Sunday, April 26, 2020

Denise Parra -Homelessness Issue in Los Angeles


    The Issue of Homelessness in Los Angeles

  

            Homelessness has always been a growing issue in Los Angeles that has affected thousands of people who now live on the streets. People are becoming homeless everyday in Los Angeles due to a number of causes such as limited employment opportunities and expensive housing. These causes have been very difficult to fix. The homelessness issue is one that will take years of tremendous effort and money. This greatly affects the Los Angeles community has a great amount of trash on the streets which can be harmful to the environment and unsanitary to the community and it overall makes the truth of how bad the issue has come to in Los Angeles. 

            In the article, “Applying a Prevention Framework to Address Homelessness as a Population Health Issue”, mentioned that “According to the January 2018 point-in-time homeless count the homeless population is just over 53,000 individuals, including more than 9000 who became homeless for the first time in 2017.” (Nicholas & Henwood, 284-285). In other words, there are is a huge number of +people who are becoming homeless in Los Angeles and as the years go by this number has been increasing. This is getting out of control, but the causes of this issue will be growing as well. Driving in Los Angeles and seeing tents in almost every street is very sad and the homeless have no choice but to sleep on the streets. According to the article “Los Angeles: Why tens of thousands of people sleep rough”, the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority did a survey on where homeless people sleep and they found that most of the homeless sleep on the streets.
                  
From the survey, there are emergency shelters that help a lot with the homeless being less on the streets. However, there aren’t enough shelters in Los Angeles and neither affordable housing. In the article “How California's Housing Crisis Turned Into A Homeless Crisis” mentioned that “About 29 percent of California renters spend more than half their income on rent, according to a study from the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University. Paying more than about a third of income on housing can make it hard to afford basics like food, clothing, transportation and health care, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.” (Hill). This explains why a lot of people have a hard time paying rent and end up living on the streets.
                
The minimum wage and lack of employment opportunities make it tough for people to afford a home. In a news report by City News Service on NBC Los Angeles stated that “A minimum-wage employee would have to work 79 hours a week at $13.25 per hour to afford the rent in an average one-bedroom apartment, Lynn said.” This means that the minimum wage in Los Angeles is not enough for any person to make a nice living with an affordable home. Therefore, the minimum wage has to increase, and this will lead to less people becoming homeless. There are a lot of factors that are involved with the homelessness issue in Los Angeles, but unaffordable housing and unemployment are the main ones that need to make a change.

Why does this matter?
        This issue is important because Los Angeles is a city that is full of diversity and lots of great places to visit. However, it is sad to go down on Skid Row and see so many tents and trash on the street. It is unfortunate that people who are trying to make a living in the community but cannot because the prices for housing are so high and the unemployment rate is increasing. I chose this issue because I have had difficulty looking for a place with a minimum wage job to the point where I have had nowhere to lay my head at night except in my car. I cannot imagine or come close to knowing how the homeless people sleeping every night on those cold streets in Los Angeles must be like. A lot of community members have volunteered to give food and shelter to the homeless but it is the Mayor's job to tackle the issue. I really hope the Mayor of Los Angeles will do better in opening more shelters for the homeless. The homelessness issue is a growing issue, there needs to be action taken and the sooner, the better. In the future, hopefully we could see more affordable housing and higher minimum wages so that people won't be living on the streets of Los Angeles.

           
Sources:
City News Service. “New Report Says LA County’s Homeless Population Increased by 12 Percent Over Past Year”. Published June 4, 2019.            https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/streets-of-shame/homeless-count-los-angeles-skid-row/148462/
Flaming, Daniel., Blasi, Gary. “Los Angeles: Why Tens of Thousands of People Sleep        Rough”. Economic Roundtable and UCLA Law School. 19 September 2019.            https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-49687478
Hill, Adrienne. “How California's Housing Crisis Turned Into A Homeless Crisis”. August 27, 2018. https://laist.com/2018/08/27/housing_homelessness_and_the_california_dream.php
Nicholas, C. Will., Henwood, F. Benjamin. 2018. “Applying a Prevention Framework to  Address Homelessness as a Population Health Issue”. J Public Health Pol.    39:283–293 https://doi.org/10.1057/s41271-018-0137-9



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