Olivia Russo
Editor-in-Chief
Ryan J. Smith, president and CEO of St. Joseph Center, spoke about his home life, career and the humanitarian crisis of homelessness in the United States.
Smith was the featured speaker for the annual Frederick Douglass Human Rights Lecture, Wednesday in the Morgan Auditorium.
About 40 community members attended the talk Wednesday in Morgan Auditorium.
“Homelessness is a policy decision,” Smith said. “It’s where we lack investment, It’s where we do not actually ensure that everyone can have a roof over their head. It’s where a lot of our social safety net has not caught up with the reality of what’s happening.”
St. Joseph Center is located in Los Angeles and they have been helping nearly 15,000 individuals every year for the past 50 years.
“For nearly 50 years, St. Joseph Center has been leading forces supporting working poor venues in unhoused individuals across Los Angeles County,” Matthew Coons, University of La Verne alumna, said during the introduction. “As one of the county’s largest social service providers, the organization delivers housing services, outreaching engagement, food assistance, mental health support and workforce development to nearly 15,000 people each year in L.A..”
Smith grew up in Culver City, but when he was just about to graduate high school, his mom and him were evicted from their home.
“My mother handed me a trash bag and said ‘The home that we built for 10 years, we would have to evacuate in 10 hours,” Smith said.
Before leaving, Smith’s mother asked a neighbor if they could crash on their couch until Smith was able to finish high school and that neighbor agreed. He was accepted into UCLA thanks to his faculty and his mother’s sacrifice.
“It was my neighbor,” Smith said. “It was my counselor. It was my assistant principal, who decided that they would ensure that I’d be successful; and I want to say that this is the type of work that is needed in order to ensure that we end and address homelessness in this generation.”
After UCLA, Smith went to Mexico to teach and work in orphanages. Once obtaining his Ph.D, also at UCLA, Smith went to work with the St. Joseph Center.
“I will say that we think of ourselves as a beloved community of people,” Smith said. “Martin Luther King talks about a beloved community. One that moves the needle and ensures that we all are taking care of each other, but also that we pass policies and practices that address poverty and move the needle on the issues of hunger.”
During the lecture, Smith shared a multitude of facts and figures about homelessness across the United States but also in California.
There are over 770,000 people in the United States experiencing homelessness, and 50% of them are located in California. Every year there is an average 9% increase of homelessness across the country.
“There is something about the way in which we talk about homelessness that is, today, dehumanizing,” Smith said. “We ‘other’ our folks. We don’t think of these folks as our neighbors. We don’t learn their names. We talk about encampments like those people are not human.”
Smith concluded the lecture by sharing his thoughts on community and coming together to solve the issue of homelessness.
“When I think about our communities…about our immigrant families who are under attack in this country…,” Smith said. “When I think about how many of our social services are being cut to the bone…I remind them of the story of the sisters who pulled together resources…And imagine when we pull our resources together…imagine when we decided that homelessness should not exist in a country like this.”
Karen Martell, La Verne resident, surprised Smith at the lecture during the question and answer session. She shared that Smith helped her out when she was struggling in her career path.
“I met Ryan when I was at a crossroads in my career, and I had been in the educational nonprofit sector for 10 plus years and I was just exhausted of this system that it just seemed never ending,” Martell said. “[Smith’s] energy, his passion, and his willingness to keep fighting the good fight, he used to say this a lot.”
Olivia Russo can be reached at olivia.russo@laverne.edu.
Olivia Russo is a senior journalism major with a concentration in print/online journalism and a minor in criminology. She is the Editor-in-Chief for the Campus Times for Spring 2026. She has previously served as the News Editor, LV Life Editor, a photographer and a staff writer for the Campus Times, as well as a staff writer and photographer for La Verne Magazine.
Antonio Ceniceros is a senior photography major and a staff photographer for the Campus Times and La Verne Magazine. He is also the lead photographer and social media manager for the University of La Verne’s football team, and currently specializes in sports, concert, and fashion photography. You can find his work on Instagram at @flicksbycinco..
