Skip to main content

Meet Local Hero Nominee: Don Larson

Don Larson, alarmed by the rapid outbreak of tent, makeshift shelters, RV, vehicle and open-air dwellers that is now overwhelming our region’s communities, organized the Clean Streets Clean Starts Program (CSCS) to offer homeless people a hand-up.
Support Provided By
Meet Local Hero Nominee: Don Larson

Title: Director of Operations, Clean Streets Clean Starts

Organization/Business: Northridge Beautification Foundation, 501(c)3

Website: https://cleanstreetscleanstarts.org/

“Don has contributed countless years to help the homeless regain their confidence and sense of value leading to employment, and in turn, shelter. Through his program Clean Streets Clean Starts, Don has reduced homelessness while improving the cleanliness of our streets. Other communities are working to duplicate his efforts. He is a role model and his work deserves to be recognized.” Steven Muro, Nominator

About the nominee:

Don Larson, alarmed by the rapid outbreak of tent, makeshift shelters, RV, vehicle and open-air dwellers that is now overwhelming our region’s communities, organized the Clean Streets Clean Starts Program (CSCS) to offer homeless people a hand-up. CSCS is a boots-on-the-ground all volunteer Homeless-to-Work program offering stipend incentives and peer-to-peer on-the-curb outreach. The organization participates in the cleaning, trimming and painting-up of a community as a road to rehabilitation and cleaner, safer pedestrian environments. The result is a win-win situation. A fourth-generation resident of Northridge with very deep community service roots, Larson also owns the Das Bauhaus apartment building that acts as the backbone of the successfully ongoing turn-around of the Reseda Boulevard corridor.

More on Don Larson:

http://csunshinetoday.csun.edu/community/csun-community-cleans-up-at-fourth-annual-matadors-day-of-service/

https://www.dailynews.com/2019/06/28/the-homeless-come-go-and-return-to-railroad-tracks-in-the-san-fernando-valley/

Support Provided By
Read More
Gray industrial towers and stacks rise up from behind the pitched roofs of warehouse buildings against a gray-blue sky, with a row of yellow-gold barrels with black lids lined up in the foreground to the right of a portable toilet.

California Isn't on Track To Meet Its Climate Change Mandates. It's Not Even Close.

According to the annual California Green Innovation Index released by Next 10 last week, California is off track from meeting its climate goals for the year 2030, as well as reaching carbon neutrality by 2045.
Brenda Cibrian

Brenda Cibrian x PBS SoCal Collaboration

PBS SoCal teamed up with Los Angeles-based artist Brenda Cibrian for an exclusive collection you won’t want to miss.
2023 FINE CUT Awards Honorees included (L to R): Chapman's Vivienne Ayres, Audrey Shuppert and Nidhi Kumar, AFI's Sheheryar Ahsan, Cal Arts' Christina Woo and UCLA's Christina Sun Kim at Westwood's Landmark Theatre on September 13, 2023.

Student Film Festival 'Fine Cut' Celebrates 25 Years of Short Films From Southern California Film School Students With Call For 2024 Entries and Spring Summit Event on April 20

As part of annual short film competition, submissions open today in Documentary, Animation and Narrative categories with deadline of May 31.