Middle Class Arrives on Los Angeles' Skid Row

[Liberal_in_LA]

http://www.myfoxla.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=7726518&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.2.1

In a county that has more than 250,000 millionaires, the number of homeless continues to increase and now the faces of the homeless have changed to include lawyers, business owners, pre-med students and other highly-educated people, it was reported.

Middle Class Arrives on Los Angeles' Skid Row

Last Edited: Sunday, 26 Oct 2008, 4:50 PM PDT
Created: Sunday, 26 Oct 2008, 4:50 PM PDT

In a county that has more than 250,000 millionaires, the number of homeless continues to increase and now the faces of the homeless have changed to include lawyers, business owners, pre-med students and other highly-educated people, it was reported.

Los Angeles -- In a county that has more than 250,000 millionaires, the number of homeless continues to increase and now the faces of the homeless have changed to include lawyers, business owners, pre-med students and other highly-educated people, it was reported Sunday.

The Burbank Temporary Aid Center has experienced a 66 percent increase in requests for assistance in the last 18 months, the Daily News reported. About half of those seeking help are middle-class people experiencing homelessness for the first time, said Barbara Howell, the center's executive director.

Andy Bales, president of the Union Rescue Mission, said he is also seeing professionals and other middle-class people coming into the mission who are experiencing homelessness for the first time, including former mission donors.

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In Los Angeles County, and across the nation, experts expect the number of homeless people to grow significantly in coming months as the unemployment rate rises and home foreclosures rocket. About 760,000 people across the country have lost their jobs since Jan. 1.

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As the county's unemployment rate rose to 8.1 percent in August, the number of people receiving food stamps jumped from about 640,000 to more than 673,000.