban Alchemy staff used drugs on the job. Volunteers wear bright yellow shirts, denoting them as members of the community and part of the Downtown Streets Team. Miller said Urban Alchemy sends a supervisor to investigate every complaint. A half dozen porta potties stand in a row along one side of the lot. She envisions eventually helming a nationwide homelessness organization that provides direct services and also acts as a consultant to cities looking to set up similar outfits of their own. Funding would come from Austin Public. After being hired to guard and provide other services to homeless encampments in the Los Angeles Skid Row neighborhood, workers became associated in the citys progressive media with a decision to evict homeless people from a downtown park. 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. The program offers people who have been out of work for a few years a platform to build their resume and eventually re-enter the workforce. 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.) In short, well be handing this matter to our attorneys if the story names any UA employee who has been alleged to have committed any of the infractions she [Silverstein] lists, Clinebell wrote. 6 U.S. Cities With the Highest Homeless Population - Our Father's House When the pandemic scrambled the city's homelessness strategy, Urban Alchemy parlayed the hygiene and vehicle work into much more. If our 100% San Francisco journalism helps you make sense of your city's changes and crises, please make a tax-deductible donation . Powelson denies that anyone from Urban Alchemy requested more information. "It's impossible to serve people that you're afraid of and we have connected with folks on our teams who aren't afraid to be in what we would consider hairy areas or hairy situations oftentimes because they came from those places," says Tyler. Urban Alchemy has helped me to learn to help myself, Paradox said. She previously covered immigration and local news for the Albany Times Union and the Alabama state legislature for the Associated Press. But another councilmember who plans to open safe camping sites, Joe Buscaino, says enforcement is part of the point. The employee responded that the situation would resolve itself, but the man was still arguing with people when Gilmore left the scene shortly afterward, she said. Get the latest from KCRW in your inbox 3x a week. Were a social enterprise that engages with situations where extreme poverty meets homelessness, mental illness and addiction. San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Lauren Hepler and Chronicle photographer Stephen Lam contributed to this report. According to Deschamps, he heard Josh threatening Kennedy for a few minutes before he was able to turn on the video recorder on his phone. Miller noted how the work provides not only an income but also a sense of pride, remarking on an anecdote where one employee called the Governor of California into a bathroom stall he had just cleaned to show him how clean it was. Washington, DC 20001-3736, Phone: 202-898-2444 You hire the boosters, Miller said during a September 2021 Human Rights Commission meeting. We can give them the structure.. We're a social enterprise that engages with situations where extreme poverty meets homelessness, mental illness and addiction. We dont have a badge. The few people who remained on the block stayed out of the middle of the sidewalk and tried to keep any drug use out of view. The workers most of them rebuilding their own lives after being incarcerated might ask people to move tents off sidewalks so children can walk to school, pick up syringes or rush in to reverse one of the citys frequent drug overdoses. Founded in 2018, Urban Alchemy is based in San Francisco, CA, and claims to be a workforce development agency that hires former convicts and also aims to rebuild urban areas by supporting those struggling with homelessness, addiction, and mental illness. We also acted immediately to notify the proper support and authorities, he said. Joseph gave me a quarter ounce of weed. 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.. Miller attributed some lawsuits to growing pains as the group expanded without infrastructure it has now built and said others were bulls., Urban Alchemy grew fast and you make mistakes along the way, Miller said, adding that if there were real or serious complaints, we wouldnt have grown so fast. As can be seen below, veterans homelessness spreads across generations. . See how far weve come. Wounded Warriors opened its first residence for homeless veterans, called Alpha House, at 1361 Fifth Ave. N. in the city of Naples in January 2020. Urban Alchemys contract to run the Sausalito site expires at the end of June. L.A. skid row cleaning benefits homeless and provides jobs - Los An increasingly bipartisan chorus is asking where all the money goes for the states homeless crisis. With the rapid deindustrialization, many people lost their jobs. So doing nothing also costs a lot of money.. Campers can bring in their own tents and whatever other belongings fit inside their assigned space. Were able to do this because we share a special bond with societys most vulnerable and because we see ourselves in their struggle. Give people the opportunity to take a shower, get them off the street, and give them a sense of hope and belonging., Another man, DJ Woods, agreed. If you have no self-control, no discipline, or choose to take it personally, he said, this is not the job for you.. Employees get paid starting at $21 an hour and benefits, according to Urban Alchemys latest city contract. Miller earns $220,000 a year, according to the same contract. The CAOs report did not contain a detailed breakdown of costs, but according to city officials most of the budget goes to 24/7 staffing, and maintaining a one to 12 staff to client ratio at all times.