Westside Shelter Coalition Celebrates Success Stories

By Jorge Casuso

For Steven Weissner it happened after spending five years in a 19th Century French prison.

For Darlene Stark, it came after she left an abusive husband when she was nine months pregnant.

And for Claus Neilsen, it took several years of wandering aimlessly through the streets of Los Angeles.

"I had no hope, broken dreams, no self respect or self worth," Neilsen told the crowd of more than 450 who packed into the Museum of Flying Monday morning for the Westside Shelter Coalition's Fifth Annual Celebration of Success. "This is the beginning of a brand new life for me."

Neilsen, Stark and Weisser were among the 23 formerly homeless clients who were honored along with the 23 coalition agencies who gave them a helping hand by providing shelter, training and services.

"This day is about a celebration of life in all its fullness, from the lowest depths to the highest peaks," said Rhonda Meister, executive director of St. Joseph Center and co-chair of the coalition.

"What we're examining is our humanity," said Mayor Ken Genser. "They set the example for us and set the bar high. What we really have today is the Olympics of humanity. Welcome to the Olympics."

When the hangar door at the Museum of Flying lifted open and the bright morning sun shone through, the large crowd cheered the men and women who turned their lives around with discipline and persistence and a little help from their friends at the agencies.

"We're here to celebrate people who have been able to hold on to the raft or the piece of wood," said Bill Rosendahl, a vice president of Adelphia and the master of ceremonies. "We're in this together. It's outrageous that we're the richest country in the world and yet homelessness has not decreased, it has increased."

Among those lending a helping hand Monday was the Bayside District Corp., whose Dolphin Change Program has helped raised more than $60,000 since 1993, when the four life-sized Dolphin-banks began giving passersby in the downtown area an alternative to direct handouts.

This year, the $5,000 raised - in nickels and dimes even rolls of $20 bills - went to the CLARE Foundation, which will use the money to buy underwear, bedclothes and other necessities for the homeless men and women who drop into the agency on Pico Boulevard with only the clothes on their backs.

Some of the clients honored then stepped forward and talked about the tough task of turning their lives around.

"It takes a lot of perseverance and determination of my part," said Walter Keeth, who found work through Chrysalis, an agency that helps train and place the homeless. "I didn't want to work for a living. They were there when things were bad.

"I couldn't see through the clouds," said Keeth, a former heroin addict who went from prison to the streets of L.A. "They opened the door and saw me walk through. They keep opening the doors we can walk through and keep seeing the crooked trees looking for a place to grow."

Weissner left a French prison where he was incarcerated for five years for a crime he didn't commit only to return to America homeless and lost.

"I never saw homeless people in America before, and here I was homeless," said Weissner, who found help at the Ocean Park Community Center. "Once you fall down, if you don't have organizations to help you, it's almost impossible to get back up."

Stark, who found herself pregnant and homeless when she left her abusive husband, broke down and cried when she was shown a clean room at St. Joseph Center.

Now Stark is ready to open a non-profit thrift store to help others who have been through the same hard and bitter path.

"It really took the life of my unborn child to make me leave," Stark said.