Will California continue to fund trauma, homelessness assistance?

By Kathy Brown-Lowe, especially for CalMatters

This comment was originally posted by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.

Guest Comment written by

Ten years ago I hit rock bottom.

For more than 50 years, I’ve been trying to work my way through traumas accumulated throughout my life. As a child, I, along with one of my sisters, were abused by our stepfather. When I was a young woman, my mother and biological father died, and a number of other close family members, including several sisters and brothers, also died prematurely. I have been the victim of extreme episodes of domestic violence.

My pain drove me into despair, I ended up using a range of drugs and in middle age I became homeless. I became estranged from my family. I ended up staying at the Midnight Mission, in downtown Los Angeles. I cried every day.

While on the mission, friends told me to check it out Downtown Women’s Centerwhich helped provide housing for thousands of women experiencing homelessness for nearly half a century. They offer dignity to people who have too often been stripped of any sense of self-worth.

I began visiting the center almost daily, talking with their staff, eating in their cafeteria, receiving medical care, and—eventually—connecting with on-site therapists and mental health counselors Trauma Recovery Centerwhich provides services and support to victims of crime.

This is crucial because almost 3 out of 4 homeless people in California have experienced physical abuseand more than 9 in 10 have experienced crime or trauma.

The Trauma Recovery Center provided me with a community of caregivers willing to go the extra mile on my behalf. I have always said that I needed a village to help me heal, and the staff at the center were willing to be that village.

At the center, I finally began to fight the pain that had haunted me since I was a child. It was in this safe space—where people didn’t judge me or make me feel small—that I was able to start talking about my fears and anxieties. I found that as I talked more about the traumas that were so deeply ingrained in my life story and that I had bottled up inside for so long, I began to rely less on the drugs I used as a form of self-medication.

It didn’t all happen in a hurry, but over time my life began to make more sense.

there is 24 trauma recovery centers in other California communities. These are places where dedicated, trained staff work tirelessly to help crime survivors heal from the psychological trauma and damage that has accumulated over many decades and that affects their ability to function fully and happily on a daily basis.

As anyone who has lived through my trauma knows, you usually don’t make good decisions if you don’t feel safe.

Unfortunately, since the passage of Proposition 36 last year, the flow of funding for programs like the Trauma Recovery Centers at the Downtown Women’s Center is at risk. I can’t think of anything more short-sighted than not making sure these centers have the resources they need to ensure victims have immediate access to the help and support they need and deserve.

I understand the frustration of voters and politicians who want quick solutions to social problems and who are angered by the continuing waves of crime, drug addiction and unemployment. It’s tempting, yes resorting to punishment instead of treatment and crime prevention when you are angry and frustrated by other people’s actions.

But in a zero-sum world where there is more money spent in prison means less money available for California’s growing network of trauma recovery centers, that’s a bad deal.

The trauma recovery center gave me a second chance at life and the ability to give back to the community I am a part of.

Today I am 68, living in my own apartment again. I have strong bonds with my children, four grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren, and many of their friends—all of whom consider me their honorary great-grandmother and call me their “GG.” I could not have done any of this without the work of the people at the Trauma Recovery Center.

I hope that California’s legislators and governor understand the importance of these centers to thousands of men and women like me across the state, and that they continue to commit dollars to allow their vital work to continue.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and is republished under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives license.