Los Angeles has at least 328 motels with a combined 10,259 rooms.
And on any given night, the city struggles to find shelter for nearly 35,000 people, many of whom have chronic health issues.
Los Angeles has at least 328 motels with a combined 10,259 rooms.
And on any given night, the city struggles to find shelter for nearly 35,000 people, many of whom have chronic health issues.
Beginning in 2008, as the nation was in the throes of the economic recession, California’s top leaders made a series of cuts to safety-net programs that sent many low-income residents in a downward spiral toward homelessness. While California’s economy has largely recovered since then, and the state’s food stamps and health programs have mostly been restored, the state’s welfare program has yet to see a reinvestment to pre-recession levels.
Kimberly Sandoval holds a ticket in her hand in disbelief. Her infraction: being in possession of spare bicycle parts at Santa Ana’s Civic Center, a homeless encampment of an estimated 200 people in the heart of Orange County.
No one is immune to the impacts of natural disasters. Yet for low-income people who already teeter close to the economic edge, a natural disaster can be difficult to rebound from.
In Los Angeles County, 63,000 students are considered homeless this year. Los Angeles Communities Advocating for Unity, Social Justice and Action YouthBuild, or LA CAUSA, is a project based learning school in East Los Angeles that provides a high school diploma program for “historically disenfranchised” Los Angeles residents ages 16-24. These are the stories of three formerly homeless students who are enrolled in the program.
Research has found that about 20 percent of people in senior care facilities have experienced antagonistic behaviors nationwide. As older adults face aging—and the mental and physical losses it brings—bullies try to assert control, just like their middle-school counterparts.
A San Francisco program connects low-income seniors who have become socially isolated, have trouble connecting with others (or even leaving their homes) with companionship.
Aid and Assistance, a benefit for low-income veterans and their survivors, is underused, according to veteran service officers. Though there are 21 million vets nationwide, only 116,000 veterans and 126,500 survivors participate in Aid and Assistance.
A lauded academy for foster teens in San Diego County is only about 60 percent full, and officials say that’s a good thing, because it suggests shifts in local policy meant to keep kids out of the system may be working.
Adults are now allowed to possess and use up to an ounce of marijuana in California. But a remaining barrier to elders’ ability to use medical marijuana could be their living situation, particularly if they live in facilities, such as nursing homes that receive federal funding, as all marijuana use is illegal under federal law.