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- Los Angeles, CA
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Family Homelessness in Los Angeles
Los Angeles, which boasts the world's fifth largest economy, since 2005, has become the Homeless Capital of our country. Currently, approximately 8,000 family units, representing more than 18,000 children and youth occupy our city. - 97% of these families are headed by single women with an average of two to four children.
- Many of these women are struggling with a history that includes being a former victim of domestic violence, abuse and/or illnesses resulting in loss of employment and housing.
The journey begins with the inability to pay rent and then leads to eviction, forcing the family into motels, SRO hotels, homeless shelters, friends and relatives, or, ultimately, the streets. The typical homeless Mom is trying to survive without adequate housing, childcare, and access to support services. Her children are often uneducated, shuffled from one school to another due to the transient nature of no permanent housing. Homeless children, more often than not, drop out of school or join gangs.
The most innocent victims of family homelessness are the children. They are the ones who suffer the most, not knowing where their next meal, bed, or school is. The following words of an eleven year old homeless girl, speaks for itself.
You think you know what homeless mean but you don't know nothin' 'bout homeless. You think homeless mean you ain't got no apartment, you ain't got no bed for yourself, ain't got no place to wash off when you soil or you be sweaty. Well, bein' homeless mean more than that.
It mean you ain't got no next-door neighbor, no best-friend no more. You don't got no favorite place to play, or hide your candy money. You don't even got your own seat in your own classroom, you be movin' so many time. Don't know the teacher name. So who care? She don't know your name either.
You ain't got no good memories of holidays or the movies or even rides. You ain't even got yourself bad memories. You know why? You bet you don't! 'Cause one shelter look like the next, and soon you can't remember how long you been in this one or that one. Anyway, it don't make no difference. Not after a while it don't. You know why? 'Cause you be doubling up so many nights in the same bed covers, sharin' the same potty so many nights, that one mornin' you turn into the other person.
So don't tell me you know 'bout homeless kids. And don't ask me if I understand what happen' to my family bein' we got no home. They invisible and so is me. I not here anymore. I died three years ago. Hey, you wastin' your time talkin' to a dead person.
- From a tape recording of an 11-year old girl in an emergency shelter
* Please note that these matters do, indeed, precipitate homeless episodes; however, the underlying cause of extended family homelessness is simply the lack of affordable housing. Struggling parents in low paying jobs and the decreasing access to available Section 8 or other low-income housing is ultimately a losing situation. Imagine LA's current programming does not include the development of low-income housing, but we applaud and encourage those efforts.
