{"id":15431,"date":"2026-02-20T09:50:31","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T17:50:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/?p=15431"},"modified":"2026-02-23T15:05:55","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T23:05:55","slug":"human-rights-lecture-explores-harsh-realities-of-homelessness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/2026\/02\/20\/human-rights-lecture-explores-harsh-realities-of-homelessness\/","title":{"rendered":"Lecture Explores Harsh Realities of Homelessness"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span data-olk-copy-source=\"MessageBody\">Shannon Mathews, dean of the ULV College of Arts and Sciences, greets Ryan J. Smith, president and CEO of St. Joseph Center. <em>(ULV Photo\/ Brandon Le)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span data-olk-copy-source=\"MessageBody\">Smith shares personal experiences and urges communities to treat unhoused individuals with dignity while creating supportive policies and services<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span data-olk-copy-source=\"MessageBody\">Ryan J. Smith, president and CEO of the St. Joseph Center spoke about the causes and human impact of homelessness during his presentation for the 2026 Frederick Douglass Human Rights Lecture. Smith urged communities to treat unhoused people with dignity and work together to create policies and support systems that reduce homelessness. <\/span><br \/>\n<span data-olk-copy-source=\"MessageBody\">Watch presentation here:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/K7Qm8_dkQxU?si=9oQ_zEk7qDsWC-pc\" width=\"560\" height=\"485\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><br \/>\n<span data-olk-copy-source=\"MessageBody\">Video:<\/span><span>\u00a0Claudia Gonzalez \/ Ken Pucci<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Shannon Mathews, dean of the ULV College of Arts and Sciences, greets Ryan J. Smith, president and CEO of St. Joseph Center. (ULV Photo\/ Brandon Le) Smith shares personal experiences and urges communities to treat unhoused individuals with dignity while creating supportive policies and services Ryan J. Smith, president and CEO of the St. Joseph [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":191,"featured_media":15432,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1549],"tags":[2034],"class_list":["post-15431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-events","tag-hp","ulv_author-university-of-la-verne"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v23.8 (Yoast SEO v23.8) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Lecture Explores Harsh Realities of Homelessness | University of La Verne<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/2026\/02\/20\/human-rights-lecture-explores-harsh-realities-of-homelessness\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lecture Explores Harsh Realities of Homelessness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Shannon Mathews, dean of the ULV College of Arts and Sciences, greets Ryan J. 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