LA’s Unexpected Throwaways
Middle-class professionals, young families, first-time homeless — a tidal wave of hurting people are seeking our help on Skid Row. Your generous donations give them hope.
They’ve been called “throwaway people” — single male addicts, prostitutes, people wrestling with mental illness on the streets of Skid Row. Even in good times, Los Angeles County has more people who are homeless than any other region in the country, making the City of Angels the homeless capital of the nation.
But today, with the unemployment rate at nearly 10% — and expected to climb even higher — the Union Rescue Mission is faced with a growing human tsunami of unexpected people seeking shelter: educated, middle-class professionals who have lost their jobs, working poor victimized by the foreclosure and unemployment crises, and young families who can’t make ends meet in our current economy.
Last year at this time, the URM housed 15 families. Today, we are helping 75 families with vouchers to stay temporarily in hotels, and we are currently housing 57 more families, including 120 children, in our shelter.
Los Angeles County has more people who are homeless than any other region in the country, making the City of Angels the homeless capital of the nation.
URM’s entire 5th floor is filled with two-parent families and single dads with children. And now we’re even using our chapel to house families.
Economists say it’s only going to get worse. Homelessness tends to lag behind the economy, and the number of first-time homeless will soon rise as those who have managed to get by with temporary help from family and friends begin exhausting those resources.
No one deserves to be “thrown away.” Click here to read about some of the people seeking help at Union Rescue Mission in these dark, economic times.
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John Michael McCarthy