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Last week, at the same time that we were getting the dismal news about Los Angeles’ growing unhoused population, we were also getting bad news out of New York. A record 100,000 people are now living in New York’s shelters. Buried in this piece is the fact that while quite a lot of these people are migrants, New York’s own homeless population is growing as well. This is not a phenomenon that is unique to these two cities. Homelessness is growing everywhere, and, as COVID protections end, while inflation continues to keep basic living costs high, and the rent continues to be too damn high, it is only going to keep growing.
I am writing this as I prepare to go to our weekly Skid Row spot to help as many people as we can order birth certificates and go to the DMV. The problem in LA is rising but right now we don’t have the budget to add staff, so my most steadfast Los Angeles volunteer- my mother- and I are doing our best. Sometimes it feels a little like throwing a glass of water into a wildfire. The numbers are so vast, and housing is so scarce, how can we possibly make a difference? But, when we are with our clients at the DMV and they are so excited and so grateful to get the IDs they desperately need, or when a client looks at the birth certificate that finally arrived with something close to wonder, I am reminded that, while through our action fund I am trying put out the fire once and for all, it still matters if we help just one person. Every person is worth the work.
As you settle back into work after the holiday, please consider giving enough to help just one person. $40, our average ID cost, is really a small amount of money when you consider that it will change a life.
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Thank you,
Kat
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