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Let’s Use Food Stamps Money for What it Was Intended
Have you ever heard the expression “you got a nickel holding up a dollar there?” It means focusing on small savings while letting big money go by, and it applies to the situation in California with...
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Ensuring the Poor Know Their Insurance Options
I had the privilege of attending the inauguration ceremony of new California state Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones in Sacramento on Monday night. Amongst the new Insurance Commissioner’s top...
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Proposal to Eliminate California Redevelopment Agencies Means Cutting...
The Starbucks is on the left, packed with coffee connoisseurs. Or perhaps they are just people who are addicted to watered down java. On the right, is a Banana Republic catering to clothing devotees....
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Will California Create More Affordable Housing?
California’s state leaders are debating whether they should tax homebuyers in order to fund more affordable housing for those who struggle with renting a house, let a lone buying one. It used to be the...
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Shooting, Stabbing, Burning, and Beating: The Risks of Homelessness
The recent Aurora, Colorado massacre, and the senseless deaths and mayhem it caused, has placed a sobering cloud over our country. In the wake of this devastating tragedy, many may have missed the news...
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“I Love L.A.” Means Ending Homelessness in L.A.
In the past, national leaders working to address homelessness in America looked at Los Angeles’s feeble efforts to house its homeless population with disdain. Some of that judgment was justified, given...
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Could Ending Homelessness Reduce Crime?
He lived in his car tucked alongside a gentrified residential street just blocks from the Pacific Ocean. He was an unknown person, like most of the people living on the streets, until he was accused of...
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Homelessness and Its Many Faces: Sherial’s Story
I met Sherial in the spring of 2012. I was already halfway through my graduate program and only working part time, so that I could finish up school. With bills quickly mounting, a friend brought up...
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Anti-Poverty Agencies Should Not Pay Poverty Wages
Photo by The All Night-Images A movement to increase the minimum wage to $15 per hour is sweeping the country. Cities, such as Seattle and San Francisco, have voted in favor of the increase. Los...
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Can You Picture The Brady Bunch Living in an Apartment?
Imagine the Brady Bunch kids living in a 2-bedroom apartment in Los Angeles. Now that’s a TV show! I remember when I was a kid, the famous families on television always had a one-earner parent....
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American Cities Rank High on Worldwide Homelessness Scale
Photo by Alex Proimos When I think of poverty in a global sense, I imagine slums like the shantytowns of Nairobi or the favelas of Sao Paulo. I see rickety shacks precariously hugging dirt hills and...
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Hopeful Resolutions For 2016: A Realistic Approach to Homelessness
Photo by A McLin For the past several year-ends, I have listed America’s top ten positive solutions to ending homelessness. Hope was in the air when those of us who have dedicated our lives to...
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Homelessness Today: That Was Then, This Is Now
Photo by Karim Corban I remember a couple of decades ago helping people who were homeless was much easier. Not easy, but easier. I remember that most of the people who walked into our transitional...
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LA Homeless Plan: Find Change Here
Paul stood at the 101 Freeway off-ramp, holding a cardboard sign that read, “Spare Change?” He was a veteran in our armed services who lived on our streets for ten years. Last year, Paul was one of...
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Should They Be Grateful?
Photo by Alex O’Neal For a couple of decades now, I’ve been fortunate enough to lead a community-based organization that serves and houses people who are homeless. We have literally housed thousands...
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Homeless Lives Matter
Photo © Jim D’Aquilia/Momenta Workshops 2016. Alex has been sleeping on a sidewalk in San Diego for a handful of years. He used to worry about where his next meal would be, if he could find a shelter...
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You Are Not Anonymous
Photo © Jim D’Aquilia/Momenta Workshops 2016. You lie down on that dirty park bench, or sit against the chain-link fence next to the sidewalk. Your state of homelessness is exposed for all to see. You...
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Should Landowners Pay For Homeless Housing?
The odds of making money by owning real estate is much better than playing the lottery. Just ask any lucky homeowner on the Westside of Los Angeles, or anywhere within San Francisco’s city limits....
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Homeless Facilities: A Magnet Effect?
Joel John Roberts, PATH CEO Last week, I was at my umpteenth community meeting in order to promote a new building that would house people who experience homelessness. I am probably approaching my...
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Is Eliminating Homeless Shelters a War Against Compassion?
PATH Villas at Del Rey, permanent supportive housing. I remember when I first started two decades ago as the leader of a services and housing agency, almost every person I encountered would tell me,...
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