http://www.inforumusa.org/RSS/inforum/ en-us Copyright 2009 Inforumusa.org http://www.inforumusa.org/images/inforum_rss_logo.gif http://www.inforumusa.org/RSS/inforum/ A nationwide dialogue about housing, poverty and homelessness View Full Article]]> Wed, 10 Mar 2010 23:11:35 -0800 Advocates across Los Angeles are worried that the County Board of Supervisors will approve a proposed change to the region’s Section 8 rental subsidy program. The proposal effectively bars the board from setting aside Section 8 housing vouchers to help increase the supply of permanent supportive housing. The Housing Authority of the County of Los Angeles administers 21,000 housing vouchers for low-income residents, including people who are homeless. With nearly 50,000 people who are homeless in the county, advocates believe that homeless people should have priority for these vouchers. Within the county proposal are stringent rules to deny people housing based on failure to deliver documents or missed appointments. A letter from the UC - View Full Article]]> Tue, 09 Mar 2010 22:03:15 -0800 I sometimes long for the heydays when nonprofit homeless agencies flourished. It was in the 1980s; I was just becoming an adult. Most of the homeless organizations in the Los Angeles region were created in that decade when compassionate and generous people—many from faith groups—created shelters, food banks, and transitional housing programs in response to the growing homeless population. If you’re familiar with nonprofits in Los Angeles, you’ve certainly heard of Chrysalis, Beyond Shelter, PATH, and LA Family Housing. All agencies that started in the 1980s. Those were the days when hearts were moved, and purse strings opened. When even the federal government began to invest significant resources into addressing homelessness. Thos - View Full Article]]> Sun, 07 Mar 2010 20:45:38 -0800 I’ve been through three mayors during my tenure as the senior executive of a Los Angeles-based humanitarian organization. That’s nearly 14 years of political leadership in the second largest city in the country. During that span, Los Angeles has been called the “Homeless Capital of America” by each of the mayors. Millions and millions of taxpayers’ money has been invested in trying to help people living on the streets of Los Angeles. The federal government, through the Department of Housing and Urban Development, has distributed to Los Angeles about $50 million to $60 million each year for the past ten years. Last year, that amount was $70 million. I’m guessing this city has received about a billion “homeless” dollars in the last 10 t - View Full Article]]> Thu, 04 Mar 2010 22:51:44 -0800 View Full Article]]> Wed, 03 Mar 2010 21:06:15 -0800 While the flu season is in high gear throughout the country, the Los Angeles County Public Health Department is reaching out to one of the region’s most vulnerable groups—people who are homeless. Lack of health care, sanitation, and shelter increases the risk of flu and sickness among people who are living on the streets of Los Angeles. With nearly 50,000 homeless people in the region, the threat of a flu epidemic is real. The County, along with UCLA nursing students and People Assisting The Homeless, an LA-based homeless agency, are hosting free H1N1 vaccinations on Thursday, March 4th from 8:30 am to noon at 340 N. Madison Avenue, Los Angeles, CA. “Homelessness is a health issue,” said Carlos Gonzalez, a program director for PAT - View Full Article]]> Wed, 03 Mar 2010 15:29:14 -0800 San Diego - The setting for a meeting of key community leaders was an un-leased, pricey office space overlooking San Diego’s downtown harbor, with its exposed duct work and concrete floor. A fitting location for influential San Diego leaders to explore solutions to the gritty issue of homelessness in the downtown area. Leaders from the political, foundation, and nonprofit sectors spent the morning listening to experts describe the sad state of homelessness in this coastal community. They arrived by invitation from Susan Lankford, an award-winning author and photographer, who is a fixture in the downtown San Diego business and political scene. After spending years photographing people living on the streets, Lankford set up a group ca - View Full Article]]> Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:36:44 -0800 ---This is in response to a Midwestern church group who spent a weekend in Long Beach, California picketing against a Jewish temple and against the GLBT community. You come into my town Thinking you’re going to change minds. You roll in, with a packed van Stuffed with people and signs. But your placards are words of violence They’re scrawled with remarks of revulsion. You carry your tattered Scriptures Your mind filled with slogans of detestation. Why do you hate in the name of God? You shout and intimidate In front of a God-fearing faith temple. You pronounce damnation Of people with disparate preferences sexual. As if you possess the power to damn. As if… If your words were race-based, black, brown, ye - View Full Article]]> Mon, 01 Mar 2010 20:09:41 -0800 At first glance, this non-descript hotel built 80 years ago on the glitzy street of Hollywood Boulevard seems hidden within the area’s new high-end lofts and hotels, like the newly opened W-Hotel just blocks away. But its rich history and unique guests, certainly reflect the neighborhood, and make this hotel a playground to past and current stars. 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. As a result of the Chamber program, Jesse (the name was changed) joined the staff at the Roosevelt after living on the streets of Hollywood and Los Angeles for over ten years. He grew up in the Midwest - View Full Article]]> Sun, 28 Feb 2010 18:37:37 -0800 View Full Article]]> Fri, 26 Feb 2010 22:23:31 -0800 For decades, this nation has looked at the immense amount of homeless people in Los Angeles as a sign of the region’s failure to house its citizens. Just four years ago, local experts claimed that 88,000 people were homeless in an area that also contains nearly 250,000 millionaires. No other city in the nation had such extreme disparity. Today, the number of people living on Los Angeles’ streets is almost 50,000, a tragic total that is still more than any other single city in the country. At numerous occasions, Los Angeles Mayor Villaraigosa has described his city as the “homeless capital of America.” Is Los Angeles failing its citizens who clamor for safe shelter and housing? For years, model homeless programs from outside of t - View Full Article]]> Thu, 25 Feb 2010 21:07:31 -0800 View Full Article]]> Thu, 25 Feb 2010 21:08:47 -0800 You know the smell. You grew up with it. It’s that dry paper aroma, with a hint of dust. Cardboard. If your family ever purchased a new refrigerator, that large brown paper box turned into a cool playhouse for your friends. You cut out windows and doors, and made sure no adults were allowed in. You filled it with blankets, pillows, and stuffed animals. And if you were lucky, your Mom let you spend the night in it. Cardboard. It’s the material that you grew up with, like a step brother who is always with you. When you moved out into the college dorm, you carried your life’s belongings—music player, books, clothes, magazines, shoes, and your favorite pillow—in cardboard boxes. They were your companions into adulthood. That wo - View Full Article]]> Mon, 22 Feb 2010 22:55:57 -0800 As the chief prosecutor for the City of Los Angeles, the City Attorney typically does not conjure up images of helping homeless people in the Skid Row area of downtown. Compassionate programs for people living on the streets are usually operated by agencies that many describe as angelic acts. But the City Attorney’s office created their own compassionate program called, HALO, Homeless Alternatives to Living on the Streets. The program is run by Songhai Miguda-Armstead, the Assistant Supervising City Attorney, who steers homeless people charged with minor infractions toward homeless services rather than punishment through incarceration or through fines that they cannot afford. When homeless people are cited for low-level infractions, l - View Full Article]]> Sun, 21 Feb 2010 19:24:02 -0800 A decade gone, and hundreds of millions of dollars spent in Los Angeles to address poverty and homelessness, and civic leaders are still dismayed at the lack of change in the qualify of life for Angelenos. Ten years ago, the United Way of Greater Los Angeles published a study on the state of Los Angeles County called, “A Tale of Two Cities.” The assessment described a bleak picture of a region filled with immense wealth and extreme poverty. Today, an updated study continues to portray a dreary outlook on this region of ten million inhabitants where its middle class is decreasing dramatically and one in five children live in poverty. “It's been ten years since we coined the term ‘working poor’ and it’s clear that Los Angeles County - View Full Article]]> Fri, 19 Feb 2010 19:05:40 -0800 People will do anything for money these days. Even if it means denigrating another class of people—in this case, people who are homeless. The homeless simulation video game from Europe is called Bumrise, and is now arriving on the shores of America. It is certainly no welcome European import, like American Idol or the Beatles. But nevertheless, importing a video game that encourages the player to be the “king of the bums” is just plain wrong. It teaches our youth to disrespect hurting people. We all know that the main group of people who’ve been bashing homeless people with baseball bats are male teenagers. Is this not just throwing fuel on the fire of hatred? I might be able to stand fancy clothing stores dressing up displays with - View Full Article]]> Thu, 18 Feb 2010 23:00:47 -0800 View Full Article]]> Wed, 17 Feb 2010 19:07:46 -0800 Public and private leaders told a group of faith leaders today that the counting of homeless people within the U.S. Census is urgent in order to receive federal funding for the Los Angeles region. Hosted by Faith Matters, a collaboration of faith groups in the region, the U.S. Census meeting emphasized the importance of counting homelessness. Especially, when the region has nearly 50,000 people living on its streets. “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 - View Full Article]]> Tue, 16 Feb 2010 18:29:39 -0800 I don’t think Zach Motl would think he was the poster child for America’s affordable housing, especially when his monthly rent is $944 for a tiny studio apartment in Brooklyn, New York. But if you look how this 25-year-old theater major at the State University of New York lives in his 178 square feet apartment, the notion of affordable housing is prevalent. The New York Times recently highlighted Motl’s lifestyle surviving in an expensive big city like New York. People struggling with homelessness could learn from him. In fact, the whole affordable housing world could learn. Today, here in California, the minimum size affordable housing unit has to be at least double the size of Motl’s market-rate apartment. It doesn’t quite make s - View Full Article]]> Mon, 15 Feb 2010 10:05:44 -0800 Here is the beginning of the article: Tim Barker never thought he'd have to live in his truck. Four months ago, the plumber was in a one-bedroom apartment in California's San Fernando Valley, with a pool and a Jacuzzi. Then, on his birthday in October, he and 199 other plumbers were laid off by their union, Local 761 in Burbank. Now Barker's son sleeps on the sofa of his cousin's one-bedroom Hollywood apartment, and Barker sleeps on the roof of the apartment building — or in his 2003 Ford Ranger pickup. "I'm 47, and I've never lived in my car," says Barker, a husky 220-lb. single father with sandy hair and a rapid-fire voice. In January, as torrential rains pelted the streets of Southern California, father and son were slee - View Full Article]]> Sun, 14 Feb 2010 19:34:40 -0800 View Full Article]]> Sat, 13 Feb 2010 23:06:11 -0800 There is a mantra in homeless services, that we should “work ourselves out of business.” We have been trying to work ourselves out of business for decades, yet business is booming. Those of us who dedicate our lives to the issue of homelessness face perverse incentives. Obviously, we get into the work we do because we believe homelessness is a serious social issue. However, our careers are predicated on the prevalence of homelessness. We make a living because poverty and homelessness exists. - View Full Article]]> Fri, 12 Feb 2010 18:26:49 -0800 Los Angeles – Faith leaders from dozens of congregations throughout Los Angeles County are meeting with homeless and census leaders from the U.S. Census Bureau, Los Angeles Mayor’s Office, California Community Foundation, and the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA). They are planning outreach efforts to ensure the region’s homeless population will be counted accurately in the U.S. Census. The gathering is hosted by Faith Matters, an alliance of faith groups in Southern California, working together to inspire the community to end homelessness. The meeting is on Tuesday, February 16, at 10 a.m. at People Assisting The Homeless, located at 340 North Madison Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90004. Speakers will include: Michael Arnold, Exe - View Full Article]]> Fri, 12 Feb 2010 18:50:46 -0800 View Full Article]]> Fri, 12 Feb 2010 20:19:27 -0800 You think you’ve seen it all, but in the world of homelessness the worst is violence and exploitation. Teenagers bashing the heads of homeless men. Celebrities telling a homeless man to pour a can of soda over his head for twenty dollars. Store displays promoting homeless clothing. Looks like TMZ.com is jumping into the chaotic world of exploiting homeless people. I was in a meeting with city officials from the City of Beverly Hills and with a few of our street outreach workers. They told me about this woman who is homeless who is becoming known for “protecting” celebrities from the paparazzi. She screams and kicks the camera men so celebrities can drink their Starbucks lattes in peace on Rodeo Drive. The rumor is that it i - View Full Article]]> Thu, 11 Feb 2010 19:12:39 -0800 View Full Article]]> Wed, 10 Feb 2010 18:17:55 -0800 With the current national economic recession ravaging families, leaders of the country’s homeless services and housing sectors are convening a conference in Los Angeles that could best be called, “All In the Family.” Since practically every jurisdiction in the country is experiencing a rise in the number of families either seriously worried they will become homeless, or are homeless. Los Angeles’ Millennium Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles is the site for the family homelessness conference called, “A Time To Lead,” hosted by the National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH). Los Angeles is an appropriate venue to highlight family homelessness. The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority states there are 5,000 family members who - View Full Article]]> Wed, 10 Feb 2010 20:09:34 -0800 The real Orange County, California is not the Bravo Television series of diva housewives sitting in their marbled kitchens behind iron gates of immaculate housing communities. Impoverished families languishing in motel rooms outside of Disneyland or lining up to enter the Orange County Rescue Mission, the largest shelter in the county, dispel Bravo’s mirage of the good life in the OC. In a county that possesses one of the most expensive housing markets in America, over 8,000 residents can’t even afford a simple apartment. They are homeless. The terms “Orange County” and “homeless” sound like an oxymoron, but this current national recession is affecting even this region’s pockets of wealth. Unlike their neighbor to the north, howeve - View Full Article]]> Tue, 09 Feb 2010 19:59:32 -0800 I tend to look at social issues with common sense, rather than some political bias. For example, if people have the physical and mental ability to work, should they receive public assistance for the rest of their lives? No. If a person has chronic mental or physical disabilities should they? Yes, if they have no other support. It’s the gray area, however, where society tends to clash, sometimes brutally. Typically, it’s the extremes on both the left and the right that bait each other. So when I read an opinion piece on Fox News supporting the position that marriage will lift people out of poverty, my stomach turns. Not because I’m some liberal communist ready to bash anything that Fox News puts out. But because I see, firsthand, t - View Full Article]]> Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:58:59 -0800 It is truly inspiring to have the opportunity to visit the agencies addressing homelessness on the front line and to see first-hand the life-changing work that is being done by so many dedicated people in our community. Last Saturday, I assisted in leading a tour organized by the Urban Land Institute of Los Angeles’ Young Leaders Group. The 1000 Homes Initiative is designed to educate the community—including developers, architects, students, elected officials and their staffs, and the general public—on the benefits of permanent, supportive housing as an important strategy for solving homelessness in our region. Led by Los Angeles Councilwoman Jan Perry, representing the 9th Council District, I joined more than 50 community members - View Full Article]]> Mon, 08 Feb 2010 20:23:05 -0800 Imagine one city reading the same book. For the past nine years, the City of Long Beach’s Public Library Foundation encouraged the whole city to read one book at the same time. This year, the foundation chose the book, “The Soloist: A Lost Dream, An Unlikely Friendship, and the Redemptive Power of Music.” Written by Los Angeles Times columnist, Steve Lopez, the book chronicles the journalist’s relationship with Nathaniel Ayers, a man who was once homeless on the tough streets of downtown Los Angeles. After numerous encounters with Ayers, Lopez discovers that this homeless man was once a promising classical bass student at New York’s Juilliard School of Music. The book is a moving narrative of how a successful journalist helps a homel - View Full Article]]> Sat, 06 Feb 2010 20:24:40 -0800 The numbers just don’t jive. Cities across the country, including those here in Los Angeles County, are proudly announcing that homelessness is reducing. Los Angeles recently released numbers showing that homelessness in this county of 88 cities was reduced by 38%. They reportedly document that a staggering 25,000 people are no longer homeless. Another city in the county known for being home to a large homeless population will announce soon that their homeless population has been reduced by 50% in a span of one year. What’s going on? Our country is experiencing the worst recession in a generation. One to two people out of ten do not have jobs. In Los Angeles County, one of very ten people are getting their food at food banks rather - View Full Article]]> Thu, 04 Feb 2010 18:55:20 -0800 The County of Los Angeles is mobilizing its departments to rescue homeless people living in the region’s flood-control rivers. With recent rains tormenting Southern California, being homeless in the river and piping systems can be deadly. There are nearly 50,000 people who are homeless in the county, according to a recent homeless count performed by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority. Homeless outreach experts, however, don’t have an exact number of people living in the channel system. “It is difficult to physically locate everyone living inside the pipes, along the rivers, under the scaffolding of the bridges, and even in the river,” stated Rudy Salinas, the Outreach Director for People Assisting The Homeless (PATH). “But... - View Full Article]]> Wed, 03 Feb 2010 22:29:37 -0800 Five years later, and the City of Long Beach has done what Los Angeles has not been able to do—formally approve a “Ten Yen Year Plan to End Homelessness.” The Long Beach City Council unanimously voted to approve a plan designed by 450 local community members called, “Within Our Reach: A Community Partnership to Prevent and End Homelessness.” The plan includes five key strategies: housing, employment, support services, community involvement, and establishing outcomes. In early 2005, Long Beach stakeholders including business leaders, service providers, concerned citizens, advocates, and faith leaders, met on a regular basis to design a plan to help the city reduce and end homelessness. Although some people were skeptical of such a.. - View Full Article]]> Wed, 03 Feb 2010 18:37:15 -0800 The images are stark. Concrete block buildings rising up from impoverished urban neighborhoods, sometimes dozens of stories high, filled with people who cannot afford their own apartments. They used to be called, "Projects." Old movies and television shows depict them as drug-dens, places of prostitution, and homes for future gang-bangers. For almost three quarters of a century these public housing projects were the answer to our country's poorest families. Better than the streets, some would say. But today those projects are being demolished all over the country. Cities don't want such blight in their neighborhoods. They would rather decentralize public housing, spread it across the region, than make it so prominent in - View Full Article]]> Tue, 02 Feb 2010 15:31:55 -0800 View Full Article]]> Mon, 01 Feb 2010 23:18:12 -0800 Those excruciating television pictures of homeless people walking on the dusty streets of the Haitian capital, as if they were in some sort of daze on a set of a zombie movie, are just hard to take. Then you see the children. Dirty faces, tears streaming down their cheeks. The reporters tell us they are orphans whose parents died in the earthquake. Your heart breaks. You almost want to jump on a plane, pick up these children in your arms, and take them home. Wait. That’s what a group of ten people from a Baptist Church in Idaho recently tried to do. They were in Haiti on a rescue attempt, until they were stopped on the Haiti/Dominican Republic border accused of child-trafficking by Haitian officials. A total of 33 children were being - View Full Article]]> Mon, 01 Feb 2010 19:10:47 -0800 A letter sent to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, signed by 25 executives of nonprofit agencies, law firms, and two mayoral-appointed commissioners of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, asked the mayor to make significant changes to how the city’s law enforcement agency addresses the downtown Skid Row neighborhood. A few years ago, the Los Angeles Police Department, with the blessing of the mayor, added 50 additional police officers to the Central Division beat that includes the 50 square blocks called Skid Row. This area contains more than 5,000 homeless people, and was called “Ground Zero for America’s homelessness” by former President George W. Bush’s homelessness czar, Philip F. Mangano. The LAPD labeled this.... - View Full Article]]> Mon, 01 Feb 2010 19:34:04 -0800 The street is the epitome of America’s perfect suburb. Whether it was the 1950’s Mapleton Drive in the hit TV show Leave It To Beaver, or the same street today called Wisteria Lane in Desperate Housewives. The Universal Studios back lot is a sketch of perfect America, with its manicured lawns, two-story single family residences. The immaculate façade of suburbia. Until you drive behind the plywood elevations at the studio to see propped up scaffolding that only holds false-fronts, not real homes. But still. Most Americans still yearn for that television image of safe and secure suburban living. Even if we know that dream is not real. By the millions, Americans fled cities and purchased post-World War Two stucco boxes in hopes - View Full Article]]> Sat, 30 Jan 2010 23:18:04 -0800 A recent study examining the public cost of people living on the streets of Los Angeles revealed a significant cost savings when a homeless person is placed in supportive housing. This is timely, especially when the City of Los Angeles is facing an almost $200 million budget deficit by June 30, 2010. With almost 25,000 people who are living on the streets of the City of Los Angeles, according to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, the price tag of serving homeless people is steep. This includes the cost of people accessing healthcare, especially emergency rooms, paramedics transporting people to the hospital, and government-funded homeless services. Other tax-payers’ programs include publicly-funded food stamps, General.... - View Full Article]]> Fri, 29 Jan 2010 22:24:34 -0800