Calculating homeless aid has relied on a flawed formula
Dec. 29, 2020 at 7:15 am
ANDY BLYE and AUSTIN FAST, Howard Center for Investigative Journalism
Eric Smith will finally have a place to call home after years of sleeping in his car and on his aunt’s sofa because of an obscure change in how the federal government calculates homeless aid.
For decades, Washington has determined how much taxpayer money to give states, counties and cities for their homeless residents, using a formula that actually has nothing to do with homelessness. But the COVID-19 pandemic, and its billions in emergency aid, forced lawmakers to rework the old, politically popular homeless formula, which spread the wealth regardless of need.
While at CCOLA Jay provided social work and case management services to adults and children struggling with homelessness through the agency s contract with the Los Angeles Homeless Service Authority (LAHSA), the suit states.
Jay worked at CCOLA s Good Shepherd Center under the supervision of a program manager who required the plaintiff to sign inaccurate timesheets falsely reflecting that she was taking the same half-hour lunch every day, according to the suit.
Jay also was denied overtime pay as well as uninterrupted meal or rest breaks, and she was not reimbursed for mileage costs for work-related driving, the suit states.
A month after she was hired, Jay began to talk about complaints from homeless clients about stolen food and personal items as well as a general lack of property protection, the suit states. Jay also told management that clients told her they were being returned to the community without adequate resources, according to the suit.
Cold Weather Alert Extended To Santa Clarita Valley
A Cold Weather Alert has been extended to multiple areas of Los Angeles County, including the Santa Clarita Valley, as wind chill temperatures are forecast to be below freezing.
The Cold Weather Alert, which had previously been issued for areas of the Antelope Valley, was extended by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (LADPH) to the Santa Clarita Valley and Mount Wilson.
“The Los Angeles County Health Officer is extending a Cold Weather Alert due to the National Weather Service’s forecast for low temperatures,” reads a statement issued by the LADPH on Saturday. “Wind chill temperatures are expected to be below 32 degrees Fahrenheit.”
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California formalising: a story of deliberately designed inequality Share Add to Bookmarks
Self-initiated dwellings in Southern California support the formalised housing systems that surround them, while bearing the brunt of all risks
Southern California has remarkable topographic diversity, boasting mountains, rolling hills, canyons, valleys and deserts. Across this varied terrain, developers have built ticky-tacky houses, ‘little boxes all the same’. Yet woven around and between the multimillion-dollar mansions, luxury condos and middle-class stucco is an architectural diversity unseen in the everyday: repurposed materials have been shaped into housing and tucked into canyons. Tent cities emerge from dry riverbeds. Homeowners quietly rent out converted garages. Unhoused families use cars as bedrooms and living rooms. Most homeowners and renters are aware of alternate housing systems, but they are also uncertain: they do not know how many people are housed where, or un