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Dome Village was a self-governing community of "people unable or [...] unwilling to live in traditional [homeless] shelters". [1] Located in Downtown Los Angeles at 847 Golden Avenue, the complex consisted of 20 geodesic domes and was inhabited by "up to 34 individuals and their family members". Operated by Justiceville/Homeless USA, a non-profit organization, members of Dome Village were politically active in homelessness, nonviolence, and environmental issues.
Prior to becoming the Dome Village, the site was a shantytown inhabited by the homeless. In 1993, the village was founded by activist Ted Hayes. [2] The village setting is intended to create stability for residents who live an otherwise-precarious existence. A song titled "People In Need" recorded by Gospel legend, Edwin Hawkins, Tramaine Hawkins and the Edwin Hawkins Singers was dedicated to the creation of Dome Village by The Benefit Network in 1988. In 1987, Tom "Beefbone" Bolema produced a benefit 12 inch single "Justiceville/Ted's Rap" featuring The Butchers and Electro-Shock. The song became the soundtrack for the video "Justiceville", produced by Gary Glaser, which documents the bull-dozing of a Ted Hayes encampment that preceded Dome Village.
The dwellings were designed by architect Craig Chamberlain, a former student of Buckminster Fuller. The domes, which cost about $10,000 each and are easy to repair and maintain, are made of polyester fiberglass. Funding for the village provided by ARCO, a subsidiary of BP. [3]
On August 31, 2006, Hayes announced that the residents of Dome Village were being evicted and that domes would be auctioned off online. Residents, were given until October 2006 to get out, moved in traditional homeless shelters. They hope to recreate Dome Village elsewhere in Los Angeles with the proceeds from the auction. [4]
Dome Village offered numerous programs for its residents, including workshops in computer literacy, jobseeking, legal issues, and children's theatre, a community art program called Street Without a Name (SWAN), two cricket teams, community gardening programs, and many others.
The Dream Center is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit Christian Pentecostal network of community centers based in Los Angeles, California, established in 1994. The president of Dream Center is Matthew Barnett.
Homeless shelters are a type of homeless service agency which provide temporary residence for homeless individuals and families. Shelters exist to provide residents with safety and protection from exposure to the weather while simultaneously reducing the environmental impact on the community. They are similar to, but distinguishable from, various types of emergency shelters, which are typically operated for specific circumstances and populations—fleeing natural disasters or abusive social circumstances. Extreme weather conditions create problems similar to disaster management scenarios, and are handled with warming centers, which typically operate for short durations during adverse weather.
A tent city is a temporary housing facility made using tents or other temporary structures.
East Hollywood is a densely populated neighborhood of 78,000+ residents that is part of the Hollywood area of the central region of Los Angeles, California. It is notable for being the site of Los Angeles City College, Barnsdall Park, and a hospital district. There are seven public and five private schools, a Los Angeles Public Library branch, and three hospitals. Almost two-thirds of the people living there were born outside the United States, and 90% were renters. In 2000, the neighborhood had high percentages of never-married people and single parents.
The reconstruction of New Orleans refers to the rebuilding process endured by the city of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina destroyed much of the city on August 29, 2005. The storm caused levees to fail, releasing tens of billions of gallons of water. The levee failure contributed to extensive flooding in the New Orleans area and surrounding parishes. About 80% of all structures in Orleans Parish sustained water damage. Over 204,000 homes were damaged or destroyed, and more than 800,000 citizens displaced—the greatest displacement in the United States since the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. Wind damage was less severe than predicted. The damage that took place that needed to be repaired cost about $125 billion.
Edwin Reuben Hawkins was an American gospel musician, pianist, vocalist, choir master, composer, and arranger. He was one of the originators of the urban contemporary gospel sound. As the leader of the Edwin Hawkins Singers, he was probably best known for his arrangement of "Oh Happy Day" (1968–69), which was included on the "Songs of the Century" list. In 1970, the Edwin Hawkins Singers made a second foray into the charts, backing folk singer Melanie on "Lay Down ".
Housing First is a policy that offers unconditional, permanent housing as quickly as possible to homeless people, and other supportive services afterward. It was first discussed in the 1990s, and in the following decades became government policy in certain locations within the Western world. There is a substantial base of evidence showing that Housing First is both an effective solution to homelessness and a form of cost savings, as it also reduces the use of public services like hospitals, jails, and emergency shelters. Cities like Helsinki and Vienna in Europe have seen dramatic reductions in homelessness due to the adaptation of Housing First policies, as have the North American cities Columbus, Ohio, Salt Lake City, Utah, and Medicine Hat, Alberta.
Skid Row is a neighborhood in Downtown Los Angeles. The area is officially known as Central City East.
Chatsworth Hills Academy (CHA) is a private, coeducational day school located in Chatsworth, California, United States. CHA students are enrolled in Grades K through Eight and Preschool.
The government of Portland, Oregon is based on a city commission government system. Elected officials include the mayor, commissioners, and a city auditor. The mayor and commissioners are responsible for legislative policy and oversee the various bureaus that oversee the day-to-day operation of the city. Portland began using a commission form of government in 1913 following a public vote on May 3 of that year. Each elected official serves a four-year term, without term limits. Each city council member is elected at-large.
Homelessness or houselessness – also known as a state of being unhoused or unsheltered – is the condition of lacking stable, safe, and functional housing. The general category includes disparate situations, including:
The Weingart Center for the Homeless is a comprehensive human services center for homeless men and women living in Skid Row, Los Angeles. It provides on-site short and long-term services including transitional residential housing, medical & mental health, permanent supportive housing, substance abuse recovery, education, workforce development, long term case management. The Weingart Center is a 501(c)(3) non-profit.
The San Francisco Bay Area comprises nine northern California counties and contains four of the ten most expensive counties in the United States. Strong economic growth has created hundreds of thousands of new jobs, but coupled with severe restrictions on building new housing units, it has resulted in an extreme housing shortage which has driven rents to extremely high levels. The Sacramento Bee notes that large cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles both attribute their recent increases in homeless people to the housing shortage, with the result that homelessness in California overall has increased by 15% from 2015 to 2017. In September 2019, the Council of Economic Advisers released a report in which they stated that deregulation of the housing markets would reduce homelessness in some of the most constrained markets by estimates of 54% in San Francisco, 40 percent in Los Angeles, and 38 percent in San Diego, because rents would fall by 55 percent, 41 percent, and 39 percent respectively. In San Francisco, a minimum wage worker would have to work approximately 4.7 full-time jobs to be able to spend less than 30% of their income on renting a two-bedroom apartment.
Dolores Mission, Los Angeles is a Catholic parish in the largely Hispanic area of Boyle Heights in East Los Angeles. The parish has collaborated in various grassroots initiatives to combat adverse social conditions in the area, including Homeboy Industries, Proyecto Pastoral at Dolores Mission, CHIRLA, and the East Los Angeles Housing Coalition.
The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development estimated that more than 181,399 people were experiencing homelessness in California in January 2023. This represents more than 27% of the homeless population of the United States even though California has slightly less than 12% of the country's total population, and is one of the highest per capita rates in the nation, with 0.46% of residents being homeless. More than two-thirds of homeless people in California are unsheltered, which is the highest percentage of any state in the United States. 49% of the unsheltered homeless people in the United States live in California: about 123,423 people, which is eight times as many as the state with the second highest total. Even those who are sheltered are so insecurely, with 90% of homeless adults in California reporting that they spent at least one night unsheltered in the past six months.
In 2016, a report from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) revealed that the U.S. state of Oregon had an estimated homeless population of 13,238 with about 60.5% of these people still unsheltered. In 2017, these numbers were even higher. As of January 2017, Oregon has an estimated 13,953 individuals experiencing homelessness. Of this homeless population, 1,083 are family households, 1,251 are veterans, 1,462 are unaccompanied young adults, and 3,387 are individuals experiencing chronic homelessness. As of 2022, 17,959 people total experienced homelessness in Oregon, with 2,157 individuals being youth under 18, 6,671 being female, 10,931 being male, and 131 being transgender. Also among the 17,959 total homeless in 2022, 15,876 were Non-Hispanic/Non-Latino, 2,083 were Hispanic/Latino, 13,960 were white, 1,172 were Black, African American, or African, 101 were Asian or Asian American, 880 were Native American, and those of multiple race were 1,619. Oregon has seen an increase in its total homeless population consistently every year since 2010. In last three years specifically Oregon has seen a 98.5% increase 2021-2022, 22.5% increase 2020-2021, and a 13.1% increase 2019-2020.
In October 2023, an average of 90,578 people slept in New York City's homeless shelters each night. This included 23,103 single adults, 32,689 children, and 34,786 adults in families. The total number is at its highest ever, with 63,636 people sleeping in homeless shelters. The city reported that in 2019, 3,600 individuals experienced unsheltered homelessness, sleeping in public spaces such as streets and public transit rather than shelters. The homeless population has surged in New York City 18% in 2023 from 2022, despite efforts from Mayor Adams.
Pallet, established in 2016 and based in Everett, Washington, is a public benefit corporation focused on addressing unsheltered homelessness and improving employment opportunities. The company designs and manufactures rapid deployment shelters aimed at transitional housing to facilitate the move from homelessness to permanent living situations. These shelters prioritize privacy and security with features such as lockable doors and on-site bathroom facilities. Designed for quick assembly, each unit can be set up within an hour. Pallet also extends its efforts to provide emergency housing solutions and assist communities in disaster situations.
The Chicago Coalition for the Homeless (CCH) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that advocates to prevent and end homelessness in Cook County, Illinois. They do this by organizing various outreach programs, reentry projects, housing campaigns, and releasing yearly homelessness data to the public.
The Union Rescue Mission, commonly abbreviated as the URM, is a Christian homeless shelter in the Skid Row neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. It is the oldest in the city and the largest private homeless shelter in the United States. The organization behind the URM is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that was established in 1891.