Commentary: They were homeless. I took them in. Would you?
by Annabelle Gurwitch, Los Angeles Times
Sep 04, 2019
4 minutes
The first few nights that two strangers spent under my roof, I couldn't sleep. I stashed a rusty hatchet under my bed. The blade was so dull that the best I could have hoped for was that it might cause a tetanus infection. What had I been thinking when I invited a young homeless couple - and their pet rabbit - into my house?
This June, I participated in Safe Place for Youth's Host Home Program, short-term "interventions" for unhoused young people, ages 18 to 24. In December, stuck in L.A. traffic, my ears had pricked up. Marlene and Michael Rapkin were on the radio describing an inspiring three months they'd spent as two of Safe Place's initial cadre of hosts.
"Welcoming the stranger"
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