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April 2018

Solution denied...

Ted Hayes, 1994 

The activism of Theodore “Ted” Hayes, Jr. began in January 1985, when Justiceville, a community of homeless people in Los Angeles, was founded. It survived for five months, until authorities shut down the shantytown. Hayes entered 35-day fast in protest in response. In 1987, with producer Tom Bolema and the Butchers, he recorded “Ted’s Rap: Justiceville” about the bulldozing of the encampment.

From this evolved The Dome Village community, officially opened in November of 1993 with a $250,000 grant from ARCO. Located in downtown Los Angeles, the 20 Omni-sphere domes were a working prototypical model, key to a comprehensive plan designed to “break the cycle” of homelessness, optimistically named the Exodus, Genesis, Incentive, Initiative Plan (EGIIP).

Rosa Vasquez and her two children at Genesis I.


“’The idea was to create a family environment…. We recognized that people needed to be in a social environment, but they needed a private space,’ Hayes told the Los Angeles Times. Residents, who paid $70 to $100 a month, were responsible for chores and could buy and cook their own food in a communal kitchen dome. Other domes housed washrooms and laundry facilities. Also on site was a dome for a library containing computers with Internet access.” 

Photo origin unknown

The project received worldwide acclaim for its innovative concept and proposal for dealing with global homelessness. Attracting attention nationally and internationally, the Dome Village received visits from HRH Prince Edward of England, the Prince of Wales Business Leaders Forum as well as government and business dignitaries from various parts of the world.  

In February 1998 Hayes delivered to the White House his proposal for the creation of a National Homeless Plan to eradicate homelessness in the next ten years. In October of 1998 the City Council of Los Angeles, and in January of 1999 the County passed resolutions in support of the plan. But by November of 2007, the Dome Village was closed due to political and economic obstacles that Ted, his staff and supporters could not overcome. An article in the Los Angeles Times published on October 29, 2006, explained:

“Dome Village had paid $2,500 a month for the 1 ¼ acres, not including property taxes, said founder Ted Hayes, a longtime homeless activist who lived in a dome. But last year, one of the owners, Milton Sidley, wrote to Hayes, saying the overall rent would increase to more than $18,300 a month.

That spelled the end of Dome Village.

‘The property in downtown Los Angeles has appreciated such a great deal at this point,“ said Mike Sidley, Milton Sidley’s son and attorney for the partnership that owns the land. ‘It’s just no longer economically viable to allow them to remain there.’

The dismantling of Dome Village – near the Staples Center – ended an era of experimentation in which Hayes tried to give homeless people their own haven away from skid row.” 

Skid Row, 1994

Apr 28, 2018
#homeless #oneofus #skidrow
Apr 22, 2018
#oneofus #skidrow #homeless #losangeles #urban poverty
Apr 18, 2018
Play
Apr 9, 2018
#shedoes #oneofus
Quarantined

Back for the third time in four days, I spoke with an employee of the Thai restaurant who told me Jimmy (the owner) has struck a deal of mutual convenience with our friend– free meals as long as Craig keeps to the back of the ramp, out of eyesight of customers. Craig is now in terrible shape, with the combination of drug addiction, staph infection and general societal dissociation rendering him psychologically fragile– yesterday (the day after I took these photographs) I returned there on my bike and found him raging, to the point where he started rubbing his infected hands all over by bicycle, a surprisingly hostile move from a guy who has always been friendly until now. Paramedic units have been called but did not find him there upon arrival. Seems like he is generally quarantining himself from Gracie and the others, now also back in the forbidden zone…

Apr 4, 2018
Play
Apr 1, 2018
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