Find out how people who have experienced homelessness are taking control of their lives and advocating for others still living on the streets.
Vikki Vickers stopped taking her medication for schizophrenia nine years ago, because she felt the medication was poisoning her. When she talks about her psychosis during that time, she describes “hallucinating about enemy armies invading America.” In fear, she ran from home and her family because she felt she was a danger to them. As a result, Vikki found herself living in an abandoned park behind the old library in Santa Monica for four years. Vikki is now in permanent supportive housing at the Downtown Women’s Center. She’s reconnected with family, has a supportive network of friends and plans to continue sharing her story to inspire change.
Vikki is a Community Advocate through the CSH SpeakUp! program. While CSH staff are national experts on ending homelessness, they know that empowering formerly homeless residents now living in permanent supportive housing is essential to ending homelessness. Community Advocates such as Vikki speak for themselves and their community by sharing their personal experiences with policymakers, public and private leadership, medical students, philanthropic organizations and even front line staff addressing the needs of people experiencing homelessness every day.
Today, you can hear Vikki in conversation on KPCC with Marqueece Harris-Dawson (Los Angeles City Councilmember representing District 8 in South LA and chair of the Homelessness and Poverty Committee); Sheila Kuehl (Los Angeles County supervisor); Robert “Bob” Solomon (Co-Director of Community & Economic Development Clinic and clinical law professor, University of California, Irvine); Rebecca Prine (Founder and volunteer director, Recycled Resources for Homeless).