COMMUNITY VOICES
LOS ANGELES PUBLIC INTEREST LAW JOURNAL
2 L.A. PUB. INT. L.J. 224
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PENNY SMART, POUND FOOLISH*
Richard Joyce

My name is Richard Joyce and in December of 2001 I found myself a forty-five-year-old homeless veteran on the streets of Los Angeles with a big alcohol problem.

I had had some experience with the Salvation Army (SA) in the past and, having basically nowhere else to go, I found myself at the door of the downtown SA Harbor Light facility at midnight asking for admission to their facility, which was a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center. I believe that because I was a veteran they
didn’t send me away and allowed me to enter their program, which I completed, staying for an entire year.

*This is an excerpt.  For the full piece, please download the PDF.

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Author

Richard Ruprecht Joyce is a writer of political and social commentary and satire,
screenwriter, and the author of two memoirs, “Salvation Diary,” and “Skid Row Diary,” the first two in his “Diary Trilogy,” the last of which, “Help, I’m Dying Diary,” has not been written yet. Mr. Joyce is a veteran of the United States Navy and worked in the customer service field for over twenty years.