Volunteers distribute backpack 'survival kits'

L.A.'s homeless get backpack 'survival kits'

By Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Los Angeles Times

June 6, 2010

The Giving Spirit, a nonprofit, distributes 1,000 knapsacks of food and essentials Saturday, with a special effort to reach homeless women and children.

San Diego photographer convenes local leaders to find solutions to homelessness

March 1, 2010
LA Homelessness Examiner
Joel John Roberts

After spending years photographing people living on the streets, Susan Lankford, an award winner author and photographer, set up a group called Humane Exposures as a way of nudging the community to take action.  San Diego’s leaders responded by supporting her latest event, “Homelessness: A Call To Action.”  Read more.

From celebrity ghosts to formerly homeless...

Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel is home to an eclectic group

February 27, 2010
LA Homelessness Examiner
Joel John Roberts

The Roosevelt Hotel recently joined the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce’s outreach program that encourages local businesses to hire formerly homeless people as a way to strengthen the community.  

Is Los Angeles the country’s homeless step-child?

February 25, 2010
Joel John Roberts
LA Homelessness Examiner

Is Los Angeles failing its citizens who clamor for safe shelter and housing?... In terms of numbers and successful programs, Los Angeles rivals any other city in the country for addressing homelessness.  For more, click here.

Census undercount of homelessness may lead to a resource-starved region

“Los Angeles is a resource-starved area,” explained Michael Arnold, the Executive Director of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority. “We only shelter 30% of our region’s homeless population.”


The head of the L.A. County’s census efforts, Julie Beardsley, told the group, “We are the 800 pound gorilla in America’s living room because we have the largest population of homelessness in the country.” Last year, the County Board of Supervisors instructed all of its departments to assist in the U.S. Census efforts.

For every person not counted, the region loses over $1,100 in federal resources each year. This totals hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenues in a span of ten years.

The California Community Foundation is investing $1.5 million to help communities to count people traditionally under-counted, including people who are homeless.

For the complete article, click here.

Weather leads to dangerous conditions

Los Angeles County trying to save homeless people living in flood-control channels
Wednesday, February, 3, 2010
InforUm

Social media as a tool to share their personal stories

Activist's Web site, tweets put new face on homelessness
By Valerie Streit
CNN
December 1, 2009

"Fourteen years ago, Mark Horvath was in crisis. The former exec was living on the streets in Hollywood, California, where for a dollar he let people take a photograph of his pet iguana, named Dog... Horvath returned to Hollywood Boulevard, this time as a featured speaker at the 140 Characters Conference, a Twitter-inspired gathering attended by movers and shakers in social media. Horvath told the audience how he uses an arsenal of social networking sites -- Twitter, Facebook, Whrrl, MySpace, YouTube, Vimeo and Flickr -- to illuminate the plight of the nation's homeless."

On Twitter, he has a combined 10,000 followers to his two streams, @hardlynormal  and @invisiblepeople. 

Horvath posts unedited video interviews on his Web site: InvisiblePeople.tv.

A happy Thanksgiving on skid row

Los Angeles Times Article By Victoria Kim
November 27, 2009

More than 2,000 people -- homeless, jobless or just down on their luck -- lined up at the Fred Jordan Mission in downtown Los Angeles for a free feast of turkey legs, sweet potatoes, rolls, cranberry sauce and pie.

Poverty is a Serious Threat to the Well-Being of Older Persons

The next several decades will see a significant increase in the number elderly persons in our nation. It is expected that, among this larger elderly population, many will enter their retirement years lacking income security.

For more, read this InforUm post.

Help for Veterans

Law group launches program to help veterans
By Phil Willon

Los Angeles Times
November 12, 2009


A Los Angeles-based law organization Wednesday launched a program to provide free legal assistance to veterans who hit bureaucratic roadblocks when filing claims for federal medical and mental health benefits.


Public Counsel President Hernan D. Vera said the effort will help the tens of thousands of homeless veterans living on the nation's streets to collect government assistance. "The veterans' homeless population is skyrocketing. Nearly one out of every four homeless individuals we see on the streets of Los Angeles wore the uniform protecting our country. But only one in 10 receive the government services that they're entitled to..."

LA County's Homeless Population

Backlash over report showing big drop in L.A.'s homeless population
Los Angeles Times
November 11, 2009

An L.A. County report showing a 38% drop in the homeless population has been met with consternation by the region’s homeless providers, who say the findings are inaccurate and could cost them funding at a time when the need is great.

Pink slip doesn't stop teacher from doing her job

By Yvette Cabrera
Orange County Register
November 9, 2009

Two months ago today Judy Kirchner was laid off from her teaching job at Project Hope, a school for homeless children.  Kirchner hopes that one day she'll be able to teach there again, but in the meantime she's not letting go of her students.  The world may be an uncertain place for the children of Project Hope School, but even the great recession couldn't break the bonds of the one constant in these students' lives: Miss Judy.

Read the article.

Nine out of 10 homeless persons can be helped

BARBARA VENEZIA
Orange County Register
October 30, 2009

The "transitionally homeless" is estimated at being the largest number of the current homeless population, and this group includes families, single moms and kids. Many are experiencing homelessness for the first time as a direct result of the economy.

According to statistics, these folks have the highest potential for self-reliance. With tools such as transitional shelter, along with job training and placement and assistance in finding low-cost permanent housing, they thrive. Larry from Mercy House says, "There's a 90 percent success rate in getting folks moved into permanent housing and income that exceeds their expenses by providing these services."

Read the article.

L.A. homeless population drops despite recession, county study finds

Los Angeles Times, Article by Cara Mia DiMassa, October 28, 2009 

According to a survey conducted this year by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, Los Angeles County's homeless population has dropped 38% since 2007.  The drop in overall homeless numbers are attributed to efforts by the city, county and local service providers to address poverty and homelessness.  Read more.

Interesting fact

According to homeslesstales.com, Charlie Chaplin, Carey Grant, Ella Fitzgerald, Harry Houdini, Halle Berry, George Orwell, Kelsey Grammer, Jim Morrison were all homeless at some point in their lives.

Mental Illness: The Stigma of Silence

By Glenn Close
The Huffington Post
October 23, 2009

"From Alex Forrest in Fatal Attraction to Blanche Dubois in A Streetcar Named Desire to Norma Desmond in Andrew Lloyd Weber's Sunset Boulevard, I've had the challenge -- and the privilege -- of playing characters who have deep psychological wounds."...  "I also have the challenge of confronting the far less entertaining reality of mental illness in my own family."... "Even as the medicine and therapy for mental health disorders have made remarkable progress, the ancient social stigma of psychological illness remains largely intact."

Read more.

Nonprofit group comes to homeless family's aid

By Bob Pool, Los Angeles Times

October 20, 2009

A 97-year-old homeless woman living with her two sons in a battered 1973 Chevrolet Suburban in Venice has received a temporary home, compliments of a nonprofit Los Angeles housing group. Read More.

Foreclosures Force Ex-Homeowners to Turn to Shelters

"Growing numbers of Americans who have lost houses to foreclosure are landing in homeless shelters... [A]s lean times endure and paychecks disappear, homeless shelters are absorbing those who have run out of alternatives."   New York Times Article by Peter S. Goodman, October 18, 2009

The diverse faces and realities of homelessness: one family's story

She's 97. Her sons Larry and Charlie are both in their 60s. The three of them live together -- in a 1973 Chevy Suburban. Getting a place is hard because they want to on stay together.  They only have each other.


Audio slide show: She's 97 and homeless
Article: Woman, 97, has a front seat to homelessness

Article: Bob Pool / Los Angeles Times
Audio Slide show: Photography and audio by Ricardo DeAratanha; Interview and editing by Bryan Chan /
Los Angeles Times

Article of Interest

Homeless find hope in working on TV show
By Chris Welch, CNN, October 6, 2009

"The most rewarding part," Dennis says, "[is] the idea that we're changing the image of the stereotypical homeless person."  "Because of our efforts on the air ... people think about what it means -- who's homeless, what it means to be homeless, what it means to call someone homeless -- differently."