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Karla Barragan
Professor Mercado
English 113B
April 17, 2016
Homeless Youths in LA
Poverty has affected our society for decades, and as a result many poor people live on
streets. Most of the times those people dont have a place to live; however, youths are also living
on streets. Over the decades, society has offered organizations to help homeless youths to have a
place to live and a place that offers food. Organizations build shelters and homes for homeless
youths, but some people dont want shelters near their community because they want a safe
community for their families. Although organizations have built few shelters for homeless
youths, I think that the best solution is for organizations to build shelters in a one area of city in
Los Angeles. We can help the organization by funding, helping out at the shelters, donating food
or clothes.
Homelessness has been in existence since the 1640s, however, the Industrial Revolution
happened in the 1820s to 1830s. People started to migrate from farms to the cities to find jobs.
People who couldnt find a job, couldnt afford a place to sleep. Robert Fischer states that
"during the 1850s brought the first documented cases of homeless youth, many of whom were
kicked out of their homes because their providers could no longer afford to raise them"(dceh).
Another reason that homelessness exist is natural disasters; earthquakes, hurricanes, floods and
fires are reasons why people lose their homes, so they end up living on the streets.
Homeless youth is a problem in our communities and in society because it harms the
environment for people. Reports on homeless youths state that they create a bad environment in

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businesses and communities because they camp outside the streets, litter, and have their
belongings. Homeless causes drug use, vandalism, and prostitution. People living on the streets
are not safe because they can get rape, and selling drugs. Most of the youths living on the streets
can be using drugs and prostituting in order to get money.(youtube video) There are homeless
youths who are dropouts from school; in result, we will have a bad economy in the future.
Homeless youth who dont have enough education wont succeed in the future, in other words
they might not find a good job. Homeless youths living in streets might be a problem for families
and people because they wouldnt feel safe to walk on streets. Also parents dont want to put
their children on risk by passing through the streets where there is homeless. In a city like Los
Angeles, people want tourist to come to the city because it helps the economy, but having so
many homeless youth on the streets would make tourists not want to come to Los Angeles.
Los Angeles estimated 10,000 youths under ages of 24 end up homeless each year.
(LAYN) Homeless youths experience horrible times on the streets; without food or shelter.
LAYN states that Once they turn to the streets, they enter into a constant state of survival mode,
trying to make it work from one minute to the next[,] their lives, in a word, are chaos. Homeless
youths might start selling drugs because most of them dont have an option. In California, it has
been ranked 48th in child homeless and has increased 4% every year since 2012 and 2013.(Daily
News) Beau Yarbrough states that Of the more than a half a million enrolled, nearly 13,700
LAUSD students, mostly in middle and high schools, describe themselves as homeless, which
could include living in cars or with others. Thats down from 16,000 at the height of the
recession, homless education programs provide supplies for those homless students.There is
also fosters youths living on streets in Los Angeles because they might have ran away from their
foster home. Homeless youths end up in the streets for many reasons; growing up in a abusive

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environment, depression, drop outs running away from home, being abandoned by parents or
guardians, and drug abuse.
Many organizations are already helping homeless youths. For example, Los Angeles
Youth Network provides new shelters, provides food for homeless youths and fosters youths. Los
Angeles Youth Network provides case management, medical attention, and re-establish family
relationships when safe and appropriate. They have a place to live and a place to sleep.
Throughout the time they are in Los Angeles Youth Network, help them know who they are and
helps them recover of what they went through, when they were living on streets or their homes.
(LAYN). The time they are living in a shelter, they get resources to help youths look for a job
and how to live in society. LAYN is an organization that provides residential care to homeless
youths ages 12-21, provides shelters for homeless. (LAYN) There are few organizations that help
homeless youths; they build shelters for them, offer education, offers health care, offers food for
them. Organizations want communities to be part of helping homeless youths because they can
help others from becoming homeless and helping those who are homeless. They can support
them by funding or helping out in the shelters.
Another organization that helps homeless youth is the Union Rescue Mission. It helps
women, youths, and men who are homeless or living in the streets. But this organization helps
women and youths more because they its more dangerous for them to live on streets. The Union
Rescue has built this shelter for women, children, and families who have lose their homes. The
Union Rescue want families to not be in streets living and the union is trying to build more
shelters for families. In the Union Rescue Mission, they provided beds for homeless to sleep and
it provides them with meals during the day. Most of the people are families who ended up in
streets because they lose their jobs or home, dont have a place to sleep. It provides health

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service for those who needed. People from the community volunteers at the Union Rescue
Mission because they want to help homeless youths and families.
Although some organizations have succeeded in the past, I think that funding is a solution
to help homeless youths. Communities should be part of funding if they dont want to see
homeless youths living on the streets. Food places can help with the funding too, for example,
they can sell food for a day and then donate the money to the organizations. The organizations
can be selling food or other things and homeless youths can help also. The community can start
funding also, in the neighborhood or in the city.
Funding is a solution because organizations can provide new shelters and food. The
reason funding might work is because if other funding is success then it could work out for
homeless too. Thats a way that people from the community can help out and volunteer. Thats a
way that organizations can get money if they lack on getting money. With this money homeless
youths can have a better education and can be provided with health care. Can also be provided
with services that can help with any issues like depression.
Another solution that can help end homeless youths is donating food and clothes. Every
week organizations should have a day for people to donate food or clothes. Food places or
markets can donate food from their place. Although food places or markets wont want to donate,
but if they dont want to see homeless youths on streets they should help. Helping each other can
help homeless youths and other problems.
The reason this is helpful because most of homeless youths dont have clothes to wear
and it can help feed more youths. People donating food and clothes can help the organizations to
focus on building new shelters. The funding can help with building new shelters and providing
better places for homeless youths to stay. For example, Los Angeles Youth Network and Union

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Rescue mission dont get money from the government, the way they get money is from funding
and people donating.
In my opinion, I think that the best solution is for the government to fund money for
homelessness because if the government funds money to organizations that help homeless, it can
be easier for them to build shelters. The way the government can help fund money is through
taxes, paying more taxes can be very helpful because people can be a help to end homelessness
in the cities or in the communities. If we help to end homelessness, we can have more tourists
coming to the cities and helping the economy. We can all live in a safe environment, without
having trash, people doing drugs,and having people belongings on the streets.
On the other hand, most of people wont care about homeless youths because its not their
responsibility to help them, They might think it wouldnt affect them in any way, but it affects
the environment they live in. Others wouldnt want to fund to organizations because they
wouldnt want to waste their money on funding. But, if they help homeless youths we will all
have a safe community to live in or to go to. If they have children, they will grow up in a safe
community and wouldnt be in risk. People wont see many homeless youths on the streets if
they help build shelters for them.
Homeless youths are a problem that our society needs to solve or needs to help. There
shouldnt be any youths living on the streets of Los Angeles or in other cities in the world.
Youths are the future to the world and helping youths can make a big difference for them, also
for the society. We can help homeless youths by funding and donating, organizations can build
new shelters and provided meals for homeless youths. If we help, we can have a safer place to
live and our economy can get better.

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Work Cited
Abram, Susan. "This Year's LA County Homeless Count Will do Something that has Never been
done before." Daily News Jan 26 2016. ProQuest. Web. 6 Apr. 2016
Abram, Susan. "San Fernando Valley Agency Opens New Home for Homeless Youth, Single
Mothers." Daily News Oct 16 2015. ProQuest. Web. 6 Apr. 2016 .
"Cash for Kids Week LA Offers Delicious and Stylish Opportunities to Raise Funds for Abused,
Neglected, Homeless and Runaway Youth as a Benefit for Los Angeles Youth Network."
PR Newswire Mar 28 2012. ProQuest. Web. 6 Apr. 2016
"Los Angeles Youth Network Launches New Home for Foster & Homeless Youth." PR
Newswire Sep 16 2014. ProQuest. Web. 6 Apr. 2016 .
Los Angeles Youth Network. Los Angeles Youth Network, n.d. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.
LAGayCenter. "Parents Abandon Him for Being Gay; What Happens next Is Too
Common." YouTube. YouTube, 17 Oct. 2013. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.
"South LA. Group Convenes 3rd Interfaith Summit on Homeless Youth." Sentinel: 1. May 14
2015. ProQuest. Web. 9 Apr. 2016 .
Yarbrough, Beau. "Homeless Children Increasing in Southern California." Daily News. Daily
News, 17 Nov. 2014. Web. 22 Apr. 2016.
"Union Rescue Mission - Helping People in LA Overcome Homelessness." Union Rescue
Mission. Union Rescue Mission, 04 Sept. 2012. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.