Homelessness The Hidden Nightmare Of Los Angeles Economics Essay

Homelessness The Hidden Nightmare Of Los Angeles Economics Essay Los Angeles, California ranks in as the second largest city in the United States. It is home to 3.8 billion people, including many famous movie stars. Known for being one of the sunniest and most tourist-conscious cities, Los Angeles offers many attractions for visitors (problem of homelessness). They hold many sports venues as well, including the Staples Center, which houses the L.A. Lakers and many award shows, like the Grammys. Over the years Los Angeles developed nicknames for its city, such as L.A. and The City of Angels (Los Ang. Wikipedia). While some people might call it The City of Angels, others could not disagree more with the nickname. During the daytime Los Angeles is a place of business, upper-class citizens roam the streets and movie producers are filming there next big hit. On the other hand, at nighttime its nothing more than a nightmare you cannot wake up from; thousands of people are left roaming the streets searching for a place to sleep. What we do not typically hear about or see is Los Angeless Skid Row, which hides in the shadows of the downtown skyline. This fifty block section of downtown L.A. holds the largest concentrated area of homeless people in the entire United States (los Ang City of stars). The section of Fifth Street is also referred to as the nickel. It is said that Skid Row is Americas only third world city (Skid Row wikipedia). Skid Row is nothing more than a result of the neighborhoods gentrification. These horrifying streets are home to the unwanted. Many police officers from other jurisdictions have been seen dumping homeless people in the area; they cannot provide correct services to them, so they dump them there. Already overwhelmed with the abundance of homeless people, the county is facing a major problem with social service organizations being short staffed and are experiencing a shortage of funds. Any services that a homeless person might be offered, is located in the downtown area of Los Angeles (Los An. City of stars). The LAPD Chief thought he had found a solution to help local businesses and real estate developers weed out the site of homeless people. He would have anyone arrested for minor infractions, littering, sleeping on sidewalks, and public urination. Unfortunately, his strategies were only wishful thinking. Soon after his rules were put into affect the city jails were overpopulated with homeless people and could not hold anymore. It was also costing the city more to keep them in jail, than it did to help house them for the night (Los An. City of stars). Recent plans for Skid Row have been to build condos and lofts that sell for $700,000. This would completely gentrify the area and push homeless people further away. Without anywhere else in the county offering assistance for the homeless, they have nowhere and no one to turn to for help. Los Angeles Homeless Service Authority could not afford the new rent. They were forced to move because the building was being renovated into condominiums. The downtown area is being renovated to attract new businesses, but the downfall of it all is that its causing rental prices to become non-affordable. New homes and condos are priced at an average of $2,000 to $3,000 per month. Los Angeles has the most expensive rental market in the entire state of California. With housing costs on the rise and the supply of affordable housing falling, many people are struggling to keep a roof over their head. Due to the renovations and demolitions, the 28,000 affordable homes L.A. produced from 2001 to 2006 meant nothing, because they lost 11,000 homes in the process (research briefly). Los Angeles is demolishing perfectly good homes, during the middle of a housing crisis. Coalition for Economic Survival and Housing LA, have both been fighting to stop renovations and demolitions. Thankfully, the City Planning Department has recently started to deny some request for such demolition. They are also making it a requirement that some of the residences have to be affordable (livable places). To restore Los Angeless middle class society, it must provide and create enough affordable housing units. Affordable housing is the ratio of housing costs to household income. Families should not pay more than 30% of their income, but in L.A. most moderate to low income families, pay 50%. For someone to live in a one-bedroom apartment in L.A., they must make a minimum of $48,000 a year (livable places). An average family of four with two working parents must make $70,000 a year, just to skim by (Los An. City of stars). In 2007, only 3% of homes sold in Los Angeles were affordable for median income families (Pricey properties). As the need for housing grows larger the number of homeless people, also increase. Not only are these developers building new condos, but they are evicting residents as well. These families that are being evicted or flat out cannot afford the new pricing are left without a home. Due to the shortage of affordable housing units, the Hollywood Community Housing Corporation formed a lottery for people to have a chance to secure a spot in a new fifty-eight unit subsidized apartment. Lines formed seven hundred people deep, waiting for an application. Even though they might have received an application, that did not mean they were accepted. The housing corporations executive director, said that subsidized projects similar to this one were becoming more and more difficult to finance (Hundreds wait). For families who do not win the lottery, they are left on the streets and shooed away. Because of the increase and wide spread of non-affordable housing, homelessness is at an all time high. What used to be a designated area for the homeless in Los Angeles, Skid Row, is now a wide spread community epidemic. Homelessness is no longer designated to the poorer areas of Los Angeles; the entire county is now seeing, what was once an isolated phenomenon. All eight of the Service Planning Areas have been heavily affected. On an average night in Los Angeles, 73,000 homeless people roam the streets without a place to sleep. Around 40% of the homeless have been this way for less than a year. About half the residents living in L.A. are housing a family member or friend, to keep them off the streets. Los Angeles County supplies 17,000 emergency beds for the homeless. This low amount does not even come close to the demand for them. Shelter Partnership did a study that showed how L.A.s shelters and agencies only accommodate a quarter of homeless families (research and). The Los Angeles Unified School District has reported a 35% increase of homeless students. Recent data has revealed that the number of homeless families with children is rising. Between 2006 and 2007 HUD data reported that public schools were teaching an estimated 680,000 children that were either homeless or living in an unstable environment. Studies have shown that homelessness can lower a childs academic performance and reduce high school completion. Homeless children are nearly three times more likely to suffer from emotional or behavior problems, thus in the long run affecting their education. An estimated amount of 10,000 people were found living in inhabitable areas (the medical news). Not only has the lack of affordable housing caused homelessness, but the economy as well. The recession has impacted the job market greatly. It has been projected by Goldman Sachs that unemployment will continue to rise throughout 2010. This would cause nearly 10 million Americans to live in poverty. The United States is dealing with the highest amount of unemployment rates, it has ever seen. It is likely that the nation will face its highest increase in severe poverty, than it has in the last 30 years. The current recession is more likely to cause the risk of homelessness. Unlike previous recessions that provided safety nets to protect jobless families, the assistance for families now is weaker than ever (budget and policy). The non-profit organization, Chrysalis, provides employment opportunities to help family prevent the risk of becoming homeless. Chrysalis Enterprises is Los Angeles only non-profit organization. Each year, they help over 2,500 people avoid the risks of poverty and homelessness. They provide yearly assistance for transitional jobs to 600 men and women every year (Chrysalis). Even though Congress is expected to try and restore several million jobs, an unbelievably high number of people will still be at the risk of becoming homeless Local and state jurisdictions have arranged interagency plans to prevent homelessness. This has helped reduce the number of unsheltered people in the past, and if proper resources are used than it could lessen the increase of homelessness during the recession. Adequate funding must be provided in order for the interagency plans to function effectively. However, states and localities are dealing with budget shortfalls. The recession has caused them to cut programs and raise taxes to try and keep their budget balanced. Homelessness prevention will without a doubt struggle to maintain, let alone increase proper funding (budget and funding). Between 2007 and 2008 Los Angeles County has reported a 12% increase in welfare assistance for families who are homeless. More families will fall into deep poverty if the unemployment rate keeps rising. An estimated 900,000 to 1.1 million families with children will reach the level of severe poverty if this happens, leaving them with the risk of homelessness and housing instability. Despite falling incomes and rising unemployment, rents are still being driven through the roof. Home foreclosures constantly keep pushing home owners into the rental market. The severe problem with home foreclosures and housing sectors only help cater the increase of homeless families. The demand for rental units will continually grow even though the prices of homes are falling. Families, who would originally be buying homes right now, are renting; they are waiting for the economy and prices to stabilize before doing so. Homelessness will continue to rise during the recession, as long as the housing market maintains its ongoing troubles. One way Los Angeles can help try to prevent homelessness, is by offering housing vouchers. These vouchers can be used for families to pay past due utility bills or rent. Families dealing with foreclosure can be assisted with relocation funds, a one-time cost associated with moving into a new home. Unfortunately, the only way these short-term assistance programs will work, is if families are able to uphold their ongoing rental costs. A recent five year study has proven that housing vouchers are effective in preventing homelessness. The government needs to grant a substantial number of additional vouchers in the economic recovery package. In an economic crisis, such as now, voucher programs work the best. As a familys income changes the amount of subsidy they receive will also change. Costs will also decline as the participants gain employment and their earnings increase. In 2008, Congress provided 15,000 new housing vouchers. Only 2,840 of the new vouchers were given to families with children; the families also had to be connected to the foster system. The rest of the vouchers were set aside for disabled people and homeless veterans. If no special restrictions on eligibility for new vouchers are set by Congress, then state and local agencies that receive the funds will be responsible for disbursing them. It is likely that more than half of the vouchers will be given to poor families with children. If 200,000 new housing vouchers were given throughout 2010, including administrative fees, it would cost $2.1 billion. These additional vouchers could strain HUDs 2011 budget. Subsequent budget pressures could be avoided, if the recovery package stated that agencies could not reissue vouchers after a family has left the program and other vouchers have to be out of circulation by the end of 2010. By not allowing agencies to reissue vouchers, roughly 30% of the new vouchers will be retired by the ending calendar year of 2010. Because of the recession, it is unlikely that families will leave the program, but there is still a chance that some families might leave the program for non-economic reasons. The possibility of less people leaving the program than anticipated could result in a need for additional funding in 2011, to sustain new vouchers that were not offset. The proposed funding of $2.1 billion is only meant to cover a sixteen month period. If Congress provided a twenty month program, than agencies could accept a higher number of vouchers and further help prevent homelessness in their community. With the new proposal, families would be able to spend more money on food, clothing, and health care. The benefits of trying to eliminate and reduce homelessness would be immediate and long-term. New vouchers would help pump funds back into local economies within a four to six month period. When comparing Michigan to California with the estimated state shares of recommended increases in housing vouchers and ESG homelessness prevention funding, California will receive 26,962 more vouchers and $182,507,187 more new ESG funds than Michigan (Budget and Policy).

Antilock Brakes Essay -- essays papers

Antilock Brakes Antilock brakes are impressive performers on the test track and in television advertising. What has surprised a lot of people is that anti-lock brakes are not reducing the frequency or cost of accidents. This is the case despite the obvious benefits of antilock brakes in test situations. The reason why anti-locks are not making the expected and much projected difference is because many drivers lack the knowledge and experience need to use ABS (Anti-lock Braking System) effectively. I. Introduction A. What are ABS (Anti-lock Braking System) B. Popularity of ABS II. What ABS do and don’t do A. In normal breaking conditions B. In conditions such as: rain, snow, ice C. Why don’t ABS work so well on dry roads III. Understanding ABS A. How ABS works B. Wheel Slip IV. Testing/Findings/Conclusion A. Testing of ABS vs. Conventional Brakes B. Test results C. Conclusion ABS (Anti-lock Brake System): WHAT THEY CAN AND CANNOT DO I. Introduction Antilock brakes are impressive performers on the test track and in television advertising. The idea behind anti-lock brakes is simple. Anti-lock brakes are designed to prevent skidding and help drivers maintain steering control during an emergency-braking situation, by automatically pumping the brakes for the driver to prevent wheel lock. Because the wheels are kept from locking up, the driver is able to better control the vehicle. What has surprised a lot of people is that anti-lock brakes are not reducing the frequency or cost of accidents. This is the case despite the obvious benefits of antilock brakes in test situations. Antilock brakes have become very popular with the public. Forty-three percent of the 1993 model cars came equipped with them and the ratio for 1994 models is eighty percent. This brings the total number of cars on the road today with anti-locks to about 18,000,000. Much of the increase is because of the growing safety reputation antilock brakes forged on the test track. This reputation has been inflated by car commercials that imply anti-locks can prevent crashes because of better stopping power under all conditions. Consumers very often haven't been shown cars with anti-locks performing on surfaces tha... ...ses are: be alert, allow enough stopping distance, and understand your car's safety technology. Bibliography: ANNONATIVE BIBOLGRAPHY ACT Traffic Handbook-Part D Road Craft Online. Internet. 05 April 2000. Available at http://www.act.gov.au/living/roads/traffic/ptdr. html Provided tips and information on how to be a safe and smarter driver. Car Safety Magazine Highway Loss Data Institute. (1996). â€Å"Insurance losses of car equipped with ABS†. Online. Internet. 05 April 2000.Available at http://www.carsafety.org/sr.htm This article provided the testing and results of their investigation, and of The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. CCJ’s Magazine Ross, Chris. (1996). March 1996 article â€Å"Anti-lock braking system†. Online. Internet. 05 April 2000. Available at http://www.ccjmagazine.com/ABS.htm This article provided information of the impact ABS had on the commercial vehicle industry. The Mad Scientist Popa, Adrian. (1998). â€Å"How does the ABS (Anti-lock Brake System) work?† Online. Internet. 05 April 2000. Available at http://www.madscientist.com This article provides information on the computer systems that control ABS.

Importance and Effects of “Knowing Thyself”

According to Armstrong (1999), twentieth century man had mistakenly associated intelligence with the â€Å"bookworm, the egg head and the academics† (8).   Fortunately, Howard Gardner, a psychologist, had developed the theory of multiple intelligence or seven kinds of smarts. According to this theory, there are many ways to be smart or to be intelligent aside from academic excellence. The seven intelligences are linguistic intelligence, musical intelligence, logical-mathematical intelligence, spatial intelligence, bodily kinesthetic intelligence, and interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligence (9-12). Knowledge and understanding of these kinds of intelligence or smarts tends to broaden self-understanding and boost human relationships and career. This paper will discuss the importance and potential effects of â€Å"knowing thyself† and interpersonal intelligence, intrapersonal intelligence and linguistic intelligence within relationships and career. I.Importance/effects A.  Ã‚  Ã‚   Acceptance of oneself   and others One of the main sources of family conflicts is parent’s relentless preoccupation of  Ã‚   developing their children into persons who they are not. Every parent wants their children to excel in academics and to become a doctor, a scientist or an engineer someday. Most importantly, they want their children to be known as intelligent. Because of this, they place too much emphasis on the academics.   Ever since their child first entered school, he is led to believe that he can only be considered intelligent when he gets good grades. Otherwise, his parents and society will consider him a loser and a failure. Moreover, parents usually prevent their child from pursuing a career that for them do not appear to be respectable, admirable and promising. They would dissuade their children from pursuing a singing, dancing, athletic or other careers that they judged to be inferior in quality. When the child do not meet the expectations of his parents it will led to disappointment and frustration for both parent and child (Corwin 40-41). Linguistic intelligence is very important in this case for the child. Through the use of words, he can effectively persuade his parents to understand that not all people are crafted in one mold. Being smart in words is also beneficial in developing his convincing arguments (Armstrong 28) so that the parents will learn to understand and accept him for who he is and not for what they imagined him to be. For the part of  Ã‚   the parents, being people smart or having interpersonal intelligence will be helpful here. Being people smart help the parents to read in the behavior of their child that he has other plans for his life (Armstrong   110)   and forcing him to do the things against his nature will only destroy him. B.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Avoid wasting   time   in unproductive pursuits One common mistake of man is that he has the tendency to do the things that do not interest him   due to   peer or parental pressure.   As a result, he will enroll in a course that he does not like and will most likely dropout later because of poor academic performance. College school counselors usually encounter this kind of problem with their students. Other students however did manage to acquire a diploma in a course they hate and eventually land in a job that for them is a â€Å"prison sentence† (Dahl 2008). In both cases, their decision results to a waste of precious time. In the first case the man should have enrolled immediately in the course that interests him and in the second case, the man     should be engaging in a career that he loves and which he will most likely excel in.   In a metaphorical sense, both cases also waste precious time in acquainting man to his passions. Intrapersonal intelligence or being self-smart helps man avoid this kind of life detour. When a man is self-smart, he has a positive self-image; he is fully aware of his own weakness and strengths and therefore would know what is good for him (Armstrong 133). He knows that pleasing his parents in this situation would only result to lifelong regret so he refuses to follow their wishes. Above all, he knows that in the end he is the master of his own fate. C.  Ã‚  Ã‚   Minimize life   stress Building relationships with other people can be a stressful experience. People have different characters, preferences and values. As a result, there would be misunderstandings and quarrels. However applying interpersonal intelligence can minimize stress. People who have interpersonal intelligence had the ability to â€Å"understand and work† with people. They are compassionate and respond favorably to people’s moods or temperaments (Armstrong 11). So instead of reacting negatively to them, they tend to ease the tension through empathy.   Without interpersonal intelligence, people can be very prejudice of others (Armstrong 112).   This is especially true with different ethnic races in America, specifically the black and the whites. Tensions are built whenever people of differing ethnic backgrounds meet. People are so stressed by merely thinking what race groups are up to against them.   Fortunately, American citizens are now getting to gradual understanding that they can work together in spite of their differences (Schaefer 10). So much stress also results when a person engages in pursuits that do no interest him or in which he is not good at. In the quest to be accepted or approved by others, a man who possesses a high degree of interpersonal intelligence and a low degree of logical-mathematical intelligence may find himself working as an accountant.   As he does not love numbers, he had to spend more effort and energy to do his job, and he will most likely meet many failures along the way resulting to depression. He realized that he is like a man who actually does not know where he is going or what he wants. Yet when he follows where his intelligence lays, he experiences less stress for he loves to do what he is doing and most likely, he will give it his 100% (Covey 99). D.  Ã‚  Ã‚   Increase   effectiveness A person who operates in the realm of his intelligence will most likely become effective. Consider Martin Luther King Jr. King was a good communicator; he was persuasive and able to express clearly his intentions or ideas. He uses his linguistic intelligence to free the black race from the oppression of racial segregation from the 1950’s to the 1960’s (Srieter 2004).   King could have chosen to keep quite and work as a typical black farmer who minds his own business. Instead, he inspired the Black people to action and led them ultimately to freedom. A man who had no linguistic intelligence like King would have never successfully rallied a crowd behind him. E.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Happiness and Self-fulfillment When a man loves what he is doing, he   Ã‚  Ã‚  would naturally feel happy. His work was not a burden to him but instead a source of inspiration and reward.   In addition, because he loves what he is doing he will most likely excel in it (Dahl 2008; Covey 47). Mother Theresa and Martin Luther King, Jr.  Ã‚   may have chosen a path that most people would never tread upon yet they were happy for they were true to themselves, using their respective linguistic and  Ã‚   interpersonal intelligence to change lives. Mother Theresa and Martin Luther King know themselves well; there is no record that they ever regret doing what they did in spite of the hardships, they encountered. They were self-fulfilled individuals who were able to contribute positively in this world using the kinds of smarts that God gave them. II. Conclusion Understanding the existence of multiple intelligence, particularly linguistics, interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligence can be one of the greatest achievements for any person.   Application of these intelligences will help him to accept himself or others for who they are, help him not to waste his time pursuing unsuitable careers, lessen the stress in his life, increase his effectiveness and led him to a happy and self-fulfilled life. Works Cited Armstrong, Thomas. 7 kinds of smarts: Identifying and developing your multiple intelligences. Plume, 1999. Corwin, Donna. Pushed to the Edge: How To Stop the Child Competition Race so Everyone Wins. New York: Berkeley Publishing Group, 2003. Covey, Stephen. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989. Dahl, Mary Clista. â€Å"How to Choose a Career That Makes You Smile†. College Journal for   the Wall Street Journal. 2008.   Dow Jones and Company, Inc. Accessed March 14, 2008 Schaefer, Richard T. Racial and Ethnic Groups, tenth ed. New York: Prentice-Hall, 2006. Srieter, Susan. Martin Luther King, Jr. Cyclopedia of World Authors Fourth Revised Edition. Salem Press Inc., 2004                                                      

Ozraptor - Facts and Figures

Name: Ozraptor (Greek for lizard from Oz): pronounced OZ-rap-tore Habitat: Woodlands of Australia Historical Period: Middle Jurassic (175 million years ago) Size and Weight: About nine feet long and 100 pounds Diet: Meat Distinguishing Characteristics: Moderate size; bipedal posture About Ozraptor Sometimes, a single leg bone can be enough to shed light on a creature that lived 175 million years ago. Thats the case with the Australian Ozraptor, the partial tibia of which was first identified as belonging to a Jurassic turtle, and then reassigned to a new (and relatively early) genus of theropod (meat-eating dinosaur) closely related to the South American Abelisaurus. Until more fossil specimens are identified, though, thats all we may ever know about this distinctively named dinosaur--and you should know that many experts are extremely skeptical about the existence of various dinosaur families, such as tyrannosaurs and ornithomimids (bird mimics), in the lands Down Under. One thing you we can definitely say about Ozraptor is that it was not technically a raptor, the family of dinosaurs typified by the North American Deinonychus and the central Asian Velociraptor (somewhat confusingly, paleontologists love to attach the raptor root to non-raptor dinosaurs, such as Gigantoraptor and Megaraptor). Raptors were a distinctive family of theropods that lived during the middle to late Cretaceous period, and were characterized, among other things, by their presumed coats of feathers and single, oversized, curving claws on each of their hind feet--thus ruling out the middle Jurassic Ozraptor, whatever type of dinosaur it turns out to be!