BLOG UPDATE
When the topic of homelessness arises, truth and error abound. What are the facts? And the fallacies? Our frequently updated blog shares little-known facts about homelessness everyone should know. Click here for a quick visit.
IN-DEPTH ARTICLES
THE BEST AND THE BRIGHTEST
Los Angeles County High-School and Middle-School Students Offer Their Solutions to Local Homelessness
It’s hard to think about homelessness, but it’s more difficult to generate effective solutions. For best results, do we “fix” homeless people? Or do we mend the society that made them that way? Perhaps the best answer is a bit of both. Whatever the final solution, it will take lots of clear thinking.
So, during the 2011 Christmas holidays, as part of our educational role in West Side communities, we posed the question to west L.A. County high-school and middle-school students: How Can We End Homelessness in Los Angeles? . . . (Read more)
THE DYNAMIC DOZEN
12 Changes in American Life That Will Eliminate Homelessness
By Loren Franck
Homelessness has always plagued America. Castigated as “bums,” “drifters,” “hobos,” “itinerants” and “vagrants,” people who lack permanent dwellings have had it rough in this land of plenty.
Unfortunately, despite our nation’s abundance, destitution and hunger flourish. Statistics vary, but U.S. homelessness ranges from 0.5 million to 3.5 million men, women and children. All ages, races, colors and creeds fall victim. But it need not be so . . . (Read more)
DO YOU C.A.R.E.™?
Our Effective Four-point Plan to Help Homeless People
By Loren Franck
At any given time, there are as many as 75,000 homeless people throughout Los Angeles County. Many of them struggle to survive on the county’s elite West Side, where the environment is less threatening and more comfortable than on urban streets.
Obtaining four walls and a roof is the most pressing need for most homeless men, women and children. But until that simple goal becomes reality, thousands of society’s outcasts must sleep on sidewalks, in alleys, on public-park lawns . . . (Read more)
HANDS-ON HELP
There’s Nothing Like the First Time
By Que Jacobs
I commend West Side Homeless Outreach for its compassion and efforts in aiding the homeless. To go consistently onto the streets of L.A. to help these people by giving them things they need is such an honorable act of kindness.
I read on your Web site what you do, so I was more than anxious to volunteer. I’ve gone to shelters and served food to the homeless during the holidays but have never gone out on the streets to assist them. That’s what really sets West Side Homeless Outreach apart! . . . (Read more)
HARD DAY, TOUGH LIFE
What It’s Really Like to Be Homeless in West Los Angeles County
By Lindsay
Unfortunately, the amount of myth equals the degree of reality regarding perceptions of homelessness. Unless you’ve lived on the cold concrete, as thousands of others and I have, it’s hard to see homelessness as it really is. It devastates people’s lives.
I’m writing this article to help you gain that understanding . . . (Read more)
HOMELESSNESS IN WEST L.A. COUNTY
Seven Common Questions
By Loren Franck
Why are people homeless? Why are so many people homeless on L.A.’s West Side? And what are the best ways to help the homeless? In this brief but forthright article, you’ll discover answers to these and other important questions surrounding homelessness . . . (Read more)
LIVES WE’VE TOUCHED
Helping the Homeless Has Tremendous Rewards
By Loren Franck
People of many ages, backgrounds and ethnicities become homeless. Surprised? Don’t be.
After losing their jobs, where they might have worked for decades, many hardworking men and women find themselves living on the streets, struggling to survive. Other homeless people are employed but lack sufficient income to pay for housing, which is frequently expensive in Los Angeles County. They’re among the growing numbers of the “working homeless.”
As West Side Homeless Outreach delivers food, clothing, shoes, sleeping bags and other essentials to the unsheltered throughout west L.A. County, we’ve found that most of them would rather not live on the streets. They want—and need—permanent homes. However, like most of L.A. County’s 80,000 homeless people, they have no choice but to remain without permanent housing. . . (Read more)
THE 10 BIGGEST MYTHS ABOUT HOMELESSNESS
By Loren Franck and Verlette Franck
Since the truth can set you free, as the saying goes, considerable captivity remains regarding homelessness. Discovering the truth about the unsheltered can be more difficult than placing the chronically “unhoused” in permanent dwellings. To be sure, myths surrounding homelessness abound . . . (Read more)
THE TOP 12
Your Best Reasons to Help the Homeless
By Loren Franck
Why help homeless people?
Some 80,000 unsheltered men, women and children live throughout Los Angeles County, so the question is crucial. Evidence suggests that, as a segment of society, homeless people aren’t going anywhere soon. Most of us who live among L.A’s unhoused residents have two choices . . . (Read more)
GET INVOLVED
The downturned economy has hit homeless people hard. You can help us help them. Money is our greatest need. Your donated dollars buy food, clothing and other vital provisions, which we deliver to unsheltered homeless people who need them most. You can also contribute these items to us. All donations to West Side Homeless Outreach, an IRS-approved 501(c)(3) charity, are tax deductible. Please click on donate; or mail checks and money orders to West Side Homeless Outreach, Inc., PO Box 5761, Playa del Rey, CA 90296-5761.
©2012 West Side Homeless Outreach, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
Homelessness affects people of all ages, ethnicities and social backgrounds. Knowledge of social services is one vital skill homeless people must develop in order to survive on west L.A. County streets. Another is the ability to get along with other homeless people in extremely challenging conditions.
Assisting the unsheltered through West Side Homeless Outreach is a wonderful school activity, as these students from New Roads School in Santa Monica have discovered. These young men and women collect hundreds of food and clothing items for the outreach annually.
Relying on community support, West Side Homeless Outreach helps the homeless one life at a time.
