An Article in LA Times about Raymond, One of Love LA's Most Faithful Members

Cold comfort on the street

Raymond Byrnes is homeless, but he follows a strict routine. Church twice a day, lots of coffee and caring for a friend help fill the long days and nights.

By Brady MacDonald, Times Staff Writer
11:36 PM PST, January 6, 2007

Hope

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Devout

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Raymond Byrnes awakens on the cold sidewalk, grips his rosary beads tight and prays for strength — thankful to have made it through another night on Los Angeles' skid row.

At 61, he has been homeless for nearly a decade, spending most of his nights at the corner of 5th Street and Gladys Avenue.

At the top of 5th Street, the downtown drug corridor known as "The Nickel," the crown of the 1,000-foot-tall US Bank Tower glimmers in the black sky. Around the corner on Gladys, a tent city renders both sidewalks impassable. The smell of urine, vomit, feces and garbage hangs in the air.

Each night, Byrnes sleeps in the same spot against a windowless, cinder-block wholesale liquor store — under a sign that warns "no person shall sit, lie or sleep in or upon any street, sidewalk or other public way." There's a homeless shelter two blocks away and others within walking distance, but Byrnes prefers the familiarity of his skid row corner — no matter how dangerous or difficult it is.

By day, he falls into a routine of military precision that would have made his Army colonel/ police chief/prison warden Irish American father proud.

Today, like most of Byrnes' days, starts at 5 a.m. Over the next 24 hours he can count on one meal, two church services and a dozen cups of coffee — all the sustenance he'll need to survive.

"My philosophy is you find what you need," he says.

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