BACKGROUND: In February, View reported on Ralph...
BACKGROUND: In February, View reported on Ralph Campbell, a 57-year-old Navy veteran who had been homeless for 30 years and who had lived near Wilshire Boulevard and Western Avenue for the last three years.
UPDATE: Several readers offered Campbell $140 a month and a bed in their condominium garage to become night watchman for the parking area. The garage was warmer and drier than the large cardboard box he had been living in, so Campbell accepted. Better still, Campbell said, he was reunited with the family he hadn’t talked to since 1972. After reading the story in a Missouri paper, Campbell’s brother forwarded it to the homeless man’s niece, Leta Larsen of Simi Valley. Larsen drove in to meet her uncle, who now corresponds with several relatives.
WHAT’S NEXT: Campbell says his goals include a full-time job and a trip to see family members: “It overwhelmed me that my family responded like they did. It encouraged me to turn my life around.”
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