Wendell Blassingame has found his purpose in life: helping others in the City of Angels.

For the past 15 years, the 67-year-old can be found sitting at a table inside Skid Row’s San Julian Park where he helps anyone who needs it, free of charge.

He has provided hundreds of desperate people find access showers, hot meals, clean clothes, social services, medical or dental treatment. He has even drafted resumes for those seeking work.

‘I’m in the business of trying to set an example as a resource assisting individuals with housing and anything else they might need,’ Blassingame told DailyMail.com while sitting at his table in the crowded San Julian Park.

‘Last year I placed 159 people in housing by myself. I’ve dedicated my life to make this a community.’

His valuable and selfless work in Skid Row is needed even more now: homelessness in Los Angeles rose 26 per cent in 2017 as one in four homeless people in America live in the city, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Homelessness in Skid Row has long been an issue for California dating back to the 1930s where an estimated 10,000 people were living on the streets in the community. Historical articles during that time period state that many of the transient people worked as seasonal laborers. Over the years, officials and police have conducted several crackdowns on vagrants which resulted in hundreds of arrests, but the problem still persists.

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True Hero: For the past 15 years, Wendell Blassingame can be found sitting at a table inside Skid Row’s San Julian Park under a yellow umbrella where he assists anyone needing help for free

Blassingame (right) has provided hundreds and hundreds of people with a labyrinth of resources including finding showers, hot meals, clean clothes, social services, medical or dental treatment, drafting resumes for those seeking employment and more

His valuable and selfless work in Skid Row (above) is needed even more now: homelessness in Los Angeles rose 26 per cent in 2017 as one in four homeless people in America live in the city, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development

Homelessness in Skid Row has long been an issue for California dating back to the 1930s where an estimated 10,000 people were living on the streets in the community

Betsy Starman, Blassingame’s close friend who works in the heart of Skid Row at non-profit human services organization Midnight Mission, knows first-hand how bad the issue has become in the area.

‘Skid Row has gotten worse. It’s become a dumping ground for mentally ill people,’ Starman told DailyMail.com as her voice filled with admiration while discussing her friend.

‘But Wendell takes care of them. He’s very honest and upright and he does so much for so many people.’

Starman noted how there are several shelters and agencies that provide different types of services for individuals in need, but ‘Wendell does everything and knows how to help people.’

Outside of just providing information, Blassingame has taken even further by using his credit to co-sign apartment rentals, fundraised to help pay for security deposits and used his personal credit to help people with purchases – despite the fact that he works for free and lives on a fixed income.

‘I’m getting paid with how I can help and touch people’s lives, that’s my reward,’ he said.

‘He’s just amazing, I’m honored to know him, I’d do anything for him. He is the man and he is so humble, despite everything he has been through in life,’ Starman added.

The Marine veteran previously was an alcoholic living on the streets following the death of his wife, Lois, more than a decade ago. That left him feeling lost, and even more so after two of his fingers were severed when he fell off a building while working as an electrician.

But last year, Blassingame (above with a homeless veteran he assisted) says he placed 159 people in housing by himself. He told DailyMail.com: 'I’ve dedicated my life to make this a community. I’m getting paid with how I can help and touch people’s lives, that’s my reward'

The Marine veteran (above) knows first-hand what it's like to be homeless. He previously was an alcoholic living on the streets of Skid Row following the death of his wife, Lois, more than a decade ago. During the dark period, he says he had no cares in the world and loved to drink

The combination of both incidents caused Blassingame’s life to spiral out of control and into addiction.

‘I became addicted to alcohol. That became my major hobby. I didn’t care about anything else,’ Blassingame revealed.

‘I started enjoying the crazy life in Skid Row, I didn’t care, I wasn’t being harassed and I had no peers of my own who would hold me accountable.’

The bespectacled 67-year-old could be found every day carrying a tent and a cardboard sign that had a message asking for monetary help written on it while walking down Alameda or Fourth streets in downtown Los Angeles.

At night he slept on cardboard on the sidewalk because he preferred that over following the rules of shelters in the area.

He continued this destructive pattern of life for more than two years until he had a wake-up call one day.

‘Someone made me a statement at me, called me a “drunk” and “filthy bum”,’ Blassingame said with his voice cracking.

He paused before adding: ‘That made me wake up and realize “I’m more than that. I have to start from here.”’

Instead of attending rehab or a program to treat his alcoholism, he sobered up on his own and cleaned himself up.

In the process of getting his act together, he visited several agencies and shelters asking for information, but wasn’t getting all of the answers he needed. He realized that if he was having problems, others must be as well.

‘So I made up my mind, I’m going to get all the info from all the agencies and be in the park and help the people more than I was helped,’ Blassingame stated.

But one day he had a wake-up call and eventually got sober to get his act together. During the process, he realized how hard it was to find certain information at agencies and shelters in the area. He is pictured above with friends while holding an award he received for his work in the community from The California African American Museum

Blassingame decided to set up shop in San Julian Park where he has seen a steady stream of individuals over the last 15 years who sought him out for help. Many in the neighborhood who know him call him the 'saint of Skid Row'

‘I hate for someone to ask the question and not get an answer.’

Blassingame decided to set up shop in San Julian Park where he has seen a steady stream of individuals over the last 15 years who sought him out for help.

‘People have recognized that there is a place they can come that is accountable and reliable and that’s me,’ he said.

‘Some people don’t want to go into the walls of an agency. They know I’m going to be here and they’re telling their friends. I treat everybody with how I like to be treated. Everybody is special to me and I don’t care what condition you are in or what you’re wearing, you’re very special to me.’

‘I go out of my way to make sure to assist them with whatever problem they have it its housing or if it’s just referral to get a rehab program to get them off the alcohol or drugs or if it’s just to hear the words ‘how are you doing today’ ‘hope you’re feeling better’ goes a long way when you’re homeless and don’t’ have anyone to talk to,’ he shared.

‘I’m so excited that I get a chance to touch some body’s life,’ he said. ‘Every day I come out in the morning and encourage people and try to give them the desire to change– you’re at the bottom point only thing to do is to go off. It’s the choices that we make that shape the future.’

Blassingame, who has been dubbed the ‘saint of Skid Row’, feels that city and state officials are not doing enough to help curb the homeless crisis currently gripping the state.

In an effort to combat the issue that has long plagued Los Angeles, city officials within the mayor’s office created a new positon titled the Homeless Coordinator and appointed Meg Barclay to the job.

She is charged with coordinating city efforts with those of Los Angeles County in tackling the issue while keeping tabs on each piece of the puzzle.

Blassingame, who said he has not seen any improvements in the area since she took hold of the positon, said her job is ‘a joke’.

He said: ‘I’m so excited that I get a chance to touch some body’s life. Every day I come out in the morning and encourage people and try to give them the desire to change– you’re at the bottom point only thing to do is to go off'

‘I don’t want to say that she’s a joke, but her job position is a joke. How can you address the homeless issue when you’ve never been homeless that’s number one,’ he quipped.

‘And number two, you have to get away from the CEO’s or directors of the Midnight Mission, The Union, The LA Mission or Weingart and actually get in the encampment of the homeless people to really see and address their needs.’

He added that Barclay ‘needs to do more outreach before she can do anything.

‘Speaking from an office is one thing, but outreach is a very important part of dealing with individuals who have been displaced or are dysfunctional. This is not only a state of mind of homelessness, this is reality.’

Blassingame, who is speaking from experience, said that some who live on the streets ‘love it and enjoy it’ and become ‘complacent’.

‘So for her to say to she’s going to representing these individuals, how can you represent them when you haven’t met them or got into the encampment? You have to go out there and sweat a little bit, and interact, and find out what actually caused them to become homeless,’ Blassingame shouted.

‘Different things caused people different ways to become homeless.’

Outside of providing resources for those seeking help, Blassingame also hosts movies in a nearby community center on Saturdays and Sundays because he wants Skid Row to be more than a neighborhood known for homelessness.

‘I’ve dedicated my life to make this a community,’ he said softly. ‘This is not some place where people have lost hope or lost identity.

‘Everybody has choices to make. Some people make right choices and some people make wrong choices.’

For his efforts, Blassingame was recently honored and awarded by property management company Goldrich Kest via there 60 Acts of Kindness campaign.

The Marine veteran was presented with a new laptop and a backpack to carry it in during a luncheon in his honor from the company after his was stolen from his table inside San Julian Park.