HOUSING FOR “Chef” Clive Jackson

URGENT- PLEASE DONATE to house our friend “Chef” Clive Jackson in a motel during the freezing torrential rains in LA. After an outpouring of support, our new goal is to raise enough funds for future costs of permanent housing. Any additional funds will go toward building a mobile kitchen/ food truck for Clive to make a living independently while giving back to the community.

We showed up at Gladys Park on Sat. 2/25 for our Food Not Bombs serve to find Clive soaked & shivering in the freezing rain with no shelter & no coat. His makeshift tent on 6th St collapsed in the storm last night & poured water all over him & his belongings.

We put him in the car with the heater on & drove to Target to get some dry clothes. As we drove, he told me through tears what had happened & how he never thought that it could get this bad. A few minutes later, he fell asleep, exhausted, snoring quietly as we drove through downtown.

Clive has only been on the streets for a year. He was the owner & Executive Chef of Brownstone Bistro in Mid City until 2019. Originally from Jamaica, Clive is known for his Caribbean inspired soul food & was featured on Gordon Ramsey’s “24 Hours To Hell & Back” (S1E3) just a few years ago when the restaurant was struggling. IG: @brownstonelosangeles

After the murder of his son, a divorce & the loss of his restaurant, Clive lost his home. He bounced around on friend’s couches & finally ended up in a tent on Skid Row last spring. When I met him, he was bright eyed, energetic & hopeful about finding work. The shelter system & SROs were terrifying experiences for such a trusting gentle man. And it’s next to impossible to find work when you don’t have access to stable housing.

That afternoon, Clive slept in my car while I drove around in the storm making phone calls & picking up food & supplies. At 6 pm, we finally found a motel in Highland Park that would take him. He’s paid up for one night at $92 per night. It would be great to keep him there for the week while the storms continue & the temperature is close to freezing. I will not have it on my conscience if he freezes to death in a city with exponential wealth & inadequate resources.

LA COUNTY SHOULD BE PROVIDING EMERGENCY SHELTER/ WARMING CENTERS!!! This is a life or death situation for many with temperatures dipping into the 30s. But Clive is safe & warm tonight. Please DONATE if you’d like to help him stay in the motel for the foreseeable future. Or if you’d like to buy him clothes, supplies, a meal, anything… We’ll make sure he gets it.❤️

I'm Lizzy Calhoun- a friend of Mr. Jackson & an organizer of Food Not Bombs DTLA- a collective that serves vegan meals & distributes supplies to the houseless on Skid Row every week. Please check out our Instagram account to see the work that we do on Skid Row. IG: @foodnotbombsdtla

I will post updates as we make progress with this fundraiser. The ultimate goal is to find Clive long-term housing.