Blog 2; Post E: 'Poverty in Los Angeles' Presentation

Our class was divided in groups of 4-5 students, each group was assigned a city to research the poverty levels and present to the class the information that we had gathered.  My group was #4 and we researched the 'City of Angels', Los Angeles, California.

• We found that in the midst of the rich and famous, Los Angeles county houses about 40,149 documented homeless people (men, women and children) on the streets in any given day. Adding to the equation are the 'hidden homeless', the ones' who are unaccounted for (like those who are mobile and live in their cars), increasing the numbers by 1.9% for a total of 58,423 homeless people.
• According to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) there are about 20 shelter sites in the LA county which provide only 4,779 beds each night for the 58,423 homeless!
• The U.S. Conference of Mayors 2012 Status Report on Hunger & Homelessness (Page 28) states that there is only 6% of unmet housing needs for the homeless.

http://usmayors.org/pressreleases/uploads/2012/1219-report-HH.pdf   (2012 Mayors Report)
http://www.lahsa.org/year_round_shelter.asp   (Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority)

Los Angeles contains factors beyond its control that prevents drastic improvement for services to its homeless population.  Unfortunately, the region is riddled with earthquakes which make it hard to build and maintain new structures. Most buildings are limited to zoning requirements and can only be of a certain height.  In comparison, the projects in Chicago have been known to be up to 15 floors high, while in Los Angeles, they can't go over 4 floors, thereby making mass housing nearly impossible. Over population of the area also contributes the problem of open space.  There is virtually no open space in Los Angeles, most of the land is claimed and there is no unincorporated space available.  The geographic space also causes a hardship on the city because it is mostly made up of hills and is surrounded by mountains.  The city is unable to build new structures for its homeless populations, whether it be shelters, permanent housing or health centers.  

Though the city can't build new space for the homeless, it can utilize the pre-existing buildings, particularly those in Kid Row.  Many of the buildings are run down and it would benefit the city by investing in the neighborhood.

As the saying goes "money makes the world go round" and to state the obvious, money is needed to operate services.  Most would say that more funding is needed, but I believe that there is money available, and the city needs to work with what it receives and reconstruct its priorities as to where the funding given by the Federal government is applied to.  

The good news is that Los Angeles is making improvements to better service the homeless population.  According to the new 2012 Mayors Report (Page 80), it has created more shelter sites and has greatly expanded its Permanent Supportive Housing more than any other city in the U.S. by including 10,911 permanent units and 5,982 transitional housing units.  Somehow they are getting the funding or at the very least redirecting money towards services for the homeless population.

http://usmayors.org/pressreleases/uploads/2012/1219-report-HH.pdf   (2012 Mayors Report)