Everybody Belongs
Los Angeles is the home of dreams, entertainment capital, and family. People from neighboring places tend to highlight the glamorous aspects of this beautiful city by focusing on places such as the Getty Center, Griffith Park, and amusement parks such as Universal Studios Hollywood. Despite these beautiful parts, people forget to acknowledge that Los Angeles is also the home of thousands of homeless individuals who sadly lost their homes to rising prices in rent. This issue has been occurring for years but was highlighted in 2020. The pandemic which started in March 2020, has caused over 580,000 individuals to be homeless due to job loss or the 8% increase in inflation. Due to this increase in the homeless population, the non-profit organization known as Water Drop aids in providing the 2,800 individuals on Skid Row with the essential water they need to survive. Water Drop is not only a great organization for helping others, but is necessary for breaking those barriers between the different economic groups seen between USC and the surrounding area. By breaking these barriers between USC and the surrounding area, the community of Los Angeles can all work together to combat these issues of gentrification differences.
Breaking down these barriers can be accomplished through service. Service is an essential part of living because of the healthy connections it provides between the individual and their community. In an article by Tania D. Mitchell and David M. Donahue, they stated that “Service learning is framed as a practice with transformative potential; transformative for the well-being of communities and transformative for the civic, academic, and workforce development of students.” (Donahue and Mitchell 466). To further explore what Mitchell and Donahue are stating, they are exemplifying the fact that service learning through non-profit organizations has the ability to make changes to the community for the overall better good. By working with schools and encouraging them to get out there and serve their community, they have the ability to make an impact on at least one person’s life. Changes can be made through students since they have “the transformative potential [which] includes increased lifelong commitments to civic engagement, greater consciousness of inequity, and enhanced commitment to understanding diversity along many lines of identity.” (Donahue 466). The power of community service is unmatched when students get out of their comfort zone and learn more about the world outside of their bubble. Service has the potential to expose students to the issues that exist outside of their campus, such as homelessness.
One of the main reasons why this increase in homelessness occurred in LA is because of USC. On October 6, 1880, USC opened its doors in South Central LA which caused gentrification in the surrounding area. October 6, 1880, was also the start of the barriers evident between USC and the South Central community. When this university opened, there was an increase in house rents in the surrounding areas. In an article written by Stacey Livingstone, she stated that “Gentrification is the process by which lower-income, and sometimes deteriorating, housing is repaired or replaced with higher-quality and higher-priced hones for middle class and affluent residents. For the low-income, working families who occupy this housing, gentrification results in higher rents that they simply cannot afford.” (Livingstone 1). A popular housing company, Tripalink, states that the average rent near USC is around $2,036 per month for a small apartment, which is not in the budget for families who are on the poverty level, especially because of the inflation that has occurred during the past year and the job losses from the pandemic. To put this into perspective, there have been around 13.7 million Americans who happen to be behind on rent. In other words “every $100 increase in median rent is associated with a 9 percent increase in the estimated homelessness rate, according to a 2020 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office.” (Siegel). An increase in housing prices due to the gentrification of USC has added to the ongoing struggle that these poverty-stricken families around LA have already been dealing with. This increase in unhoused individuals continues to further the barrier between USC and other areas because of the economic differences.
Water Drop is breaking down those barriers by working with USC students to help them become more aware of the unhoused population just less than ten minutes away from campus. Creating relationships with the unhoused and the students maintains bonds to create a sense of community between one another. This non-profit organization works to give unhoused communities the water they need to survive. In fact, in 2018 around 60% of homeless people on Skid Row were not able to access the clean water they needed. Water Drop states that “this is a patch for underlying system issues that fail to prevent/curtail homelessness in the first place, nut with these water drops we assert that water is a human right” (WaterDropLA). Water Drop highlights the gentrification issues which has driven these individuals out of their home due to the increase in rent, or mortgage. They firmly believe that each and every single individual deserves water, despite the challenges that may have caused them to be homeless. This organization emphasizes the importance of this statement by working directly with the Councilmember for Skid Row and the local city council member.
The non-profit organization works with USC students through the JEP house. These university students have the ability to go every Sunday and bring the Skid Row residents water. The more these students attend Water Drop, the more relationships are able to be formed. These students are able to remember these familiar faces and create a deeper connection with the unhoused. Having a deeper relationship is beneficial because it helps to combat the bias these students may withhold when thinking about homelessness and helps to realize that every individual is worthy of food and clean water. In addition to that, it helps the university students gain a first-hand experience of what gentrification has caused in the surrounding areas. But, withholding deeper connections, these students create bonds that allow them to combat these issues by listening to unhoused individuals’ voices and thoughts to help them stand up for what they believe in.
People may argue that it is none but the homeless’ fault that they are in the position that they are in. These biased individuals may assume they are homeless because of substance abuse, or even laziness. However, they forget to acknowledge the fact that 1 in 5 people are homeless because of a mental illness. Having some form of mental illness makes it difficult to continue to have a job because they may be physically unable to get out of bed, or not be fully engaged in their work due to the battles they are experiencing in their head. Similar to a mental illness, trauma or other challenges that may occur in a person’s life may cause them to turn to substances. This is important to acknowledge because these unhoused people may be going through struggles that are far deeper than anyone could imagine. There may have been trauma they experienced which is important to realize how much of a privilege it is to come from a family who loves you, takes care of you, and makes sure you are taken care of. In a similar way to family members looking out for one another, Skid Row residents have this care for one another as well.
From my own experience with working with Water Drop, I was not aware of how grateful and kind the people from Skid Row are. From the first five minutes I was there, I felt graciously welcomed into their community. Meeting the residents was unlike any other encounter I have experienced before due to the amount of gratefulness they expressed through their eyes. I saw countless individuals who had tears in their eyes when I handed them their two gallons of water along with any snacks I could possibly give them. Having this experience where they continuously said “God bless you, thank you” was something I had never experienced before. Initially, when I was walking out of the car, I was honestly hesitant because I did have my own biases in my own head. I did not have the opportunity to make my own relationship with people on Skid Row which was a main contributing factor to these biases. I have now learned that these people take care of one another and spread the word about WaterDrop arriving. People will run from blocks down to receive this water because their community wants to take care of one another.
By continuing to create these connections, we can all combat the gentrification differences such as the increased homelessness, that USC has created by being located in South Central LA. Acknowledging the cultural identity that was established prior to USC is why these connections are so essential. I am now able to acknowledge just how important it is to look out for my community in LA. People have to get out of their comfort zones and volunteer in homeless communities to truly realize the impact we have and how important it is to acknowledge the impact of gentrification. By simply helping those who were affected by gentrification, we have the ability to combat these differences by making sure each and every single person is taken care of and treated equally. Prior to USC, there had always been a sense of community throughout the city. Breaking down these barriers between USC and the surrounding area is crucial in order to all work together and fix these systemic issues we have all observed.
