Seeing so many homeless adults…
… on my daily commutes finally got the best of me. It wore me down. My brother was also homeless. Hard to look at every day. The human vision of suffering is visible where I live.
That nagging choice of — whom to help and whom to drive away from — lead me to this decision:
"If I've got it, I'll give it. If I don't have it, I won't."
I started offering water, body wipes and protein from my car window since few public toilets or fountains exist on L.A. streets.
Then I met Gladys…
…56, a strong, sober black woman living in a tent on the outskirts of Skid Row. We struck up a friendship. I found myself driving from the suburbs to her street 3x a week, to give her and her entire block water, wipes and proteins, something that was lacking on public streets and from public services.
Before I knew it, I was becoming the first Drive-By Do-Gooder! Like an ice-cream truck, I roll down the warehouse streets, voice bouncing off concrete walls, shouting “Water, String Cheese, Cleaning Wipes!” Slowly, the elderly and disabled emerge from their tents to get a little temporary love.
Too legit to quit!
After a few years of personally serving the downtown streets of Skid Row, Gladys suggested I ask friends to pitch in a few pennies. Up to then, I was using my own cash.
No joke, that very day, three different friends randomly offered me about $35 for the effort. We were onto something! And what erfect timing. I’d just been laid off from my day job.
By August, 2015 I still had enough money to buy our name, “Drive-By Do-Gooders”, purchase our website and become a legal 501c3 charity!
Often my friends…
…of all ages, join us to experience this direct, hand-to-hand type of giving. It’s hard to keep this to myself. The rewards students feel from the hundreds of “thank you’s” and “bless you’s” when serving is instant gratification for them. All while checking of community service hours by volunteering with us.
We made hundreds of pot pies and drove to poor areas to offer them from our car windows
Once a hobby…
…Now a charity! Lots of work. When we collect $600 in a month, we instantly supply 500 folks with hydration and hygiene. A drop in the bucket. It fills in the gaps where other public services leave off.
My county is home to 58,000 adult homeless who make sidewalks, bridges, old cars and makeshift tents their permanent home.
Clearly DBDG can’t solve the homeless issue, but while politicians and developers work on the end game of permanent housing, here’s our end game:
As soon as we get enough donations…
…we buy cases of water, cold string cheese, boxes of baby wipes and rubbing alcohol. Next, I turn my car, into an assembly line.
We hand-craft hundreds of hygiene body wipes by infusing rubbing alcohol into baby wipes, then dividing them into baggies — a “bath in a bag.”
Discreetly hidden buckets are bathrooms for the street poor. Our body wipes are always needed. Bottles of water keep the fire hydrants from being busted open for use as drinking water.
3rd world living…
Teasing out why someone evolved into complete homelessness is not our job.
We simply offer basic human essentials to those who truly need it right now.
We don’t judge.
In fact, we give with no agenda. Just pure giving. With your support, as little as $4 a month, we can keep this humble mission going.
Helping my little brother…
…from chronic homelessness a few years back.
One day I got the instinct to drive down to the beach to see if he was still there. He’d been fighting his own demons for many years now.
Within 5 minutes of roaming Venice Beach, I found my brother. He was ready for that hand of help.
Many homeless folks don’t feel worthy of being helped, like my brother at that time. The shame and self-hate pushes those hands of help away.
My hope is that with our consistent presence on Skid Row streets, maybe a few folks we serve might eventually feel hope, like my brother . Those small wins keep us going.
He now has 7 years of total soberiety, a full-time job, apartment and car! There’s always hope in humanity.
Last year Gladys died…
…And only six months after she finally secured housing. Guess the wait on the streets for those years took a toll on her body. Gladys is our first success story. From tent to home.
I no longer feel the need to answer the bigger questions about homeless adults that I see every day.
There is a peace in knowing that if “I’ve got it, I’ll give it. It’s as simple as recycling or paying my taxes.
AN ABC7 STORY ON DBDG JAN. 28, 2021:
This nonprofit drives by help to people experiencing homelessness
The pandemic has made it difficult for nonprofits to help those in need. But the Drive-By Do-Gooders haven't slowed down.
By Sophie Flay
The pandemic has made it difficult for nonprofits to help those in need. But the Drive-By Do-Gooders haven't slowed down.
SKID ROW (KABC) -- Lycia Naff has been visiting Skid Row every week since 2013.
"Drive-By Do-Gooders is a small nonprofit. We drive my SUV out to the outskirts of Skid Row where there's more elderly and disabled. And from my car window, just like an ice cream truck, we give out basic human essentials," said Naff.
She started out on her own, just giving what she was able to afford.
These days, she usually has the help of a few volunteers. Which happens to be a couple of teenage boys from the neighborhood.
"My volunteers are our kids who go to Venice High when they normally would be sleeping in or certainly skateboarding or surfing. These kids come out with me week after week, year after year," said Naff
Naff says she started giving back simply because it felt like the right thing to do.
"We've got people who look like our brothers and sisters and aunts and uncles and parents who are dirt poor right here in Los Angeles. So, it feels like a very natural thing to kind of give back," said Naff.
But it's more personal than that for Naff. She helped her brother overcome homelessness about 6 years ago.
"My brother, who kind of fell into some drug addiction, was renting a little space in my house and it got pretty bad. And he started to hang out in Venice Beach more and more and more, and pretty much ended up living out there," she said.
Yet, she never gave up. And one day, he finally let her help.
"He started to recover very, very quickly. Before you know it, he had gotten into a 12-step program 100% clean and sober. And today, he's got six and a half years of complete sobriety," said Naff.
Naff says she can only do so much. And Drive-By Do-Gooders isn't able to help everyone transition out of homelessness.
But what she can do is hand out water, body wipes, and string cheese.
"It's hydration and hygiene to the heart of the homeless and we don't have any agenda. It's just pure giving," said Naff.