AP : HOMELESS STUDENTS LOS ANGELES : LA UNIFIED
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Read this story and weep - if you're human - because it's the story of thousands of LA Unified school students and millions in America. And I hate to say it because I'm no Republican, but illegal immigrants swarming into our country where our strained resources will help them somewhat - but not enough - will only make it worse. Shit hole apartments. Street homeless - mentally ill - room mates. Women sexually exploited. I have already heard of a situation where a building manager in North Hollywood was expecting immigrant women he rented to, to have sex with him as part of the deal. Come to America and become a sex slave to keep a roof over your head for you and your children. This is why abortion can be a sacrament. What if one or all of those women ends up pregnant with this building manager's fetus? I would rather see him dead.
Excerpt: The majority of students the government considers “homeless” do indeed have a place to sleep, but it’s precarious and often shared with roommates, according to federal statistics. In Los Angeles, more than 13,000 students are homeless and 2,000 of them stay in shelters, the city’s superintendent said last spring.
López says she was assaulted while the family stayed in a shelter after getting evicted three years ago. That’s why she’s determined to find her own housing.
The scarcity of affordable housing in Los Angeles has given anyone with an apartment lease in their name the power to take advantage of people like López who don’t have the saved cash, references or savvy to compete for their own place and are desperate to avoid shelters.
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And the shit hole apartment that is too chaotic for study or true deep sleep - the kind of rest that is needed to recharge and take on the next day - can mean that the person is NOT CONSIDERED HOMELESS. As one women I met walking dogs told me, No Matter How Many Places You Sofa Surf, You Are Not Considered Homeless. She had been living going from one friend's place to another for three years and the local homeless services place had done nothing for her. Why not? Because she is healthy, sane, not pregnant, not addicted, not just out of jail - not a priority.
So besides our corrupt City Hall - especially the Housing Department - that pretty much sucks the cocks of greedy multimillionaire developers - there are the priests and ministers - the churches - that are also pretty much bullshit. They are just as obsessed with the value of their real estate and rarely help even the most faithful of parishioners.
I recently met a woman who is legally blind who was a member of her church for seven years - in the choir - the whole bit - when she lost her housing. As she tells it "They not only knew I was a woman alone but a disabled woman and not one of them helped me in the smallest way." (That's "Christians" for you, I thought.) I said, "I hope you aren't having anything to do with that religion any more."
She and a friend scraped together the money to buy a van to live in. And she got herself a boyfriend, one who, like she does, believes that sex has to wait for marriage. When the van broke down and she and her woman friend were unable to repair it or keep it, her boyfriend, now a fiancee, managed to get her into a sober living - even though she has never used or had a problem with booze or drugs - for which she is grateful for. But now he is on the street, using a walker, waiting for housing help offered by so called homeless outreach people who drive around talking to people on the street. Their wish to marry has been suspended. Every morning during the week she gets out of bed and buses to a senior center where she spends her days. He, meanwhile, battles for the housing that would allow them a normal life, busing around while on that walker. So here you have two people who are White (and therefore now assumed to have White Privilege) and who have lived decent lives, are now in their sixties, and applying for housing lotteries and wait lists.
This housing crisis took YEARS to develop and those who allowed it to happen HAD NO INTEREST IN THE FUTURE. By then they would be out of office or dead, and it would be someone else's problem. That too, goes for our Presidents of the United States - a long story of inheriting the last administration's daring do.
C 2023 Christine Trzyna
