About 13,000 people on public assistance tumble into homelessness every month in Los Angeles County, according to a new study that experts say provides the clearest picture yet of extreme poverty in the region.
Although many quickly find work or rely on family to get off the streets, the number experiencing "continuous, unremitting, chronic homelessness" continues to grow, even after 10,000 people were housed over the last three years, according to the report being released Tuesday by the Economic Roundtable, a nonprofit research group in Los Angeles.
The report recommended that the welfare system intervene to help children and young adults who become homeless before their condition becomes chronic.
"Prevention is critical for reducing the number of people who experience homelessness as well as the number who become chronically homeless," the study said. "Housing does not provide a solution until the pathways into homelessness are narrowed."
The group's analysis was based on records for 9 million county residents who received public assistance at any point between 2002 and 2010. The study said many systems, including disability screening, mental health, foster care and criminal justice, fed into the homelessness pipeline. The 2007 to 2010 recession also drove many out of their homes, it said.
Several homeless service providers said most of these factors had been discussed anecdotally for years, but the report is the first to capture the scale of the problem and predicted it could have a strong impact.
The latest official homeless count found 44,000 people living in county streets in a three-day period in January, a 12% increase in two years. The survey also found a 37% rise in chronically homeless people. But it has long been acknowledged that many more move in and out of homelessness throughout the year.
http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-homeless-pathways-20150825-story.html