How Hollywood Can Help the Homeless

Below is an Op-Ed that I wrote for my Polical Science class that Steve Lopez, a columnist for the LA times, has read and edited himself. It's long, but you can handle it. :)
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How Hollywood Can Help the Homeless
By Kristina Lee

Cursed is Los Angeles for being the “Entertainment Capitol of the World,” for the fanciful title steals all the spotlight from L.A.’s other Very Important People: the homeless. Overshadowed by mindless celebrity gossip, the pressing issue is too often neglected by the media, shoved under the rug.

But alas, there is a glimmer of hope that Hollywood and the homeless can collaborate. Soon to be released is “The Soloist,” a movie based on a book written by the Los Angeles Times staff columnist, Steve Lopez. The movie recounts Lopez’s unlikely friendship with Nathaniel Ayers, a homeless musician living on Skid Row.

I have yet to see the movie, but its concept and potential for social activism is thrilling. The film, which stars A-list actors Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr., is bound to make the big bucks, but hopefully, the movie’s success will instead be measured by the amount of viewers who feel compelled to act on its message.

Finally. It’s about time something be done.

The issue at hand is that L.A. is known as the “Homeless Capitol of the United States.” It was reported that in 2008, nearly 142,000 people were homeless, 80% of whom were living unsheltered - that is, in alleys, encampments, overpasses, or doorways. Furthermore, a Los Angeles homeless count was recently conducted in January and February earlier this year, and the published numbers are sure to be even greater as more people are losing their jobs and are forced be destitute.

Hard as it is to accept that our beloved city is a slum for so many thousands, this stark contrast between the rich and the poor exists. What’s even harder to swallow is that the way in which we handle the clash between the two worlds is often mindboggling, even repulsive.

The Hollywood Greek Reporter wrote, for example, that on the Sunday of the 81st Academy Awards, a day when “the rich and famous were wearing clothes and jewelry whose worth could easily feed all the homeless people of Los Angeles,” two people were found searching for food in the trash cans along Hollywood Boulevard, right next to the Kodak Theater itself.

Another incident occurred at 5am on February 24, 2009 when the celebrity Nicky Hilton had a homeless man arrested for pushing her outside of IHOP in Los Angeles. Granted, it’s never nice for anyone, regardless of status, to push another, but was arrest necessary?

These two instances prove that when our semi-charmed lives are interrupted by encounters with the homeless, we react in fight or flight tendencies. It is apparent that when confronted, the response of choice has been to run away, rather than to fight for the humanity of our fellow Angelenos. Compassion has taken a back seat to our impulsive defenses against the misunderstood.

We have chosen to flee from the burden of homelessness in our backyard because it is easier to resort to this mindset than to attempt to understand and deal with the guilt we feel from our lack of activism. Maybe we’re scared to know just how much we’re at fault for not caring.

Thank goodness Lopez cared for Ayers though, the subject of “The Soloist,” who is “not some bum,” Lopez wrote to me, “but a brother and son who was struck down through no fault of his own, and who was left to defend himself against predators, rats and cockroaches on the streets of Skid Row.”

Perhaps we fail to act because we’re too scared to recognize that the homeless, like Ayers, are actual people. Just like you and me.

Jimmy Carter once said, “The measure of a society is found in how they treat their weakest and most helpless citizens.” Unless we act, celebrities like Ms. Hilton will standardize L.A.’s message to the homeless: stay in your filth; if you disrupt us, we will push you back down and show you where you belong.

It is a shame that such apathy and insensitivity have become normative behavior towards L.A.’s dispossessed, but if it takes a movie to put a face to homelessness and popularize activism, well, that’s a start.

Thus, do not simply pay for your movie ticket and watch “The Soloist” when it is released in April 2009; rather, watch “The Soloist” and pay-it-forward. Let the movie stir you to action. Help fund solutions to homelessness, mainly permanent supportive housing initiatives, such as the Corporation for Supportive Housing. In doing so, we can transform this hell-on-earth for so many thousands to be a City of Angels for all.