Three_Kingdoms
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- Jul 21, 2016
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I am laughing at you apu!
YOU and the fake professional on the background of collapsing and in the unethical sanctions of america getting filthier each passing hour!
'Nowhere To Sleep': Los Angeles Sees Increase In Young Homeless
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Heard on Weekend Edition Sunday
ANNA SCOTT
FROM
The latest homeless count showed a 64 percent increase in the number of 18- to 24-year-olds on the streets over last year. Authorities are better at counting them but the problem is also getting worse.
Anna Scott/KCRW
Dressed in jeans and carrying a backpack, 21-year-old Santa Monica College freshman Japheth Craig Dyer looks like a typical college kid who might've just pulled an all-nighter. But he wasn't up late studying.
"I didn't have nowhere to sleep last night," he says. "So ... kind of tired, but I'm not too worried about it. I'll just make sure I get some rest whenever I can."
He's sitting on a bench in the shade — just inside, the cafeteria teems with students eating, chatting and studying.
Dyer is part of a homeless population that's been invisible for a long time. The latest homeless count in Los Angeles showed a 64 percent increase in the number of 18- to 24-year-olds on the streets since last year, to a total of nearly 6,000. But experts say that dramatic rise is largely due to the fact that authorities got better at counting.
Bill Bedrossian, the CEO of Covenant House California, a nonprofit specifically serving homeless 18- to 24-year-olds, says the latest number "is the number we've been saying for the last five to six years."
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Oakland Considers Way Forward As Homeless Encampments Grow[/paste:font]
AROUND THE NATION
California's Orange County Struggles To Combat Growing Homelessness, Opioid Crisis
L.A. County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl points out that California does offer some services to young people for three years after leaving foster care. But she agrees with Bedrossian that it only goes so far. Once somebody turns 18, she says, "We can't tell you what to do. We can't order people to take you in, because you're an adult."
Kuehl says the city and county recently adopted several new measures aimed at stopping former foster youth from slipping through the cracks after turning 18, including more temporary shelters for young people and help for colleges to identify and track homeless students. Students like Japheth Craig Dyer.
He plans to become a nurse, and eventually a nursing professor, but he has a long road ahead.
"I know I am going to get off the streets," Dyer said. "It might take however long but it's coming, gradually, slowly. I'm taking stepping stones."
Next step: Finding a permanent place to sleep, instead of crashing in a friend's van or napping between classes. He recently applied for room in a shelter just for college students, but won't be able to move in until next year.
I’ll happily toss in more Asian countries too!
