Homelessness in Los Angeles

During one of my write-up discussions in my Global Online Academy class, we talked about structural violence problems throughout the US. One structural problem that I felt was prevalent in my area was homelessness in LA. Over the past six years, homelessness has spiked 75%. Currently, there are around 55,000 homeless people across Los Angeles many of whom are unsheltered. One of the reasons for this continued growth is due to expensive rents in LA. During the recession, older professionals were left behind in the economic recovery and were not able to find jobs. During the post-recession, LA had renovated many dilapidated buildings and hotels, making it harder for people to find a place they could pay rent. Furthermore, the younger generations and professionals outcompeted the older professionals in rents leaving many without a home. When many reached a stage where they do not live in a home or have a job, many remained homeless for years as it was extremely hard to get out of this loop.

As the homeless have no flow of income, people rely on receiving food from others as well as using donated money to purchase the cheapest food (the most unhealthy foods), which leads to poor nutrition. Since the homeless live in public, they often resort to living in the worst sanitized places such as freeway overpasses making them more prone to diseases and sicknesses. This obviously indicates that homelessness does not have access to healthcare or any medical treatment. While there was a period of trying to make homeless locations cleaner by installing portable toilets, there was a backlash from an incident where a prostitute used the location for privacy with another person.

Homelessness has a stigma with gang violence, drugs, and mental health in LA. From these stereotypes, many people end up questioning what homeless people would do with money as well as believing it was their fault for getting into this situation. Even police have taken advantage of the homeless by taking their possessions such as tents simply because they didn’t have a receipt to prove ownership. Overall, LA is attempting to decrease the homeless population by expanding more space for shelters as well as pour in money into finding a concrete solution in drastically reducing homelessness.