Our Lady Queen of Angels Church might be known to many as the little church near the shops and restaurants of the Olvera Street tourist attraction in Downtown Los Angeles, but it has recently become nearly as familiar as an aid station of last resort for growing numbers of working-class Latinos who are feeling the squeeze of the economic recession.
Our Lady Queen of Angels — also known simply and affectionately to many as La Placita, or "The Little Plaza," in English — has long been a destination for the destitute. Homeless individuals often slept alongside the stucco structure before the recession took hold, and the local immigrant community has counted on the institution as a defender for years.
The rugged economy has hit the many blue-collar works of the local Latino community especially hard, however, and Our Lady Queen of Angels is scrambling to keep up with requests for help. Job losses and cutbacks on hours for those who are still working has led to a doubling of requests for food and other forms of aid over the last 18 months, according to Guillermo Armenta, who serves as co-ordinator of the church's Social Action Ministry. Meanwhile, the economic pinch has shrunk donations by 40% just when they are most needed.
"At the Social Action Ministry we have seen donations decrease in the last year and a half because people have fewer resources, so their priorities now are different than those they had before when they enjoyed a job and a stable salary, and they could give more support to the social action ministry," Armenta said recently. "With that we are seeing, the challenge is how to continue helping people whom we have supported in the past, and how to continue supporting the new people who have been affected by this crisis and who have had to turn to their churches for help."
Gustavo Garduño recently asked for help at Our Lady Queen of Angels, a request that came after several months of unemployment following a lay-off from a factory where he worked as a janitor.
"I lost my job in October," Garduño said. "I was laid off from the company where I worked, and now I still can't find another job — everything is really bad because of the crisis."
Garduño's said his wife is working, but her earnings barely cover the rent. He spends his days either looking for a job or collecting bottles and cans to sell for recycling.
Our Lady Queen of Angels is so far managing to meet the basic needs of Garduño and others in a similar position with the help of other local institutions — and God, according to Armenta.
"It's difficult to tell you a dollar amount, because the majority of the donations are made in product," he said of some of the help that is filling gaps at La Placita. "For example, the Los Angeles Food Bank gives us food" while other organizations provide clothes or transportation tokens or money to help families to pay for bus rides on job searches or pay rent.
"We also work with the Los Angeles International Foundation and the Volunteer Center, who support us so we may continue helping families and people in trouble," Armenta said.
All of those forms of assistance help supplement whatever the church can gather in its collection plates and use for the needy. They're all needed, too, according to Armenta, who notes that the church and the Social Action Ministry operate various community services that cost well beyond whatever donations are made by the faithful at services.
"We have a clinic called Queen's Care, and they send a nurse and an assistant nurse for free to the parish," Armenta said. "The Monsignor Romero clinic helps us with doctors, and there are immigration lawyers who volunteer their time, and English teachers, too."
But even some of those volunteers are feeling the pinch these days. Armenta said that the volunteer English teacher has been cut back to one class a week at the church now that the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) has cut his hours due as part of a bid to cope with a budget shortfall.
The clearest indicator of the increased need comes at mealtime. Our Lady Queen of Angels provides meals for homeless individuals and families every weekday, and also gives care packages of food to other families and elderly folks. The numbers have swelled as the economy has remained stalled.
"Before we were feeding 150 people for dinner but now we're feeding almost 300 people every night of the work week," Armenta said. "Before we would help 30 to 40 families each month with food supplies, but now we're seeing 60 or 70 families coming each month. Before we were giving bags of food to 75 seniors each week, and now we're giving close to 115, 120 bags."
The big increases recently led to a special request to the faithful who attend services at the church, according to Armenta, who said the response has helped meet the growing needs of the community. Other parishes have also contributed to the effort, bringing food for the kitchen staff at Our Lady of the Angels to cook for the homeless.
"God is great and he never forsakes us," he said. "The people realized that it's time to help, that it's time to look a little bit more in the bottom of one's pocket in order to help others.
Armenta said that the church's Social Action Ministry has also taken steps to increase the amount of help it offers for those in need of mental healthcare. Our Lady of the Angels staffers recently met with representatives of a public mental health agency to provide therapy to the homeless.
"The meetings will take place in the mornings, after 7 o'clock mass, when the majority of in attendance are indigent," he said. "After that morning service, we usually have a get-together with them with coffee and pastries, and we think that that is the best moment to offer."
Food and healthcare isn't the extent of efforts at the church, which also provides job training and housing assistance, often pointing those in need to the appropriate government agencies, according to Armenta.
The dramatic increase in the number of requests for help has led Armenta and his colleagues with the church's Social Action Ministry to seek an increase of between 15% and 20% in the unit's annual budget. That follows a 20% increase last year, a hike that came as the effects of the economy showed up so clearly at the church. The extra money is stretched a long way thanks to the 40 volunteers who help just two paid staffers at the ministry, Armenta said.
Indeed, the various streams of help have allowed the ministry to provide something for every one who shows up in need, but Armenta concedes that the helpings are getting smaller as the numbers grow.
"The bags of food don't have everything we used to include before because we have to spread it out to a greater number of bags in order to serve everyone." he said, promising to solider on and hope for improvements in economy while offering a small ray of hope to those who have lost jobs or seen their incomes reduced by furloughs.
Miriam Reyes is a writer for Impulso.
Photos of Gustavo Garduño and Guillermo Armenta by Impulso; photo of La Placita from Wikimedia Commons.
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