Nathan Long, GFRM’s executive director shown here at a town hall in Munson last Tuesday. Despite making a case for Geauga County’s first women’s shelter, GFRM decided to look elsewhere.
A women’s shelter housing ten to twelve homeless people will not be built in Munson Township, its backers revealed this weekend.
The Geauga Faith Rescue Mission announced via a press release that it had pulled out of a proposal to build its second shelter in Geauga County, just a few days after it voluntarily hosted a jam-packed feedback session at the Munson Town Hall that featured outcry from residents.
“After listening to community feedback regarding the proposed women’s mission on Bean and Auburn roads, GFRM has decided to begin searching for another location,” a press release read.
Since early 2023, the Christian nonprofit had been seeking land to develop their next shelter space, in collaboration with the Sisters of Notre Dame, a followup to GFRM’s men’s shelter house on Washington Street in Chardon. For months, GFRM had its eyes set on an abandoned preschool on Auburn Road in Munson, plans that had drawn a storm of concerns from homeowners in the area.
Many Munson residents were concerned at last week’s town hall that the shelter would put their lives in danger. “I’m going to probably be putting a target on my back,” one woman said. “But this is my backyard, and I can’t have somebody come into my neighborhood who has connections to a variety of communities.”
GFRM Executive Director Nathan Long, who endured many comments fueled by fear and anxiety at Tuesday’s town hall, told Scene in a phone call that refocusing the site search was done primarily to avoid any further vitriol from Munsonites.
As for the concerns heard last week—that hosting homeless on Auburn would depreciate property values, or put children in danger—Long still isn’t convinced they’re justified. After all, in 15 months of operation near Chardon Square, GFRM’s men’s shelter hasn’t reported, Long said, one incident of crime.
“But perception is one thing. I mean, either the community wants something or they don’t,” he said. “And we’re not trying to force something in the community that doesn’t want it.”
Comments online and in-person fanned the flames of unfounded fears.
“You do not want the inner city coming to our county,” one resident said. “This will be like a cancer.”
“I can’t have somebody come into my neighborhood who has connections to a variety of communities,” said another.
There has been no secondary site chosen for GFRM’s next proposal, although, Long said, the goal is to grow such women’s shelter in Geauga County, ideally in the Chardon area.
Sister Margaret Gorman, of the Sisters of Notre Dame, said she believes that GFRM’s honesty in the whole ordeal—voluntarily hosting a town hall to calm the tension—could leave an impression on future residents.
“Remember, they postponed the zoning meeting to help people understand,” Sister Gorman told Scene, recalling GFRM’s then-needed approval by Munson’s Board of Directors. “They were trying to be good neighbors. And they were. They listened to people. I think they demonstrated their willingness to work with the community.”
Long said he’s up for suggestions and referrals. And, he told Scene, he harbors no ill will towards those in Munson that, through online threats or direct accusations, drove him and GFRM elsewhere.
“I don’t personalize it,” he told Scene. “They don’t know me. They don’t know my heart.”
‘Life is what you ‘bake’ of it’: Woman shares journey from homelessness to owning a bakery
Updated: 3:59 AM PST Feb 25, 2024
BUSINESS, IT’S THE STORY OF A NEW ORLEANS WOMAN WHOSE JOURNEY TO SUCCESS IS ONE YOU’LL REMEMBER WELL. WDSU REPORTER SHAY O’CONNOR JOINS US WITH THE STORY OF A NEW MID-CITY BAKERY SHOP OWNER WHO WAS ON THE STREETS JUST YEARS AGO. THE OWNER OF NOLITA EXPLAINS WHY LIFE IS WHAT YOU MAKE OF IT. BAKING IS A LOT LIKE LIFE. IT TAKES A LOT OF WORK AND THE RIGHT AMOUNT OF PATIENCE TO GET THE BEST OUTCOME. AND THERE’S NO ONE WAY TO TRULY DO IT RIGHT. IT JUST HAPPENED. I DIDN’T KNOW THAT I LOVED THIS PROCESS, BUT IT IS SO. IT IS SO METICULOUS AND PARTICULAR AND BEAUTIFUL. FOR MARTHA GILREATH, THE OWNER OF NOLITA BAKERY IN MID-CITY. IF YOU WANT A GOOD RESULT, SHE SAYS, YOU HAVE TO TRUST THE PROCESS. I LIKE MILLIONS AND MILLIONS OF PEOPLE. UM, AM AN ADDICT AND AN ALCOHOLIC, AND I LIVED WITH THAT FOR A VERY LONG TIME. I WAS SICK FOR, YOU KNOW, THE BETTER PART OF 16 YEARS. GILBERT’S ADDICTION TO HARD DRUGS AND ALCOHOL LED HER INTO HOMELESSNESS OFF AND ON FOR ABOUT TEN YEARS. AND I KNOW THAT AT SOME POINT YOU WERE HOMELESS. IF YOU COULD KIND OF TELL ME ABOUT, UM, HOW THAT HAPPENED, I THINK THAT IT DOESN’T HAPPEN OVERNIGHT. IT’S GRADUAL. YOU STOP PAYING BILLS, YOU STAY IN A HOTEL ROOMS, YOU SLEEP ON OTHER PEOPLE’S COUCH. THE LONGER I WAS IN ACTIVE ADDICTION, THE MORE WILLING I WAS TO ACCEPT THINGS. AT ONE POINT, GILREATH LIVED UNDERNEATH THE CRESCENT CITY CONNECTION BRIDGE. FOR THE MOST PART, IT’S JUST SURVIVAL. UM, IT IS VERY SCARY, BUT I THINK AT THE TIME YOU’RE NOT AWARE OF ANY OF THAT BECAUSE YOU’RE JUST TRYING TO SURVIVE. YOU’RE JUST TRYING TO GET RIGHT. JUST TRYING TO FIND MONEY, DO THE NEXT THING. BUT GILREATH SAYS GOD AND FATE WOULD INTERVENE IN 2019. UM, AND ONE OF MY FRIENDS I CALLED HER AND SHE PICKED UP THE PHONE AND I ASKED HER IF SHE WOULD COME GET ME AND SHE SAID, IF I GET IN THE CAR, WILL YOU STAY WHERE YOU ARE? AND I DIDN’T MOVE FROM THAT SPOT. SO I KNOW THAT YOU KNOW, SOMETHING BIGGER THAN ME WAS HELPING. AND SHE GOT ME AND I WENT BACK INTO TREATMENT. THIS TIME, RECOVERY WAS A LOT EASIER. MONTHS LATER, SHE APPLIED TO CULINARY SCHOOL AMID THE PANDEMIC. RIGHT HERE AT NOKI, LESS THAN A BLOCK AWAY FROM WHERE SHE ONCE LIVED. SHE GRADUATED VALEDICTORIAN OF HER CLASS. I OWE THEM A DEBT OF GRATITUDE. I WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO REPAY BECAUSE THE TRUTH IS, I HAVE NOT HAD DIRECTION IN MY LIFE SINCE I WAS PROBABLY 19 YEARS OLD, AND WHAT THEY ASKED OF ME PUSHED ME TO BE BETTER. UM, YOU KNOW, IT REQUIRED DISCIPLINE. IT REQUIRED REQUIRED FOLLOWING DIRECTION AND LISTENING TO OTHER PEOPLE, UM, PUSHING MYSELF THAT PUSH WAS THE LASTING ONE. I HAD TRIED TO GET SOBER BEFORE, AND I WAS NOT WILLING TO DO ALL OF THE THINGS THAT WERE ASKED OF ME, OR I DIDN’T THINK THAT I HAD TO, UH, THIS TIME, I THINK IT WAS A MATTER OF REALIZING THAT I WAS NOT GOING TO DIE THIS WAY. YEARS LATER, HER BAKERY IS THRIVING HERE ALONG ORLEANS AVENUE. AFTER ACQUIRING THE PROPERTY LAST JULY, SHE WAS ABLE TO OPEN UP HER SHOP IN JANUARY, SHE SIGNALING A FRESH START TO THE YEAR AND HER LIFE. IT ALL HAPPENED VERY QUICKLY. UM, MY SISTER, MY BIG SISTER DESIGNED THE SPACE. UM, I’VE HAD ONE BROTHER HELP ME WITH OFFICE WORK. ONE BROTHER. UH, DO WOODWORKING IN THIS SPACE. ANOTHER BROTHER HAS HELPED ME WITH BOOKS FOR THE CHILDREN’S LIBRARY. THIS. NOT TO MENTION AN AWESOME TEAM OF HELPERS AND CUSTOMERS THAT HELP MAKE WORK FUN OVER AT THE FRONT DOOR IN EVER GROWING COLLECTION OF ITEMS. DONATE BY COMMUNITY MEMBERS MARTHA GIVES THESE ITEMS TO THE UNHOUSED POPULATION ALMOST WEEKLY. IT’S GOOD TO SEE PEOPLE OUTSIDE. IT’S GOOD TO SEE THE KIDS TAKING BOOKS OUT OF THE LIBRARY. HER MESSAGE TO OTHERS WHO MAY FIND THEMSELVES IN A SITUATION SIMILAR TO HERS IS YOU HAVE TO ASK FOR HELP. WHETHER WHETHER YOUR HARD TIMES ARE SOMETHING EXTREME, LIKE NEEDING TO GET SOBER, HOMELESSNESS OR YOUR HARD TIME IS. I DON’T KNOW HOW TO FIND A BANKER TO FINANCE MY DREAM. YOU HAVE TO ASK FOR HELP. WE’RE NOT MEANT TO DO ANYTHING IN THIS WORLD ALONE. MORE THAN A HALF MILLION PEOPLE EXPERIENCED HOMELESSNESS ACROSS AMERICA JUST LAST YEAR HERE IN NEW ORLEANS, THE POPULATION HAS BEEN GROWING, BUT LEADERS ARE TRYING THEIR BEST TO OFFER THE SUPPORT AND RESOURCES NEEDED. I SIT DOWN WITH THE DIRECTOR OF HOMELESS SERVICES ON HIS PLAN. YOU’LL HEAR MORE ABOUT THIS TOMORROW RIGHT HERE ON WDSU. EXCELLENT STORY THERE. IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT MARTHA’S INSPIRATIONAL STORY, OR EVEN HOW YOU CAN DONATE ITEMS TO THE UNHOUSED POPULATION BY VISITING HER BAKERY
‘Life is what you ‘bake’ of it’: Woman shares journey from homelessness to owning a bakery
Updated: 3:59 AM PST Feb 25, 2024
From homelessness to running a business — it’s a story of a Louisiana woman whose journey you will remember.Our sister station WDSU has the story of a New Orleans bakery owner who was on the streets just years ago. The owner of Nolita, Martha Gilreath, explains why life is what you “bake” of it. Gilreath said she struggled with drugs and alcohol for “the better part of 16 years,” which led her to be living on the streets on and off for about 10 years. In 2019, she went into treatment for her addictions and saw success in the program. Amid her recovery, she applied to culinary school at the New Orleans Culinary & Hospitality Institute and graduated valedictorian.”I had tried to get sober before and I was not willing to do all of the things that were asked of me,” Gilreath said. “This time, I think it was a matter of realizing that I was not going to die this way.”Years later, her bakery is thriving in the Mid-City neighborhood of New Orleans. Last July, she acquired the property for her bakery and opened in January.”It all happened very quickly. My big sister designed the space, I’ve had one brother help me with office work, one brother do woodworking in the space, another brother has helped me with books for the children’s library,” she said.In addition to a children’s library in the space, there is also a collection of items like clothes and toiletries at the front of the story. These items are donated by community members and Gilreath gives them to the unhoused population in the area almost weekly.She has a message for others who may find themselves in a situation similar to hers:”You have to ask for help. Whether your hard times are something extreme — needing to get sober, homelessness or your hard time is ‘I don’t know how to find a banker to finance my dream,’ you have to ask for help,” she said. “We’re not meant to do anything in the world alone.”
NEW ORLEANS —
From homelessness to running a business — it’s a story of a Louisiana woman whose journey you will remember.
Our sister station WDSU has the story of a New Orleans bakery owner who was on the streets just years ago.
The owner of Nolita, Martha Gilreath, explains why life is what you “bake” of it.
Gilreath said she struggled with drugs and alcohol for “the better part of 16 years,” which led her to be living on the streets on and off for about 10 years.
In 2019, she went into treatment for her addictions and saw success in the program. Amid her recovery, she applied to culinary school at the New Orleans Culinary & Hospitality Institute and graduated valedictorian.
“I had tried to get sober before and I was not willing to do all of the things that were asked of me,” Gilreath said. “This time, I think it was a matter of realizing that I was not going to die this way.”
Years later, her bakery is thriving in the Mid-City neighborhood of New Orleans. Last July, she acquired the property for her bakery and opened in January.
“It all happened very quickly. My big sister designed the space, I’ve had one brother help me with office work, one brother do woodworking in the space, another brother has helped me with books for the children’s library,” she said.
In addition to a children’s library in the space, there is also a collection of items like clothes and toiletries at the front of the story. These items are donated by community members and Gilreath gives them to the unhoused population in the area almost weekly.
She has a message for others who may find themselves in a situation similar to hers:
“You have to ask for help. Whether your hard times are something extreme — needing to get sober, homelessness or your hard time is ‘I don’t know how to find a banker to finance my dream,’ you have to ask for help,” she said. “We’re not meant to do anything in the world alone.”
In Arizona, we witness how smuggling at the border is leading to increasingly dangerous high-speed pursuits. Then in California, we speak with the mayor of Los Angeles to learn how her administration is addressing the city’s homelessness epidemic. Watch these stories and more on “Eye on America” with host Michelle Miller.
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Superior Avenue, in Downtown Cleveland, has been host to the increasing visibility of the city’s homeless population post-pandemic.
Send out more outreach teams on the streets of Cleveland. Incentivize landlords to take Section 8 vouchers. Build more no-frills housing with affordable rates.
These are some of City Hall’s ideas to tackle the sweeping issue of homelessness across Cleveland, as announced in Mayor Justin Bibb’s presentation on the matter Friday morning.
Bibb, flanked by County Executive Chris Ronayne, along with shelter operators and housing-specialist advisors, framed what he’s calling the Home For Every Neighbor program as the city’s comprehensive offensive on what’s typically tackled by volunteers and private nonprofits.
Such an “aggressive, more focused and targeted approach” to handle what truly is a ground issue, Bibb said, aspires to reach big goals by mid-2025: to have rehoused at least 150 homeless residents.
“And in Cleveland, what excites me about this issue is that it’s a solvable problem. It’s a solvable problem,” he told press Friday morning. “We want to make sure we can nip this issue in the bud before it becomes more systemic.”
The $2 million, a portion of which will fund a study on how other cities have successfully tackled the issue, follows city and county investments in recent months.
In January, Cleveland allocated roughly a quarter million to bolster seasonal shelters. And in early February, the county announced a $3.9 million federal grant that will be funneled to a half dozen outreach organizations focused on ending youth homelessness.
But, as critics to top-down approaches say, the city will have to essentially pick and train the right boots on the ground to influence the unhoused into going through what can be strict, and intimidating, pathways to stable housing.
By studying what’s worked elsewhere—like in Houston, Dallas, Denver and St. Paul—the eventual Home For Every Neighbor plan, Bibb’s presentation revealed on Friday, echoes the county’s own five-year Strategic Plan before it: funding and sending out outreach teams to walk the streets, especially during blizzards, to direct the unhoused to shelters.
Then, it becomes a housing issue. Landlords would get perks to house those coming from temporary beds. Developers would be incentivized to build a minimum percentage—to be named—of non-market rate apartment units. A 25-unit “Safe Haven” home, without steep barriers to entry, would be built on city property to add to the overall stock.
Chris Knestrick, the executive director of the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless, said that the clear linkage between the county and city’s plan gives him hope that NEOCH’s lobbying, and occasional criticism, of the city’s staid approach to getting the unhoused housed is promising.
“And I think internally we’re pretty excited,” he told Scene on Friday. “I think it’s been years of asking government, the city and county step up, and we’re very happy.”
City Hall plans to hire a strategic consultant to grow its homelessness initiative by May 1. RFPs are due to the city by March 25.
The legislation proposes a pilot initiative offering $1,400 in direct cash aid for 36 months to emancipated minors and individuals under 30 experiencing homelessness. Housing, health, and other facets of the program will be studied.
“We can’t keep repeating the same policy approaches that haven’t ended the youth homelessness crisis. By providing direct cash assistance, we can address our housing crisis while respecting the autonomy and dignity of the folks receiving assistance,” Tlaib said in a press release. “This bill came directly from young people with lived experience. They helped craft the bill to ensure that it meets the real needs of our unhoused neighbors. In the richest country in the history of the world, it’s time to eradicate homelessness. The Youth Homelessness Guaranteed Income Pilot Program Act brings us closer to that goal.”
The proposed bill is endorsed by national and local organizations including Detroit Justice Center, Homeless Action Network of Detroit, Michigan Coalition Against Homelessness, MiSide Community Impact Network, and the Ruth Ellis Center, among many others. The legislation is also cosponsored by representatives Cori Bush, Sylvia Garcia, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Barbara Lee, and Jan Schakowsky.
Attendees of a town hall meeting in Munson Township on Tuesday had issues with the Geauga Faith Rescue Mission opening a women’s shelter down the road.
It was a few months after the Geauga Faith Rescue Mission opened up a small shelter for homeless men on Washington Street in Chardon when the thought to do the same for women occurred to Sister Margaret Gorman.
Gorman, a nun at the Sisters of Notre Dame, the charity that owns the building, was warmed by what seemed like a new community anchor. Amish donated help for the shelter’s trim and doors. Geauga Hardwood offered laminate flooring. Annie Payne, a Chardon-based interior decorator, designed the shelter’s bedrooms and lobby.
In fifteen months, twenty men were given beds to sleep in, meals to eat, links to jobs and permanent housing.
“During that time, we’ve seen churches, businesses, and many individuals also begin to support that program,” Gorman said. “And we see how extending that program to the women could be a real support here in Geauga County.”
The Sisters and GFRM found their next shelter on twenty acres of land around an abandoned preschool building off Auburn Road in Munson Township. Because the land the preschool is situated on is not zoned for shelter housing, both organizations needed approval by Munson Township’s Zoning Board to remake the building into a transitional shelter for roughly eight to ten single women.
Yet, the Sisters were thrown a curveball: many in Munson Township viewed the shelter as an incoming wave of societal degradation. The petition for a variance was delayed, the board decided, until this June.
“People in Munson and the surrounding areas pay BIG MONEY to keep their kids and families away from the dredges of society,” Munson resident Richard Spanish posted on Facebook. “And the Sisters of Notre Dame think it’s a good idea to fill an old barn with homeless, most likely drug-addicted hags???!!”
“You do not want the inner city coming to our county,” Sam Culper posted. “This will be like a cancer.”
The impetus to build what would be Geauga County’s second homeless shelter, was, in the mind of its backers, steeped in a mixture of good faith intentions and response to hard data. Because a great majority of the county comprises owner-occupied homes, few resources exist to accommodate those that can’t afford one, or experience sudden life changes.
Nathan Long, GFRM’s executive director and a pastor in Geauga County since 2014, made his case to Munson residents on Tuesday.
While the proof of an area’s increasing unsheltered population is more obvious in the center of a city, where shelters are often clustered in walkable areas, the evidence—and actual, verifiable count—of those living homeless is much harder to pin down in rural areas, where cars and wide open spaces are daily life’s status quo.
It’s just this lack of visibility that fueled Nathan Long, GFRM’s executive director, into pursuing a second shelter partnership with the Sisters of Notre Dame. (They lease the property.) After a decade as a pastor in Geauga County, Long had felt he’d come to know the church’s position as a community anchor. When the need to petition for a variance came up in January, Long was unflappable. He knew what was coming.
“That’s a concern that we hear over and over that we’re going to bring Cuyahoga County to Geauga County,” he told Scene. “But we have to meet needs here. We have people that need help right here.”
On Tuesday evening, Long, Sister Gorman, and a panel of faith leaders presented their case to hundreds of Munson residents at the Munson Town Hall on Auburn, down the road from where the women’s shelter could open later this year. There were so many cars parking in the Town Hall’s lot that visitors had to park two blocks north.
For roughly a half hour, Long, dressed in a pinstripe black suit and greying goatee, spoke almost mournfully to a packed house, pockmarking his plea with past anecdotes and verses from the Book of Matthew. Single women need a bed just as single men do, he argued. Those it would seek to service deserve the chance to rebound.
“Meeting Nathan Long saved my life,” Anthony Mira, 35, who stayed for six months at the men’s shelter on Washington, recalling days reciting Bible verses and doing daily chores. “I remember that day. Wow, it was cold out. I was struggling with withdrawals and drug problems. I figured, at least I have another week to figure it out.”
He added, “I look back at that now as one of the biggest blessings of my life.”
Many residents present had concerns about their family and their property. “I’m going to probably be putting a target on my back,” one woman said. “But this is my backyard, and I can’t have somebody come into my neighborhood who has connections to a variety of communities.”
When they got time to share their own thoughts, the townsfolk present seemed to forget about Mira’s story completely, focusing more so on the fact that, for what seemed like a majority of respondents, that the shelter would be down the road—and a little too close to home.
“This is our children. This is our streets! This is my family, this is my husband,” a Munson resident in her mid-forties cried out. “Right now, I am by myself raising two children. I’m going to probably be putting a target on my back.”
Long echoed his sentiment that people can change. “When they come to us, the high percentage of people that are committing crimes,” he responded, “once they enter into a structure, that reduces it.”
“No! No! No!” the crowd groaned.
“Oh my god,” one person shouted.
“No!” one woman cried. “It brings crime from the inner city!”
As the town hall came to a head, many in its audience seemed to rally around a common fear: We’ve been here, in our homes, for decades—and we don’t plan on giving that up, or allowing our homes’ values to depreciate. “We are here to live a peaceful and quiet life,” one woman in her fifties shouted.
“What about the safety of the students, like 800 to 1,000 feet away from the shelter,” one woman said. “When you have residents leaving the facility! Those who have access to weapons. They have access to drugs.”
“Every other resident in your town has that access,” Long rebutted.
“Yeah, but you’re talking about the residents being homeless—drug problems, mental health problems. And we all know all the school shootings usually revolve around mental health.”
Long pivoted. “I don’t think there is one incident throughout the United States of a female doing a mass shooting,” he said.
At that, the crowd went ballistic.
“I wish people could talk like fucking adults,” a 31-year-old resident living on Auburn told Scene. “This,” he said, “this is every town in America.”
VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. – City leaders signed off on a series of measures to address the growing population of people experiencing homelessness in DeLand.
At a meeting on Monday, the city council approved three ordinances that are expected to get the police more involved.
The measures will not allow camping on public property, storing personal items in shopping carts and bags, or sleeping or lying on public benches.
Savannah-Jane Griffin is the CEO of The Neighborhood Center of West Volusia, and she said the approach should help guide homeless people to the services that are available.
“We’ve had a lot of concerns of local citizens and businesses seeing individuals sleeping on the street,” Griffin said. “My hope is that it will be positive and that we can impact people’s lives.”
According to Griffin, about 400 homeless people are living in the city.
Meanwhile, the city has said the approach is needed for those refusing help.
“If we encounter a homeless individual, our police officers will ask them, ‘Hey do you have a place to stay,’” city spokesperson Chris Graham said.
Graham said the police will then offer to connect the person with a local shelter that the city is partnering with like the Neighborhood Center and First Step Shelter.
“We have our food pantry where we distribute food. We have shelter, we have showers and so I’m really hopeful that it will help direct people to the resources,” Griffin said.
Following Monday’s city council meeting, DeLand City Attorney Darren Elkind said that homeless residents of DeLand aren’t simply going to be arrested.
“This is not, ‘If you’re homeless in DeLand, we’re (going to) arrest you and take you to jail.’ That’s not what’s going on…” Elkind said. “If there’s a place for me to go, and you’ll take me there, and it doesn’t cost me anything, but I just don’t (want to) go, then we can arrest those folks.”
However, one DeLand resident spoke out against the new policies during the meeting.
“The police department has become the frontline of the mental health system, and they should not be,” the resident said.
For details on The Neighborhood Center and how to donate, click here.
Rent prices are coming down in some areas, but not at the pace needed to relieve tenants struggling to pay rent.
Half of renters in the U.S. spent more than 30% of their income in 2022 on rent and utilities, according to the new America’s Rental Housing report by the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University.
The report considers those who spend 30% or more of their income on housing “rent burdened” or “cost burdened,” which means those high costs may make it difficult for them to meet other essential expenses.
The share of cost-burdened renters increased by 3.2 percentage points from 2019 to 2022.
“Places in the market that need the most relief are at the very low end, and it’s hard to reach those people through market rate supply alone,” said Whitney Airgood-Obrycki, lead author and senior research associate focused on affordable housing at the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University.
While cost burden has increased across income levels, the consequences are much higher for low-income households, said Airgood-Obrycki.
The average residual income, or the amount of money available after paying for rent and utilities to cover other needs, has significantly dropped for lower earners, the study found.
“It’s a really important part of the conversation because … it makes it more humanizing how big this problem is,” Airgood-Obrycki said.
Renter households with annual incomes below $30,000 had a record-low median residual income of $310 a month in 2022, the Harvard study found. For perspective, a single-person household in even the most affordable counties need about $2,000 a month for non-housing needs, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
“The underlying problem is we have a very unaffordable country right now,” she said. “If you go through any sort of life crisis, you’re on the brink of homelessness.”
Most young adults have either stayed at home with their parents or are moving back in because of the cost of living.
Historically, what kept young adults living at home was the lack of a job; today, it’s the lack of affordable housing, according to Susan M. Wachter, a professor of real estate and finance at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
The share of young adults between the ages of 18 and 29 who live at home with parents is almost at 50%, according to a study Wachter co-authored.
That is a result of young adults competing with potential homebuyers, who themselves are being priced out of the single-family housing market.
“They’re competing in a way that they haven’t before,” she said. “The home mortgage market is indirectly causing a huge spillover demand into the rental market, making the rental market not affordable.”
LOS ANGELES — A family of five adults and 13 children, including several toddlers, who had been living on the streets of Los Angeles since September have a safe place to stay as a local nonprofit works to find them housing.
The family members, who are from Honduras, lived in a small tent near MacArthur Park in Westlake. They fled the country due to violence five years ago, and ended up in Austin, Texas, but came to L.A. after losing their housing due to issues with their work permits.
“One hundred times better here, to be honest,” said Ana Madrid . “Here we have the opportunity to be better to get a permit and work.”
For months, the husband and wife and their two children had been on the streets along with three adult cousins, and 11 other children, including an 8-month-old baby.
Madrid said the sidewalk is where they spent Christmas, New Year’s Eve and days in the rain.
“To use the restroom, if we didn’t have money, we couldn’t use it, and we had to beg people to let us use it,” said Madrid. “It’s a very sad situation.”
Her husband, Jorge Luis Garcia, said his children hadn’t been able to go to school because other children have attacked him outside.
Madrid said the family had spoken with Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, but because the family is so large, it was difficult placing them somewhere.
However, good news came Thursday afternoon.
The Dream Center said it became aware of the family’s situation and said it would be able to place them in a shelter.
“Thank God this will now pass,” said Madrid.
The tent on Alvardo Street was taken down Friday as the family was relocated.
The Dream Center, a resource center focused on providing support to those affected by homelessness, is helping the family with housing, daycare, jobs and immigration paperwork.
“The Dream Center has always tried to react swiftly to provide solutions in every situation especially where children live on the streets,” the organization said in a statement. “It’s always a joyful moment when you can provide a safe place for families to take a deep breath from life’s struggles and to help them rebuild.”
Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez also issued a statement saying, “Our office was informed of this family on Wednesday and immediately made contact to assess the situation and conduct an intake. We are actively working with the family, and a network of partner agencies, to urgently secure resources and housing for them.”
Garcia was very excited when ABC7 informed him of the development. He said he wanted to thank everyone that has helped his family, adding that he just wants a better place for his children.
“What I want is for them is to be good, to be someone, to study, have a better life and be in a better situation,” he said.
San Mateo County officials are hoping to add an unusual tactic to their multi-pronged approach to tackling the homelessness crisis: making it a crime to refuse to accept available, temporary housing.
In a unanimous vote this week, county supervisors moved forward with the proposal — despite significant opposition from civil rights groups and some homeless advocates — which would allow authorities to issue a misdemeanor violation to anyone living in a homeless encampment who refuses to move into available, temporary housing after a health evaluation and at least two warnings.
“One of the toughest challenges we face is addressing and assisting those in encampments who tend to decline services or refuse services,” Supervisor Dave Pine said at Tuesday’s board meeting. “The hope is it will be a tool to help move individuals into shelter.”
Opponents worry it will criminalize homelessness.
But Pine, along with board President Warren Slocum, co-sponsor of the ordinance, said the measure is the latest in a host of comprehensive solutions — including a street medicine team and the conversion of hotels to temporary housing — aimed at reducing homelessness in San Mateo County.
“Forty homeless people die in San Mateo county every year. … That’s just not acceptable,” Slocum said. This proposal “isn’t about criminalizing people, it’s about helping those who really may not be able to help themselves. … We really do have the capacity to house people and get people the help they need.”
Officials said the county has up to 30 unused shelter beds available every night, though that falls short of the estimated 44 people living in homeless encampments across unincorporated San Mateo County. Many more encampments are located in the county’s 20 cities, including Daly City and Redwood City, but this ordinance would apply only in unincorporated areas.
After San Mateo made investments to respond to the homelessness crisis in the last two years, the number of people on the streets significantly dipped, with more accessing shelter facilities, according to County Executive Officer Mike Callagy.
“We’re down now to the hard-to-reach population, the population that doesn’t want to come in,” Callagy said.
If the proposal reaches final approval next week, someone in an encampment who refuses an offer for an available bed will have 72 hours to change their mind, receiving two written warnings. After that, authorities could issue a misdemeanor citation, which Callagy said would be handled through diversion programs, like mental health court.
But no one would be cited if county officials don’t have a bed available, Callagy said. He stressed that the goal is not to issue tickets or route people into the criminal justice system but to get services and housing to those in need.
“We believe that once offered those options, most people will avail themselves to the services,” Callagy said. He hopes the citations are rarely issued but are used as a deterrent.
“At the end of the day, it’s about saving lives,” said David Canepa, another county supervisor. “I don’t buy into the narrative that we should do nothing.”
County officials touting the proposal said it was based on a Houston ordinance, adopted in 2017, that made homeless encampments on public property illegal and tried to funnel people into temporary housing. While the program has been highlighted for its success at removing encampments and helping people get off the streets, the Houston Chronicle found that tickets and arrests for violating the provision — given only after a warning and an offer of housing — continue to increase.
In Los Angeles, city officials have been making efforts to address growing encampments by encouraging people to accept temporary shelter and enforcing laws that forbid blocking sidewalks or other specific places.
In San Mateo County, the proposed ordinance has drawn critics, including the American Civil Liberties Union, religious leaders and the San Mateo County Private Defender Program, which represents indigent defendants. Critics say they worry about the unintended consequences of such a law.
“Policing is no way to get people into treatment,” said William Freeman, senior council of ACLU of Northern California, decrying the “seriously flawed ordinance.”
While he praised the county for its recent work on homelessness, he said that “anti-camping ordinances invite over-policing and abuse.”
Lauren P. McCombs, an Episcopal deacon and a leader for Faith in Action Bay Area, called the criminalization of homelessness “inhumane treatment of our unhoused neighbors.”
“Our county needs to solve this crisis by ensuring safe and affordable housing options that are available to all residents, with strong incentives and not threats of incarceration,” McCombs said.
County officials on Tuesday took into account some concerns from the public, amending the ordinance to include a health evaluation before warnings are issued and a review process scheduled to launch after a few months.
Supervisor Noelia Corzo said her half-brother is homeless in San Mateo County, so she knows first-hand how complex the issue is. She said she is proud of the county for “doing something different.”
“I don’t take this lightly,” she said, “but not doing anything is not working either.”
A growing number of Americans are ending up homeless as soaring rents in recent years squeeze their budgets.
According to a Jan. 25 report from Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, roughly 653,000 people reported experiencing homelessness in January of 2023, up roughly 12% from the same time a year prior and 48% from 2015. That marks the largest single-year increase in the country’s unhoused population on record, Harvard researchers said.
Homelessness, long a problem in states such as California and Washington, has also increased in historically more affordable parts of the U.S.. Arizona, Ohio, Tennessee and Texas have seen the largest growths in their unsheltered populations due to rising local housing costs.
That alarming jump in people struggling to keep a roof over their head came amid blistering inflation in 2021 and 2022 and as surging rental prices across the U.S. outpaced worker wage gains. Although a range of factors can cause homelessness, high rents and the expiration of pandemic relief last year contributed to the spike in housing insecurity, the researchers found.
“In the first years of the pandemic, renter protections, income supports and housing assistance helped stave off a considerable rise in homelessness. However, many of these protections ended in 2022, at a time when rents were rising rapidly and increasing numbers of migrants were prohibited from working. As a result, the number of people experiencing homelessness jumped by nearly 71,000 in just one year,” according to the report.
Rent in the U.S. has steadily climbed since 2001. In analyzing Census and real estate data, the Harvard researchers found that half of all U.S. households across income levels spent between 30% and 50% of their monthly pay on housing in 2022, defining them as “cost-burdened.” Some 12 million tenants were severely cost-burdened that year, meaning they spent more than half their monthly pay on rent and utilities, up 14% from pre-pandemic levels.
People earning between $45,000 and $74,999 per year took the biggest hit from rising rents — on average, 41% of their paycheck went toward rent and utilities, the Joint Center for Housing Studies said.
Tenants should generally allocate no more than 30% of their income toward rent, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Although the rental market is showing signs of cooling, the median rent in the U.S. was $1,964 in December 2023, up 23% from before the pandemic, according to online housing marketplace Rent. By comparison, inflation-adjusted weekly earnings for the median worker rose 1.7% between 2019 and 2023, government data shows.
“Rapidly rising rents, combined with wage losses in the early stages of the pandemic, have underscored the inadequacy of the existing housing safety net, especially in times of crisis,” the Harvard report stated.
Elizabeth Napolitano is a freelance reporter at CBS MoneyWatch, where she covers business and technology news. She also writes for CoinDesk. Before joining CBS, she interned at NBC News’ BizTech Unit and worked on The Associated Press’ web scraping team.
LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles County’s annual count of homeless residents began Tuesday night — a crucial part of the region’s efforts to confront the crisis of tens of thousands of people living on the streets.
Up to 6,000 volunteers with the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority fanned out for the effort’s main component, the unsheltered street tally.
The so-called “point-in-time” count will take place over three days and aims to estimate how many people are unhoused and what services they may require, such as mental health or drug addiction treatment.
LA County’s undertaking is the largest among similar tallies in major cities nationwide. The tally, which also makes use of demographic surveys and shelter counts, is mandated by the federal government for cities to receive certain kinds of funding.
The count this year comes amid increasing public outrage over the perceived failure — despite costly efforts — to reduce the surging population of people living in cars, tents and makeshift street shelters.
The 2023 effort reported more than 75,500 people were homeless on any given night in LA County, a 9% rise from a year earlier. About 46,200 were within the city of Los Angeles, where public frustration has grown as tents have proliferated on sidewalks and in parks and other locations.
Since 2015, homelessness has increased by 70% in the county and 80% in the city.
Karen Bass, the mayor of Los Angeles, joined city and county officials to kick off the count Tuesday night in the North Hollywood neighborhood of LA’s San Fernando Valley.
The count “is an important tool to confront the homelessness crisis,” Bass said in a statement. “Homelessness is an emergency, and it will take all of us working together to confront this emergency.”
On her first day in office in Dec. 2022, Bass declared a state of emergency on homelessness. One year into her term, the mayor, a Democrat, announced that over 21,000 unhoused people were moved into leased hotels or other temporary shelter during 2023, a 28% increase from the prior year. Dozens of drug-plagued street encampments were cleared, and housing projects are in the pipeline, she said last month.
City Hall, the City Council and the LA County Board of Supervisors have said they intend to work together to tackle the crisis. Progress hasn’t always been apparent despite billions spent on programs to curb homelessness.
Homelessness remains hugely visible throughout California with people living in tents and cars and sleeping outdoors on sidewalks and under highway overpasses.
The results of the LA County homeless count are expected to be released in late spring or early summer.
A court order limiting San Francisco’s ability to clear street encampments of people who have nowhere else to go will remain in effect while litigation continues, a federal appellate court ruled Thursday.
The ruling by a three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals marked a substantial win for the Coalition on Homelessness, a progressive advocacy organization that secured a preliminary injunction by challenging San Francisco’s policies for clearing encampments as fundamentally unjust and illegal under past court decisions protecting the rights of homeless people to sleep in public in certain situations.
Thursday’s ruling is the latest decision in a sprawling legal debate over homelessness in the American West and how local jurisdictions may legally address it. The debate has pitted progressive activists and advocacy groups against liberal leaders such as San Francisco Mayor London Breed and Gov. Gavin Newsom, who have been frustrated along with many of their constituents by the spread of encampments in downtown areas and other neighborhoods since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In its decision Thursday, the 9th Circuit panel declined to consider several arguments in favor of stricter enforcement measures that San Francisco and a coalition of other California cities had raised in recent filings, saying they hadn’t been properly raised or substantiated with facts in the lower district court. The judges did acknowledge, however, that the injunction only applies to “involuntarily homeless” people, or those who have not been offered alternative housing or shelter by the city, and ordered the lower court to clarify that point.
In recent months, San Francisco has tried to justify its continued operations to clear encampments, saying they are inhabited by people who have been offered shelter or housing.
The appellate judges also ordered the lower court to specify that the injunction prohibits the city from “threatening to enforce” its enjoined laws, but does not bar the mere presence of police officers near encampments.
John Do, a senior attorney for the ACLU of Northern California representing the coalition, said Thursday’s order should help ensure that San Francisco continues ramping up resources and offering shelter and housing to homeless people, rather than simply criminalizing poverty.
“It’s a resounding win,” he said.
Jen Kwart, a spokeswoman for San Francisco City Atty. David Chiu, said they appreciated that the appellate court “confirmed again and further clarified that the injunction only applies to people who are involuntarily homeless, not those who have refused an offer of shelter.”
However, Kwart said their office was “disappointed” by the court’s decision not to consider arguments posed by the city in the appellate process, including around the scope of its restrictions — which she said left critical legal questions about solving homelessness unanswered.
“Cities cannot reasonably be expected to solve homelessness while operating under this uncertainty,” Kwart said. “At some point, a court will need to clarify the law in this area, and it is disappointing that in the midst of an intense homelessness crisis, we all must continue to wait for that clarification.”
Breed’s office declined to comment on the pending litigation, but released figures Thursday claiming a 22% increase in the number of people connected to shelter or housing last year, and that 64% of people who city personnel interacted with at encampments “declined offers of shelter or reported already having shelter or housing.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom, in a statement, said the ruling would “only create further delays and confusion as we work to address homelessness.”
Liberal judges have argued that the constitution — and specifically the 8th Amendment’s provisions against cruel and unusual punishment and excessive fines — protects homeless people’s right to sleep in certain public spaces, with certain protective gear, when they have no where else to go. Conservative judges have rejected that idea, arguing that there is a long legal tradition of local jurisdictions enforcing “anti-vagrancy” laws.
Circuit Judge Lucy H. Koh, who wrote the court’s opinion Thursday, was joined by Circuit Judge Roopali H. Desai; both were appointed by President Biden. Circuit Judge Patrick J. Bumatay, who was appointed by President Trump, dissented.
Koh wrote that the litigation “raises difficult and important legal questions with real stakes for San Francisco and the thousands of unhoused individuals who call San Francisco home.” But, Koh added, the appellate court could not delve into city arguments about geographic and time limits on encampment restrictions that were never made in the lower court.
Moving forward, the lower court should consider whether the city’s rules “leave involuntarily homeless individuals with a realistically available place to go,” Koh wrote.
Koh wrote that her panel was bound by past 9th Circuit precedent on the 8th Amendment in such matters, but noted the Supreme Court may soon be reviewing the existing precedent.
Bumatay, in his dissent, wrote that the 9th Circuit has repeatedly misinterpreted the protections of the 8th Amendment as it relates to homeless encampments, endangering public safety in the process.
It “cannot be cruel and unusual to prohibit homeless persons from sleeping, camping, and lodging wherever they want, whenever they want,” Bumatay wrote. “While they are entitled to the utmost respect and compassion, homeless persons are not immune from our laws.”
Newsom has called on the conservative-leaning Supreme Court to take up the Grants Pass case and rule in favor of local municipalities trying to rein in public encampments. He said Thursday’s ruling reinforced the need for such intervention.
Do, the coalition’s attorney, called Newsom’s position “deeply, deeply troubling.”
“It is incredibly unfortunate and shameful for our policy leaders to scapegoat unhoused people for their own policy failures,” Do said. “Homelessness didn’t come out of the ether. It’s a direct result of the lack of investment in affordable housing.”
HUDSON, Fla. — The face of homelessness is constantly changing and some shelters are now seeing a growing senior population. A recent study by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development says those 50 and older are the fastest growing age group experiencing homelessness and that those 55 and older make up nearly 20% of the sheltered homeless.
What You Need To Know
A study shows people 50 and older are the fastest growing age group experiencing homelessness and that those 55 and older make up nearly 20% of the sheltered homeless in the U.S.
Shelters in Florida are noticing their residents are trending towards seniors
David Madore experienced homeless after his partner died and he could no longer pay the bills
These statistics are showing up at shelters in Tampa Bay, as they continue to see a growing number of seniors seeking for help.
At the R.O.P.E Center in Hudson, 65-year-old David Madore has had a rough life in recent years. He shared an apartment with a partner who died suddenly late last year.
Madore said that he took nearly full-time care of his partner and didn’t have a full-time job. After his partner’s death, he says the bills started to pile up and he could no longer afford his apartment and eventually ended up sleeping on the streets.
“I never want to be in that situation again. I was scared,” Madore said.
He says one night he was attacked and robbed of his phone. After that encounter, he says he sought out help and eventually ended up at the R.O.P.E. Center.
“If I didn’t have this place, I don’t know what I would do. I’d still be out there,” Madore said.
Madore was helped by Gregory Hicks, who is a Clinical Social Worker at the R.O.P.E Center. He has worked with the homeless for years. He said that Madore’s story is becoming all too common at the center.
“Probably 1 of every 5 to 8 of the people who come to our gate is a senior who can no longer afford where they are living,” he said. “They are not coming with backgrounds of substance abuse or anything like that, but a lot of it is coming from losing their apartments and houses because of rising rents.”
Hicks says that he works to find seniors to buddy up and share the cost of an apartment, and that’s exactly what Madore is planning to do next. He has come a long way. He says he almost gave up on living and hopes for a better future.
“I am at ease,” Madore said. “Everybody there is great. I get along with everybody in there and we help each other if we can.”
A string of tents and makeshift shelters sat for years west of the 110 Freeway, across the street from an elementary school in the Vermont Vista neighborhood.
Then, one day in February, workers cleared the encampment, which stretched about four blocks from Colden Avenue to Century Boulevard, movingdozens of people indoors.
Today, a single tent remains, along with about five people living in a pedestrian tunnel under the freeway.
Longtime residents said the neighborhood is quiet again, and the sidewalks are clean.
“It was an ugly sight, but now things are better,” said Andrea Ceron, 59. “We still deal with other problems, like police chases and prostitution.”
Intake worker Maria Ajtun, right, takes down information from a client for the Emergency Rental Assistance Program at All Peoples Community Center in Los Angeles.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
South L.A. has been a rare bright spot amid the city’s homelessness crisis.
While homelessness increased in other parts of the city, South L.A. had 10% fewer unhoused people than the previous year, according to the annual point-in-time count conducted last January.
Officials and service providers attributed the drop to the hard work they have put in for years coming to fruition, with the help of funding infusions, in an area where most residents are Latino or Black and many live below the poverty line.
Mayor Karen Bass’ signature homelessness initiative, Inside Safe, has also made a dent, with more encampment cleanups in South L.A. — including the one in Vermont Vista — than in any other part of the city.
While Inside Safe has cleared long-standing encampments, most who lived in them are still in temporary housing or are back on the street. The problem remains vast, with nearly 13,000 unhoused people in South L.A., according to the point-in-time count.
Bass took office in December 2022, so the progress made by Inside Safe isn’t reflected in the 10% drop from the point-in-time count. But her supporters say the program, as well as her sense of urgency on homelessness, is setting up South L.A. for more success.
Homelessness outreach workers from 2nd Call visit Olga V. Romero, who lives in her car with her 23-year-old son.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
City Councilmember Curren Price, who represents large parts of South L.A., credited the drop in homelessness to increased collaboration among elected officials and a willingness to try different strategies. Bass, he said, has “set a very positive and inclusive tone” and worked well with county supervisors.
But backsliding is all too easy, he warned.
“That 10% is a nice number to throw around, but we know it could go back up easily, and so we can’t get complacent,” he said. “We know we have to keep identifying the financial resources, because these properties need to be built and services need to be provided, and if that stops, then all of our efforts are going to be for nothing.”
Nearly 70% of South L.A. residents are renters, and the median household income is $47,692, compared with more than $76,000 citywide.
Amid rising rents, inflation and the end of pandemic renter protections, more people are at risk of becoming homeless as eviction cases work their way through the courts.
“A lot of folks are one check away from being in real trouble,” Price said. “They can’t make the car payment, they can’t pay their rent or house payment, kids need clothes, food, medicine, etc. So it’s a very delicate situation that we’re in.”
Karen McGee of 2nd Call checks in with a woman sleeping outside a McDonald’s in South Los Angeles.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
Karen McGee, a homelessness outreach worker with the South L.A. nonprofit 2nd Call, said many of the people she helps are families or senior citizens who couldn’t keep up with rising rents. Most are desperate to get off the streets.
“They want any help they can get,” she said.
In February, in addition to Vermont Vista, Inside Safe cleared a large encampment at 88th Street and Western Avenue, where people lived near a vacant lot surrounded by a chain-link fence. Since then, no tents have reappeared at the site.
Many of the large encampments in South L.A. targeted by Inside Safe were along the 110 Freeway’s underpasses and overpasses. A few tents have returned, but as of December, most areas remained clear.
“We had to rely on the police,” said Mary Action, 86, who lives near the former Vermont Vista encampment. “It was a real mess. There was drug use, fighting and a shooting.”
Chontae Peters, right, who is living in her car, reacts as Teanna Mosqueda, an ambassador with 2nd Call, provides her with information on how to get help.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
Valentin Gonzalez, another Vermont Vista resident, said that for two weeks, a homeless man lived up in a tree outside his home.
“I ended up cutting the branches off to get him to leave,” said Gonzalez, 61. “It was really bad here.”
Getting people off the streets is an arduous and time-consuming process. Sometimes, outreach workers speak with unhoused people frequently to earn their trust so they will accept help.
“We go to the same areas, whether the encampments are there or not,” McGee said. “Sometimes we show up, and people have either moved or got the help they needed.”
The South L.A. planning area, as defined by the point-in-time count and other homelessness measures, includes not only neighborhoods like Crenshaw and Watts but cities such as Compton, Lynwood and Paramount.
The area is riddled with social problems that include overcrowded housing, gang violence, drug use and inadequate access to healthcare, some of it with roots in discriminatory practices such as redlining. Service providers have historically had a hard time getting funding.
“You have organizations in the Westside and Hollywood that have been around for decades and have strong boards and these private funding networks that support them as well,” said Katie Hill, deputy director of HOPICS, the lead homeless services agency in the area. “We hardly have any private fundraising at all to help us with this issue, because the community doesn’t have money.”
But the $1.2-billion city bond measure Proposition HHH and the quarter-percent county sales tax Measure H have brought an infusion of cash.
The additional funding helped boost HOPICS’ annual budget to $105 million. About 15% of the money goes to subcontractors who provide homeless services, and at least 30% goes to financial assistance for low-income families.
HOPICS has expanded its payroll to more than 430 employees and increased its outreach teams, which provide services that include housing and street medicine, from four members to 22.
Juana Romero, who works on a HOPICS outreach team, attributes the decrease in homelessness to this street-level expansion, as well as to programs like Inside Safe.
“It’s all very helpful,” she said. “The resources are there to pull people off the streets and bring them inside.”
Hundreds of new public housing units have been built, or are in the process of being built, in South L.A. And residents are being prioritized for permanent housing over people from outside the area, said Veronica Lewis, director of HOPICS.
Since 2015, the number of emergency shelters in the South L.A. area has increased from 60 to 205, and permanent supportive housing projects went from 20 to 71, according to city records.
City Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson, whose district includes portions of South L.A., said that when the Measure H money arrived, nonprofits that had been working on homelessness in the area were ready to step up.
“When there’s availability of resources, you have people who know what to do with those resources and are prepared to carry it out,” he said.
Harris-Dawson added that residents of South L.A. are more supportive of housing developments than those from other parts of L.A. County.
“And then I think our social service agencies are pretty strong and are doing a really good job of keeping track of folks that are on the street, so that when units do become available, they can find them and get them in,” he said.
Programs that prevent people from falling into homelessness have also been vital in South L.A.
Children play at the All Peoples Community Center, which provides various services for South Los Angeles residents such as rental assistance, financial coaching and tax preparation. It is one of several in South L.A. that has played a key role in reducing homelessness.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
At All Peoples Community Center in Historic South-Central, about 90% of clients are in need of emergency rental assistance, said Julio Ramos, director of the Family Resource Center, one of 16 centers that help low-income families, many of whom are on the verge of homelessness. The centers, which are run by nonprofits and receive city funding, also provide financial education and other services.
“We’re getting clients that are 25 months behind on rent,” Ramos said. “Utilities as well, especially when they’re included with the rent.”
Last year, the City Council approved funding for four additional centers.
Neery Montes, 40, who has two sons, was in a panic when she arrived at the All Peoples center last winter. She had lost her job at a bakery and was seven months behind on rent and utilities, owing about $9,600 for a small one-bedroom in South Los Angeles.
Nerry Montes recounts being threatened with eviction while seven months pregnant to a counselor at All Peoples Community Center.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
Her new landlord was threatening to evict her and had raised her rent, despite the pandemic-related rental freeze and eviction moratoriums.
“It was a very difficult time for me,” she said. “I was dealing with anxiety and depression.”
Montes said she worried about ending up homeless, as she had been before, when she fled from her husband.
Case manager Jessica Sanabria-Rosales signed up Montes for several food programs as well as emergency rental assistance. Montes was able to stay in her apartment and pay off 83% of the past rent. The center created a payment plan for the balance.
With more outreach workers on the streets, the labor-intensive work of earning a homeless person’s trust continues.
As a HOPICS team stopped at the site of the former encampment in Vermont Vista, LeAndre Hewitt rode up on his bicycle.
Outreach Services coordinator Mychal Johnson had placed Hewitt, 34, in shelters several times. Each time, Hewitt, who has struggled with drug and mental health issues, was kicked out, Johnson said.
This time, in a first, Hewitt was initiating the conversation and requesting shelter.
The HOPICS workers found a spot for Hewitt at Safe Landing, an interim housing facility with beds and 24/7 clinical care that opened about a year ago.
The group discussed what to do with Hewitt’s bicycle, which didn’t fit in the van.
Finally, Hewitt threw his bike on the curb and hopped in the van.
Landlords across the country have been empowered to act as a kind of police force in the name of crime prevention for decades. How? Through local “nuisance property” laws and “crime-free housing” programs that require them to evict tenants for vaguely defined “criminal activities.”
Such laws target low-income and minority renters for eviction and violate their civil rights. That’s bad enough. But they also fail to reduce crime.
Cities across the country have been implementing these policies for about 30 years, building on the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988, which stepped up evictions in federally subsidized housing. By 2019, about 2,000 American cities had a crime-free housing program, and 37 of the 40 largest U.S. cities had a nuisance property ordinance.
Even as these policies spread, their efficacy was in doubt. I led a recent analysis of California’s crime-free housing policies that found they had no effect on crime. Other researchers have found that by driving people into desperation and homelessness, nuisance property ordinances may actually increase property crime.
Crime-free housing policies backfire partly because they treat 911 calls as an indicator of criminal activity. This creates a perverse incentive: For fear of being evicted, tenants don’t call authorities when they need them.
My study of California found that city blocks with apartments certified as crime-free saw 21% more evictions than blocks without such housing. Other researchers have found that nuisance property ordinances increase eviction filing rates by 16%. In the six months after the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development instituted a “One Strike and You’re Out” policy on criminal activity in 1996, reported evictions from public housing surged 40%.
Evictions are deeply harmful in many ways. People who are evicted struggle to find housing again, and tenants removed from public housing are prohibited from receiving housing assistance. That can lead to more homelessness and desperation. Evictions also cause disproportionate housing insecurity for children, more unemployment, additional use of emergency room resources, and accidental drug and alcohol deaths.
Legal experts have argued persuasively that punishing people with eviction instead of through criminal justice procedures also denies them due process. These policies don’t require an arrest or conviction or even an indication of crime anywhere near the property. They don’t even require a crime.
People have been evicted under crime-free housing policies over kids playing basketball or jumping on a trampoline and because of complaints about barbecues. Tenants can even face severe consequences for the behavior of their guests. One federal court case concerns an Illinois city trying to evict a family because of a burglary committed by a friend of their teenage son who had slept on their couch.
The policies tend to be selectively enforced, with low-income, multifamily properties bearing the brunt. This has led the Department of Justice to take action against cities for violations of the Fair Housing Act and other federal laws. In 2022, the San Bernardino County city of Hesperia signed a consent decree with the federal government related to selective application of its crime-free housing program. Lawsuits have been filed on similar grounds against cities in Washington, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Minnesota.
What is the point of these harmful policies if they aren’t reducing crime? Public officials have suggested their real goal is segregation.
A Hesperia official acknowledged that the purpose of the city’s crime-free housing program was to remove what he described as “those kind of people” and “improve our demographic.” The mayor of Bedford, Ohio, said the city’s nuisance property ordinance was about taking “pride in middle-class values” and curtailing “urban immigration.” The analysis I led found that cities with crime-free housing programs had larger Black populations and that the affected apartments were on lower-income blocks with larger Black and Latino populations.
HUD has issued guidance to cities on how these policies may violate the Fair Housing Act by disproportionately evicting women, victims of crime and people with disabilities. But more needs to be done.
Following California’s lead, other states should limit evictions under these policies without an arrest or conviction or based on the behavior of nonresidents. Cities should also be required to report the number of evictions resulting from crime-free housing policies and nuisance ordinances. Similar federal policies also need reconsideration, including the one-strike policy for public housing and the rules that prevent evicted tenants from obtaining future housing assistance.
These policies and the evictions they cause are at best an ineffective means of preventing crime. At worst, they’re a harmful form of discrimination that leads to more crime and homelessness. Ending them could make all our communities safer.
Max Griswold is a policy researcher at the Rand Corp.
Homelessness in America reached a new record earlier this year partly due to a “sharp rise” in the number of people who became homeless for the first time, federal officials said Friday.
More than 650,000 people experienced homelessness on a single night in January, a 12% jump from 2022, the report from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development found. That’s the highest number since the country began using the yearly point-in-time survey in 2007 to count the homeless population.
Thousands of Americans joined the ranks of the unhoused population in the last year due to the end of pandemic programs such as the eviction moratorium as well as jumps in rental costs, the report found. The end of COVID-era aid such as the expanded Child Tax Credit, stimulus checks and other supports has also led to a spike in poverty last year, an issue that was particularly acute with children, among whom the poverty rate doubled.
“Homelessness is solvable and should not exist in the United States,” said Secretary Marcia L. Fudge in a statement. “This data underscores the urgent need for support for proven solutions and strategies that help people quickly exit homelessness and that prevent homelessness in the first place.”
The number of people who became newly homeless between the federal fiscal years 2021 to 2022 jumped 25%, HUD noted in the report. The fiscal 2022 year ended in September 2022.
Homelessness in America
The U.S. had been making steady progress until recent years in reducing the homeless population as the government focused particularly on increasing investments to get veterans into housing. The number of homeless people dropped from about 637,000 in 2010 to about 554,000 in 2017.
But the post-pandemic years have delivered a financial double-whammy that has hit vulnerable Americans particularly hard. For one, government supports that helped people weather the economic turmoil of the pandemic drew to an end, cutting off funds and protections.
Secondly, rents have surged, pushing cost burdens for renters to their highest recorded level, according to the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies. Almost 9 in 10 low-income households with incomes below $15,000 spent more than 30% of their income on housing in 2021, the analysis found.
Generally, housing is considered unaffordable if it edges higher than one-third of a household’s income.
How many are homeless in America?
About 653,000 people were experiencing homelessness during the January snapshot.
Within the overall rise, homelessness among individuals rose by nearly 11%, among veterans by 7.4% and among families with children by 15.5%.
People who identify as Black make up just 13% of the U.S. population, but comprised 37% of all people experiencing homelessness. And more than a quarter of adults experiencing homelessness were over age 54.
Below are the 5 states with the biggest increase in their unhoused population over the last year:
New York: 29,022 rise in people experiencing homelessness, or a 39.1% increase
Aimee Picchi is the associate managing editor for CBS MoneyWatch, where she covers business and personal finance. She previously worked at Bloomberg News and has written for national news outlets including USA Today and Consumer Reports.
WASHINGTON, December 11, 2023 (Newswire.com)
– Advanced Advocacy once again partnered with Central Union Mission to host its seventh annual Charity Suit Drive, a community initiative aimed at providing professional attire to individuals in need. This year, the effort collected over 240 suits and other lightly used men’s business apparel including shirts, pants, ties, and shoes. ZIPS Dry Cleaners also played an integral role in the success of this suit drive by providing complimentary dry cleaning services for all donated items.
“We are excited to once again partner with Central Union Mission to host this successful effort. Over the past seven years, we have provided nearly 1,500 men’s business suits to help eliminate barriers for people entering and re-entering the workforce,” said Andrew Kovalcin, Principal at Advanced Advocacy.
According to Joe Mettimano, President and CEO of Central Union Mission, “The Charity Suit Drive has made a significant impact on the lives of countless individuals, helping them feel confident and prepared for job interviews and other professional opportunities. The effort is not only supporting individuals at Central Union Mission but also our community partners throughout the greater Washington, D.C., region.”
Beyond the core services of nutritious food and safe, clean beds, Central Union Mission offers several life-changing programs for men. The Restoration & Transformation Program helps them overcome addictions, reconcile with family, study the Bible and take responsibility for their attitudes and actions. Men can also join the Workforce Development & Education Program, which offers employment readiness training and soft skills, actual hands-on, wage-earning work in a mentored setting and finally, placement in an outside job and independent living situation.
“We are pleased to support Advanced Advocacy and Central Union Mission and honor the great work they do,” said Brett Vago, ZIPS founding owner and owner of five ZIPS locations.
For more information about the Charity Suit Drive or how to support Central Union Mission, please contact Megan Schmoll, Vice President of Development, at 202-827-3078 or mschmoll@missiondc.org.
About Central Union Mission:
Central Union Mission is a faith-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and the oldest private social service agency in Washington, D.C.
About Advanced Advocacy:
Advanced Advocacy is an independent advocacy and public affairs firm that specializes in issue campaigns, coalition management, third parties and alliances, grassroots activation, and community engagement.
About ZIPS Cleaners:
Founded in 1996 and franchising since 2006, ZIPS Dry Cleaners is an aggressively expanding dry cleaning franchise known for its same-day, one-price business model. Today, there are more than 50 ZIPS stores open and operating in six states, with more than 250 additional locations in various stages of development.
For as long as people have watched tents take over sidewalks and RVs deteriorate under freeways, politicians have been making promises about solving homelessness in Los Angeles.
And for just as long, those same politicians have been breaking them.
This is undoubtedly why, back in March, as Mayor Karen Bass was approaching her first 100 days in office, only 17% of Angelenos believed her administration would make “a lot of progress” getting people off the streets, according to a Suffolk University/Los Angeles Times poll. Far more — 45% — predicted just “a little progress” would be made.
I was thinking about this deep well of public skepticism while listening to Bass, all smiles in a bright green suit on Wednesday morning, enthusiastically explain why the progress she has actually made is a reason for renewed optimism.
Flanked by members of the L.A. City Council outside a school in Hollywood, she announced that her administration had, in its first year, moved more than 21,694 people out of encampments and into interim housing. That’s an increase of 28% over the final year of former Mayor Eric Garcetti’s administration, taking into account the work of various government programs, including Bass’ signature one, Inside Safe.
In addition, the majority of those directed to motel and hotel rooms, congregate shelters and tiny homes have decided to stay, rather than head back out onto the streets.
“We have tried to set a new tone in the city. This is an example of that new tone. Forty-one people used to sleep here, and now it’s clear,” Bass said Wednesday over the shrieks of schoolchildren. “Students and parents don’t need to walk around tents on their way to school, and the Angelenos who were living here do not need to die on our streets.”
It was a convincing message, backed up by a thick packet of numbers distributed to reporters at City Hall a few hours later.
But numbers are funny. They can be crunched in many ways and interpreted to mean many different things.
As my Times colleague David Zahniser pointed out, all of the people who now live in interim housing are still considered homeless by the federal government. And while Bass had originally thought most of them would be there for only three to six months, it’s now looking more like 18 months to two years. Permanent housing is that scarce.
So, numbers-wise, don’t expect a decline in the next annual homelessness count, which is scheduled for January. There might even be an increase, thanks to the expiration of pandemic-era tenant protections. As of the last count, there were more than 46,000 unhoused people living in the city, mostly in encampments.
But again, numbers are funny. They tend not to mean half as much as what people see and experience for themselves, just like the disconnect between public perceptions of crime and actual crime data.
So, when Bass declares at a news conference that “we have proved this year that we will make change,” and she talks about the encampment that used to be where she’s standing, and all the encampments that her administration has cleared, even if a few more tents have popped up down the street, skeptical Angelenos just might believe her.
And maybe, just maybe, that’s not such a bad thing.
“What I see most powerfully is increased hope,” Va Lecia Adams Kellum, chief executive of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, told reporters on Wednesday. “Hope among the folks who are living in those encampments who had given up and [thought] they’ll always live in that level of despair. Hope that the community now believes that we could possibly get out of this terrible crisis.”
Kellie Waldon, 54, cries near what’s left of her encampment, left, as Skid Row West is dismantled under the 405 Freeway along Venice Boulevard in Los Angeles in October. Waldon was hoping to receive housing through the city’s Inside Safe program, like others in the encampment had. “You get your hopes up and you don’t know what to believe,” Waldon said.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
Hope is a thing difficult to quantify, especially among people who have been homeless for years, and have suffered so much and have been let down so often by government.
I’ve talked to some who took a chance and decided to leave their tents and RVs, and are now thrilled to be in a motel room with a door, running water and air conditioning. Others have had it with curfews and jail-like rules, and are getting tired of waiting on promised permanent housing.
I’ve also talked to those who have been booted out of interim housing for one reason or another, and are back on the streets. They are feeling hopeless, like many cash-strapped Angelenos who are on the verge of an eviction.
But peak hopelessness? That’s what we saw on the first days of December.
At a hastily called news conference, Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore announced that officers were searching for a man who had fatally shot three homeless people — one sleeping on a couch in an alley and another while pushing a shopping cart.
“This is a killer preying on the unhoused,” Bass said.
Moore and Bass didn’t know then, but their suspect, Jerrid Joseph Powell, had already been arrested by Beverly Hills police after a traffic stop in which his $60,000 BMW was linked to a deadly follow-home robbery.
Police have yet to elaborate on Powell’s alleged motive, but Bass brought up the horrific case several times on Wednesday — and with good reason. Violence and acts of cruelty against people living on the streets are increasingly common not just locally, but nationally.
Advocates blame this trend of nastiness on the pandemic-era surge in homelessness, particularly in unsheltered homelessness, and the subsequent spike in interactions between housed and unhoused residents. Fear and frustration can lead to dehumanization and that, in turn, can lead to violence, said Dr. Margot Kushel, director of the Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative.
“I do really worry that it’s become normalized in public discourse to speak about people experiencing homelessness as, like, a problem for those who are not homeless — as opposed to fundamentally a massive societal failure that’s left usually older, vulnerable people terrified and totally unprotected,” she told me. “And I do think that there is a connection, like the more we dehumanize people, the less protected they are.”
Stephanie Klasky-Gamer has watched this happen in real-time as president and CEO of L.A. Family Housing. The seeming permanency of encampments, and the trash, fires and unsanitary conditions they often generate, have led to what she describes as widespread impatience.
“I don’t mean big, systemic impatience, like ‘I wish we could end homelessness faster,’” she said. “It’s the ‘I’m just sick of seeing you in front of me’ kind of impatience.”
On some level, she gets it, though. As does Kushel. As do I.
“It has to be OK to say, ‘Yeah, this sucks that I’m walking my kids to school and I’m walking over people in tents,’” Kushel told me. “But there has to be a way to hold that with being able to recognize how we got to this position and also how we’re going to get out. And to sort of restore [our] collective humanity.”
For Klasky-Gamer, this has meant focusing on what has changed since Bass became mayor.
“I know how much good is getting done,” she told me. “The frustration I may feel at seeing the tent every day I turn the corner, at least I can temper it knowing that 10 people yesterday moved into an apartment. These three people haven’t. But these 10 did.”
RVs in an encampment along West Jefferson Boulevard near the Ballona Wetlands in Playa del Rey in 2021.
(Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
The mayor has told me many times that getting people off the streets isn’t just a humanitarian imperative — and, as a serial killer reminded us, a safety imperative. It’s also a demonstration to a fed up public that progress is possible.
“What distresses Angelenos the most are encampments. That’s where people were dying on the street,” Bass told reporters. “And to me, what was clear, was that we come up with a way to get people out of the tents.”
Some will dismiss that. They’ll insist that all her administration is doing is reducing visible homelessness to score easy political points. And that instead of doing the hard work of actually helping L.A.’s most vulnerable residents get back on their feet, the mayor is hiding them so that they’ll be forgotten and abandoned in interim housing.
In this city, defined by its haves and have nots, I understand the cynicism and skepticism. But that’s why what Bass does next, namely expanding and stabilizing the city’s crumbling supply of permanent housing, will matter even more than what she has done thus far.
“We’ve got to somehow make people believe again that this is solvable,” Kushel told me, “and it is solvable.”
Hope can be elusive. But Annelisa Stephan was looking for it anyway when she came to the Ballona Wetlands on a recent Saturday morning.
She and more than 100 other volunteers — many of them from the nearby neighborhoods of Playa Vista and Playa del Rey — had descended on the Westside ecological reserve to dig holes, spread soil, and put in plants and trees.
Just a few months ago, RVs had been parked here along Jefferson Boulevard, bumper to bumper in a sprawling encampment that dozens of unhoused people had come to call home.
They built a close-knit community, looking out for one another and mourning one another after deadly fires. But they also decimated the Ballona Wetlands’ freshwater marsh with everything from battery acid to trash to human waste, and scared off nearby residents who once walked the trails.
And then one day, after almost three years, the encampment was gone, replaced by concrete barricades and metal fencing. The residents were mostly sent to interim housing and the RVs were mostly towed away.
“It’s like, hard to know what to think or feel,” Stephan told me. “I’m happy that the land is being stewarded, but just sad about the suffering that so many people face.”
She lamented the “fervent, anti-homeless mania” that she has heard from some of her neighbors.
“It’s just been really a painful time,” Stephan said.
Not far away, L.A. City Councilmember Traci Park, whose Westside district includes the Ballona Wetlands and got elected on promises to aggressively crack down on homeless encampments, was more circumspect.
“At the end of the day, everybody wants the same thing, which is to get folks off the streets and into safe settings and connected to the help that they need,” she said. “There’s a lot of different points of view about how we get there. And I think that’s where a lot of the conflict and the division lie.”
She paused, as traffic whizzed by on Jefferson Boulevard.
Across the U.S., cities are bearing the brunt of homelessness. In Los Angeles, mayor Karen Bass is focusing on keeping people sheltered and working to expand housing supply in the city. CBS News’ Michelle Miller has more on how her policies are making an impact.
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