Domestic violence, the leading cause of homelessness among women and children, is increasing during the pandemic, but a way for survivors to get “housing first” is a bright light.
While people from all socioeconomic backgrounds experience domestic violence, low-income survivors and immigrant women are especially at risk of becoming homeless due to lack of resources.
As our cities have grown, California has made little effort to provide for those who are at, near, or below the poverty level. Many of these residents are also service workers, the backbone of the state’s economy.
Although the lack of affordable housing is central to this increase in homelessness, we must recognize that the solution to ending homelessness is not in the provision of housing alone.
Many California’s counties reported having more homeless residents this year, according to the 2019 Point in Time surveys, which aim to count the number of people experiencing homelessness on a given night.
A growing number of psychiatry residents at UCLA are training to help thousands of people in Los Angeles who are homeless and suffer from mental illness. Students concerned about social justice have spurred the change.
An estimated 20 percent of the state’s 2.1 million community college students have experienced homelessness or don’t have a stable place to live. A new bill aims to help these students by ensuring they have a secure place to stay in their cars at night.
As part of a national campaign to find housing for 100,000 homeless people, Santa Cruz government agencies, businesses and community organizations are trying to house 180 chronically homeless people in their community. Programs in Los Angeles and elsewhere have shown that investing in programs to house the homeless can save taxpayers more than they cost.
On Skid Row, the downtown hub of the homeless population in Los Angeles, transients ask passersby for change, slump against concrete buildings, and mumble obscenities at bus stops. The Downtown Women’s Center’s beautiful new building, sitting in the middle of the mayhem, is a standout. The DWC’s Day Center serves hundreds of homeless women in its facilities every day and 71 lucky ones live in permanent residences, or efficiency apartments.
The Community Arts Program in San Francisco’s Tenderloin District offers free art studio space and supplies — as well as a place to get off the streets and get creative — to more than 30 people per day, five days a week. It is run by Hospitality House, a non-profit that has served the homeless and low-income populations of the Tenderloin since 1967.