Here’s Help!

When some people think of an individual experiencing homelessness, they envision a middle aged man who’s mentally ill or has a problem with substance abuse, or sometimes both. Or an individual who has fallen on hard times and is drifting from place to place, trying to get a foothold and make a new start. Across the country, those descriptions fit two out of three homeless. (U.S. Dept. of Housing Urban Development AHAR 2019 annual report to Congress)

Here in NELA, the majority of persons experiencing homelessness are a young parent and their children, who are fleeing a violent home, or because of depression or a bad break or a poor choice and have landed on the streets. (NELA Homeless Coalition Point in Time, 2019)

How often it happens? 
On any given night in NELA, nearly 200 people are on the streets, sleeping in the backseat of a car, in a park or the woods or another site unfit for human habitation. Over half of those are a parent or family with children under 18 with them on the streets. About a quarter of those who give a cause for their homelessness said they were homeless because they are fleeing domestic violence.

What does it mean?
If you look at just a dollar cost, a 2004 Florida study showed each homeless person costs the state nearly $12,000 a year in lost tax revenue. The human toll is far greater – homeless persons are more likely to have difficulty getting or keeping a job, suffer mental health issues like depression, to be sick, and to live in poverty. (naeh.org, 2009) The impact on homeless children in particular is difficult, with reduced school attendance and performance as well the mental and physical health problems. (US DHH Rog et al 2007)”

The good news is — there’s help — Services and housing for homeless in Northeast LA – Updated Jan 2020