Part 1
By Mary O’KEEFE

In the 2017 update of the Los Angeles homeless count, LA County had 14,966 homeless who were not in shelters and 42,828 who were sheltered – a total of 57,794 people, which is a 23% increase from the 2016-17 count, according to the LA Homeless Services Authority.

The LAHSA was established by the LA County Board of Supervisors in 1993. Its mission statement is “to support, create and sustain solutions to homelessness in Los Angeles County by providing leadership, advocacy, planning and management of program funding.”

In the LAHSA data, the majority of those homeless were described as individuals “not in a family unit.” Veterans made up 8% of the entire homeless counted population, families were 15% and children under 18 years old living in a family unit made up 9%.

Mental health does play a role in homelessness. Those with substance use disorders make up 18% of the homeless population, those with HIV/AIDS make up 2% and those with serious mental illness make up 30%. All of these individuals are 18 or older. Those who had experienced “domestic/intimate partner violence” is at 34% of those counted.

The LAHSA count for District 5, Supervisor Kathryn Barger’s district that includes the unincorporated portion of LA County/La Crescenta and Montrose, found that there are a total of 6,992 homeless people within this district – up 30% from 2016-17 count.

There is a perception that there are more homeless individuals in the Crescenta Valley area than previously, although it is difficult to find data on specific unincorporated areas. The topic of homelessness has come up at several venues including during October’s Crescenta Valley Town Council candidate discussion.

The issue is an enormous one and is growing – not only in LA County but also in counties across the country. Here is the personal story of a man who went from having a good job and owning his home to becoming homeless and who is now working his way through the system to find a way out.

Jason (not his real name) is at an age when he should be thinking of retiring in about 10 years but instead he worries about where his next meal will come from, how to get a roof over his head and how to keep hidden in plain sight so as not to call too much attention to himself.

“I was married and had a home,” Jason said.

His home had a lot of land where he had horses, one cow and dogs. Unfortunately the marriage ended and his wife was awarded more than $2,000 a month in spousal support. He paid the support for the required four years. During this time the couple sold their home and, although money was tight, he had a good job with the City of Los Angeles. He eventually was able to buy a new home. He had only been in his new position for a couple of months when he got into a severe car accident.

The story of how things went so wrong so quickly is woven with years of issues with some of his family members.

“I had told my neighbors (before the accident) if my [family members] showed up at my home to call the police,” he said. “It was that bad.”

For four months after his accident, Jason was in the hospital where he was placed into a drug-induced coma to help him recover from brain injuries. During this time, he said, family members were able to get conservatorship of his affairs, something he had not discovered until months out of the hospital. When he was released from the hospital, he found his home had been cleared out, his possessions gone and his mortgage unpaid. He lost his home.

“They even took the kitchen utensils,” he said.

He was, and is still, suffering from the results of the head trauma and back injuries. He ended up living with one of the family members who had taken everything from him.

“I didn’t know what else to do,” he said.

The family gave him $50 a week to live on.

He was more concerned about keeping his doctor’s appointments and recovering than with what happened to his belongings. One day he went to his doctor and was told he no longer had insurance. He looked into the reason and found that he had been getting sizable checks for disability from his job that had been cashed by family members. He also discovered that papers concerning everything from his disability, his job and his car accident had been sent to him while he was in the hospital. That paperwork had been signed without his knowledge by the family, and left him with nothing.

When he confronted his family members about this he was kicked out of their house.

“[They] threw me out of the house,” he said.

Although there had been years of family issues, this was still a shock to him.

“You never bank on this happening … on your [family] turning on you like that,” he added.

Next week CV Weekly continues with Jason’s tumultuous journey into homelessness.

  Mary Okeefe