13,000 fall into homelessness in LA county EVERY MONTH

So I'm living in Southern California and the homeless problem is right in your face on every street corner. Here in Santa Ana there are 100's encamped downtown at city hall.

www.latimes.com...

About 13,000 people on public assistance tumble into homelessness every month in Los Angeles County, according to a new study that experts say provides the clearest picture yet of extreme poverty in the region.

13,000 people every month. I'm wondering if this is just a bunch of entitlement brats or has the cost of living and low wages finally started taking his toll on the community?

I guess when 90% of the job opportunities are part time low wage (9$) jobs then we have a homeless epidemic forming.

Something tells me the economy is starting to crumble regardless of what the numbers say on the TV.

originally posted by: onequestion
So I'm living in Southern California and the homeless problem is right in your face on every street corner. Here in Santa Ana there are 100's encamped downtown at city hall.

www.latimes.com...

About 13,000 people on public assistance tumble into homelessness every month in Los Angeles County, according to a new study that experts say provides the clearest picture yet of extreme poverty in the region.

13,000 people every month. I'm wondering if this is just a bunch of entitlement brats or has the cost of living and low wages finally started taking his toll on the community?

I guess when 90% of the job opportunities are part time low wage (9$) jobs then we have a homeless epidemic forming.

Something tells me the economy is starting to crumble regardless of what the numbers say on the TV.

You really have to define homelessness. Sleeping in your car a few days because you got evicted makes you homeless, but I'd wager most of those folks get back on their feet fairly quickly. On the other hand, you have chronic homeless who are often drug addicts, drunks, and nutjobs. No amount of public services, booming economy or anything will get these people off the streets because until you fix their character or mental problems, they will always find themselves homeless.

a reply to: onequestion

Even many of those who are working are THIS CLOSE to being out on their behind.

I've often said that most people (myself included) that aren't independently wealthy are "three bad things" away from being homeless. Lose a job, get sick and ONE other thing and POW!!! Even a lifetime of saving isn't always enough.

a reply to: onequestion

"Something tells me the economy is starting to crumble regardless of what the numbers say on the TV. "

The economy is starting to crumble regardless of what the numbers say.

And the crumble is starting at both ends of the spectrum.......the bottom of the working classes are getting squeezed out of the work force for a whole lot of reasons and based upon a much buried report, the manufacturing sector of the economy is posting quarter over quarter declines in profitability . See:
money.cnn.com...

The US is slowly sliding into a new era of hopelessness. And of course, the US political class is entirely unprepared to deal with it. They'll fumble the ball repeatedly! Rocky road ahead.

I think you mean "refugees".

Looks like the big government there is failing faster and harder.

a reply to: xuenchen

Well we live in a place where in a halfway decent neighborhood it's 15-1700 a month for a 1 bedroom and unless you want to live in Santa Ana or Garbage Grove it's 750 a month to rent a room. Meanwhile most jobs start at 10$ an hour.

There's a major discrepancy between what people make for a living and what it cost to live. The numbers don't balance out.

Oh yeah ... those numbers. My country have second lowest unemployment rate in EU. Economy is macro economically growing same as numbers of homeless people. That trickle down effect is not working here.

And there are some mind boggling discrepancies as of "free market". Please explain me how is it possible that employee of "Lidl" supermarket chain (it sells almost identical goods in all EU countries) get 1/3 or less of wage as his/her colleague in almost identical store just 20 Km west. Prices of those almost identical goods are usually higher at lower wage side of border. Those employees with higher wages are also better protected by various regulations and quite strictly enforced workforce laws.
We (now I'm happy) have still "our" currency but it is tightly binded to Euro by setup and import/export reality. But same discrepancies are common even in Euro zone. For exactly same work which is generating almost same turnaround for your overlord you got 1/3 of money as your peer in same position in another country (who can be your neighbor from next village) and who have almost same life expanses as you have.
It is almost like there is some giant vacuum cleaner silently hovering above some regions and sucking money from unsuspecting bee hive.

originally posted by: onequestion
a reply to: Edumakated

I don't like your sentiment on this topic. You have a totally disconnected from reality view here. Your opinion consist of a negative attitude towards your fellow man.

Whether or not you like my sentiment does not change the facts of the debate. I just pointed the fallacy of your position. Are you denying that a significant portion of the chronically homeless are suffering from drug addiction and mental problems? No matter how great an economy may be, the social services provided, you cannot get these people off the streets as their situation is driven by other issues. Unless you are advocating forcibly removing them from the streets, nothing you do will fix their situation.

I asked you to define what is meant by homeless. I know people who have been temporarily homeless for a variety of reasons. The point is that it was temporary. They took refuge in a shelter, family, or friends and managed to get themselves back on their feet. On the other hand, you have the chronically homeless who simply cannot and will not function in society. These are the folks that many think of when they see "homeless". The guy begging on the corner. I know bums who have been working the same corner for 10 years. Straight up dope fiends. No amount of hot coffee, food, spare change, or homeless shelters is going to get this guy off the corner. he lives for nothing other than the scrounge together enough to get his next heroin or meth hit.

originally posted by: onequestion
a reply to: xuenchen

Well we live in a place where in a halfway decent neighborhood it's 15-1700 a month for a 1 bedroom and unless you want to live in Santa Ana or Garbage Grove it's 750 a month to rent a room. Meanwhile most jobs start at 10$ an hour.

Surprised wages are so low, in australia legislated minimum wage is $17.29 which gives 4 weeks paid annual leave/ sick leave etc. If causal you get 25% loading without the leave benefits. Rentals here are probably cheaper depending on city/location.

originally posted by: glend

originally posted by: onequestion
a reply to: xuenchen

Well we live in a place where in a halfway decent neighborhood it's 15-1700 a month for a 1 bedroom and unless you want to live in Santa Ana or Garbage Grove it's 750 a month to rent a room. Meanwhile most jobs start at 10$ an hour.

Surprised wages are so low, in australia legislated minimum wage is $17.29 which gives 4 weeks paid annual leave/ sick leave etc. If causal you get 25% loading without the leave benefits. Rentals here are probably cheaper depending on city/location.

Oh it's a joke. This country is turning into the biggest joke in the world.

originally posted by: onequestion
So I'm living in Southern California and the homeless problem is right in your face on every street corner. Here in Santa Ana there are 100's encamped downtown at city hall.

www.latimes.com...

About 13,000 people on public assistance tumble into homelessness every month in Los Angeles County, according to a new study that experts say provides the clearest picture yet of extreme poverty in the region.

13,000 people every month. I'm wondering if this is just a bunch of entitlement brats or has the cost of living and low wages finally started taking his toll on the community?

I guess when 90% of the job opportunities are part time low wage (9$) jobs then we have a homeless epidemic forming.

Something tells me the economy is starting to crumble regardless of what the numbers say on the TV.

The math doesn't even add up in the article you linked. The study claims 13,000 a month are falling into homelessness. Yet, later on the article it mentions that data is showing about 44,000 living on the streets. What does this tell you? A large portion of that 13,000 is not staying homeless otherwise, the actual number of homeless would have to be exponentially greater. 13,000*12 = 156,000 on the streets yet data is showing about 44,000. See the disconnect in the math?

What is going on and the article mentions it is just like I said. Most of these people are temporarily homeless. It doesn't mean they are living on the streets, etc. They may have been foreclosed and had to sleep in a hotel a few nights, etc. It doesn't mean they are living in a card board box.

The issue is the 44,000 who are living on the streets. Again, drugs and mental illness is the culprit. Unless you want to turn into some Gestapo force sweeping these people out from under bridges and forcibly committing them to loony hospitals, how are you going to fix the problem?

a reply to: onequestion

And they want expand that joke (fascist rule) onto the rest of the world....no thanks. With 92 million out of the workforce, it looks like the real US unemployment is closer to 30% than 5%. Its just not going to get any better any time soon.

originally posted by: Edumakated

You really have to define homelessness. Sleeping in your car a few days because you got evicted makes you homeless, but I'd wager most of those folks get back on their feet fairly quickly. On the other hand, you have chronic homeless who are often drug addicts, drunks, and nutjobs. No amount of public services, booming economy or anything will get these people off the streets because until you fix their character or mental problems, they will always find themselves homeless.

Believe it or not there were almost no homeless in CSSR (socialistic Czechoslovakia). In fact it was problem to be homeless as it will attract various social officers or pigs (who happened to stay in their pigginess even 25 years after regime change). And believe it or not people prefer to live under shelter, they usually do not want to live on street. There was shortage of housing buildings in some periods of "communism" but NOBODY was forced to live on street and EVERYBODY was entitled to quite good health care from prenatal stage till grave (dentist included). Republic had no debt - in fact it was years in positive numbers. We were self sufficient in basic commodities from crops to heavy machinery (nuclear reactors included).

What we have now? Debts, country sold to who knows who, ghettos, homeless, no major industry ... No potatoes, not enough pigs, now cows, no sheep = soil degradation = erosion = floods&drought. There were elaborate 7 - 11 year schema for crop rotation, now there is only wheat, rape seed and corn - everything dosed with glyphosate.

My point is: Our economy was basically sound but those stupid ideologically dictated frameworks suffocated it till near death. (planed economy, obstacles in information flow etc ... in fact if we had enough information about West in 1989 we would for sure not accept capitalism as meaningful way). Keeping the base of our economical model and freeing everything else would save us from sudden drop down in 90's, save us from most monstrous machinations during "privatisation", banking socialism (same scheme as in US in 2008+ ) and so on. We HAD chance to be something like Switzerland but we trusted elites (Havel) who licked western and especially neocon asses. Shame on us. Now we are slaves of nameless "investors".

a reply to: onequestion

Is LA more prone to this because it attracts a lot of people relocating from across the country who may not be as established financially or have a local support system?

originally posted by: DelMarvel
a reply to: onequestion

Is LA more prone to this because it attracts a lot of people relocating from across the country who may not be as established financially or have a local support system?

Yes that's a big issue.

More people will become homeless the fatter the rich people get, common sense.

originally posted by: glend
Surprised wages are so low, in australia legislated minimum wage is $17.29 which gives 4 weeks paid annual leave/ sick leave etc. If causal you get 25% loading without the leave benefits. Rentals here are probably cheaper depending on city/location.

Housing costs in Australia are noticeably higher than they are in the United States. Australia has the 5th highest cost of living on the planet.

I believe it, I was born and raised in So Cal.

Speaking of Australia and So Cal.

So Cal Population 22,680,010

Australian population 22,751,014

One is a whole Continent, the other, a suburb of Mexico.