Rising housing costs that have exceeded growth in wages, particularly for lowincome households, put Californians at risk of housing instability and homelessness. We toured Californias last nuclear power plant. A pregnant Mckenzie Trahan, top, with boyfriend Eddie near their tent on the streets of Hollywood. Jelani House will offer a comprehensive array of services for residents, including: . Mckenzie tenderly bathes her daughter, Ann, at home in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Arlington Heights. He previously worked at OC Weekly, where he was an investigative reporter for 15 years and editor for six, wrote a column called Ask a Mexican! The Great Resignation is Over. I dont think when it comes to these really specific specialty services, like mental health and substance abuse, that there is adequate funding, Hark Dietz said. (PATHs federal grant was contingent on increasing womens incomes.) They couldnt live without me. Mckenzie in court in Bellflower. Eddie had a master gardener certificate from another program for homeless people; maybe he could be a groundskeeper. During day-care pickup one afternoon, Mckenzie put a toy on the floor out of her daughters reach. A local organization helped provide her with professional attire. The challenge is how to help them. A stylist remarked that tattoos are no longer taboo in the workplace. Angels Way Maternity Home in Southern California is a refuge for homeless pregnant women who have been abandoned by their support system at this most vulnerable and critical time in their lives. Mckenzie filed online job applications, but by January only one employer, Subway, had offered an interview, she said. We meet these often frightened and lost women at the point of their immediate need, and then walk alongside them on their journey providing for their physical, emotional and spiritual needs. A court-ordered assessment found that Ann had reached all her developmental milestones and was happy, with the exception of the trauma over separation from her mother, Mckenzie said. A false question roils California Legislature, California lawmakers want answers after exit of Black Hollywood female executives, L.A. D.A. The CalWORKs Homeless Assistance (HA) Program aims to help CalWORKs families meet the reasonable costs of securing housing. The 2022-23 Budget: The Governor's Homelessness Plan Mckenzie breastfeeds her daughter in their apartment. FAQs: Homeless | HUD.gov / U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Mckenzie connected with a new partner, Anthony, and graduated from smoking meth to injecting or slamming it. I never went to high school, dude, she said as she approached the ImPACT office. But her daughters pregnancy brought her back to L.A. 15% of those surveyed at a Los Angeles youth drop-in center in 2016 identified as Juggalos. She said she could be around drugs without using herself. As the months passed without a job or permanent housing, Mckenzie wasnt feeling supported, and her relationship with PATH staff began to fray. Were proud of you! friends called out as Mckenzie and Kerr drove off. Los Angeles Times, A Cambodian American police officer helps his community heal and look forward. Im not supposed to get any further.. (The Times is withholding his full name to protect family members privacy.). But she had little time for socializing; her days were filled with appointments to clear up the medical, legal and financial problems left over from her years in the street what one social worker called the wreckage of homelessness.. God, I miss the freeway noise, she said one afternoon, switching on the air conditioning. Fresno: hot hot hot, 102. The same month, a confidential call came in to the child protection hotline alleging that Mckenzie was neglecting Ann. Eddie makes a Hello Kitty drawing for Mckenzie on her birthday. Bad City alleges bad behavior by a medical school dean, USC and within The Times. I hope that I can one day be so equipped with the skill and experiences that whatever I choose to do Ill be golden.. Wait, wasnt this a plot point on Mayans M.C.? The search for permanent housing. She had bonded with Kerr, her case manager; Kerr said Mckenzie really wanted the baby this time. If you have a memory or story about the Golden State, share it with us. A girl was found at Camp Pendleton more than two weeks after she had been reported missing, according to her family, who alleges she was . Actors said they were making progress in contract talks, then they werent. Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It took Mckenzie a year and a half to get an apartment now, she has remained inside about the same amount of time. We chronicled one homeless woman's motherhood journey since 2018. When other homeless people at an encampment sweep screamed at sanitation workers, Mckenzie read the crew the city cleanup regulations. The program also set participants up with job training. Mckenzie sat on the curb outside Dennys as the afternoon light died away. Given her history, Mckenzies eligibility seemed a foregone conclusion. That October, Mckenzie and a friend were driving through Bellflower on their way to buy her a car when sheriffs deputies pulled them over and found a meth pipe and a loaded gun in the vehicle. P.O. California woman helps elderly homeless man after calls to city ignored Hello Kitty everything, yes, Mckenzie murmured as she walked out of the exam room. Get up to speed with our Essential California newsletter, sent six days a week. She went AWOL from one foster care group home after another. Reporting this story was fun at times, heartbreaking at others, and very difficult which I think of as a taste of what homeless people experience everyday. Its about the crap Ive been through, especially on the streets, she said. Phone: 415.546.6756. Holland takes us through what happened next through words accompanied with gripping photos by Christina House, and video by Claire Hannah Collins. At Trade Technical College, Mckenzie walked warily down the glistening fluorescent-lighted hallways, looking as if shed been taken hostage. She was also very engaged in other peoples stories. Anthony went to prison, Mckenzie relapsed, and she was later jailed herself. HUD No. To see a young woman in pregnancy in a tent by the freeway I thought we were better than this. Mckenzie, top, cuddles with Eddie, her boyfriend and the babys father, in a doctors office. The program temporarily provided motel rooms to an estimated 50,000 people . She sprawled facedown on the bedroom carpet in relief. "When they come through the door we accept them unconditionally. Mission. Two of the five counts the Department of Children and Family Services had brought against Mckenzie cited her history of drug abuse and dirty homes with her two older children. She expresses shame and anguish that they were taken from her, and regrets that she didnt have a chance to celebrate their birthdays with them or to walk through the park with one clinging to her finger, as she had seen other children do with their parents. Mckenzie was given family reunification services including counseling but says she was homeless and couch surfing, and didnt keep up with required visits to the far-away foster home the boy was placed in. Mckenzie, right, and her mother Cat walk with baby Ann down the hallways at Adventist Health White Memorial hospital in Boyle Heights. Mckenzies friend Christina Bojorquez, above, holds the newborn. San Jose: partly cloudy and windy, 82. Young women may take on partners to protect against rampant sexual assault in the streets, and many of their partners dont wear condoms. Mckenzies parental rights were terminated in September 2021, under California law a near-irrevocable cutoff that ended her contact with Ann. (Please keep your story to 100 words.). You're expecting a baby! The CalWORKs Homeless Assistance (HA) Program was established to help families in the CalWORKs program meet the costs of securing or maintaining permanent housing or to provide emergency shelter when a family is experiencing homelessness. "Mckenzie was in a fairly dire situation when we first met her [in 2018]. In September, Mckenzie caught a bus and a train, then hiked up a steep hill in the scorching sun to apply for housing at the Los Angeles Dream Center in Echo Park, an arm of an evangelical megachurch with homelessness and drug abuse programs. A PATH Gramercy administrator said Mckenzie was sleeping or out walking around instead of job hunting. Everybody wants to feel needed.. I talked to Gale about her project. It was the hospitals tradition to announce every birth by sounding chimes in the waiting room. And theres like freaking people just sleeping in the f rain with no blankets, she said. Mckenzie was terrified of the delivery her third C-section and the final one the doctors said they would be able to perform safely and had been frantic that she didnt have clothes and other necessities for a baby. (She once fixed a broken car bumper with a butane lighter and zip ties.). She pleaded no contest to driving without a license and misdemeanor meth possession, although she said she was unaware the contraband was in her friends car. (Mckenzie said she never used drugs around her children.) Mckenzies services team was made up of staff from three of L.A.s top homelessness agencies. Mckenzie cooks dinner while feeding her baby. After several months of living back on the street, Mckenzie, top, receives an apartment through a housing program. Homeless and pregnant: The saga of a young woman in Hollywood Tap to enable a layout that focuses on the article. Coming home to this cute child freaking playing and smiling when she sees me I would have nothing to stop me from just f going off.. They got her through this pregnancy, Kerr said. Homeless Prenatal Program She was once homeless. Answer: We have information for people who are homeless about shelter, food, health care, jobs, and other benefits. The staff here gives me the kind of guidance I needed to excel in life. Please let us know what we can do to make this newsletter more useful to you. Mckenzie rejected psychiatric medication, at first because she was breastfeeding, but later because, she said, I prefer to rely on my own coping skills.. She was also required to receive individual counseling from a licensed therapist on keeping a home safe and healthy. Im a queen! Mckenzie said. Theyre trying to take my daughter away.. The boy was taken away and Mckenzie was sent to a group home, she said. My babys been like laughing since birth. A new consultant switched her application to a Shelter Plus Care voucher for chronically homeless people with mental health or substance abuse issues. Chunks of her hair had been torn out and she weighed less than 100 pounds, said Mckenzie and Cat, who had been just blocks away searching for her daughter. Formerly homeless and pregnant Napan finds housing, becomes a mother Although Mckenzie had been addicted to meth for a decade, she was not in a full-fledged substance use disorder recovery program, but met weekly with her drug counselor. ), Im just glad we did it, you guys, Mckenzie told visitors from her recovery bed. The problem now, of course, is the extreme housing shortage. For coverage of two of the most troubling and intractable problems facing Southern California homelessness and racial division the Los Angeles Times won two Pulitzer Prizes. Mckenzie looks toward Eddie while listening to their babys heartbeat at a Los Angeles clinic. But she didnt know how to care for herself, much less a baby, when her sons were born, Mckenzie said. She was born in Hong Kong and lived in Amman, Jordan, until she was 18. San Diego: partly cloudy, 71. Mckenzie looks out on traffic on the 101 Freeway in Hollywood, where her encampment clings to a steep embankment. Stunning spread of BA.5 subvariant shows why this California COVID wave is different. Dont you want to see? she asked, presenting a sonogram printout from the ultrasound. Other potential land mines were waiting when Mckenzie and her baby left the hospital for their apartment at PATH Gramercy. Im just supposed to be stuck here. Los Angeles Times videographer Claire Hannah Collins had proposed a story about something our organization had seldom touched on . From 2020 through 2021, the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority screened 1,413 homeless pregnant women; 229, or 1 in 6, were housed through the agency. ), and Im writing from Orange County. I guess you all made such a big old fuss like we didnt want to test you. Thats how she survived; that and the support of her friends mainly homeless teens from the foster care or juvenile justice systems, scarred by economic marginalization, and some by racism as well. Families and partners who dont want the worry of a child sometimes throw women out when they become pregnant. House of Dawn - Changing Lives, Transforming Generations Still, the deadline weighed heavily on Mckenzie, who was laser-focused on finding a permanent home that couldnt be snatched away. Her giddiness was cut with sadness over the absence of Ann, present only in the photo gallery Mckenzie had mounted on her wall. Los Angeles Times, Spring of discontent: Mexican berry pickers strike for a bigger share of profits. Rolling Stone, Meeting with the enemy: Was the leader of the Mongols motorcycle gang a double agent for the feds? She was placed in a foster home. Mckenzie was arrested on suspicion of felony drug possession. Everything was gone: the tent with built-in lights, a blow-up mattress, a new laptop, her birth certificate, housing papers and prenatal vitamins. I think it might have been better if I had one person, Mckenzie said. Im not supposed to get any further.. That June, PATH Gramercy was still open. These women have hopes and dreams like anybody else, said Heather Carmichael, executive director of My Friends Place, a leading Hollywood youth homeless agency. According to 2019 estimates, the California homeless population is transgender, and 0.4% are gender non-conforming. The 14-Day Emergency Placement Urgent Accommodation Voucher (UAV) is a self-referral program that allows families and pregnant people experiencing homelessness to receive immediate shelter in a San Francisco hotel. Cat said the substance in the rolled-up bill was powdered aspirin she had given Mckenzie for a toothache. Community Shelters and Resources can be found here. Housing Programs - California Dept. of Social Services They forged informal family relations, with play moms, dads and sisters, and formed a street crew called Dedikated Soldiers, or DKS, an offshoot of an older homeless group, the Hollywood Dogs. A Hello Kitty tank top hung from the dresser knobs. Eddie, above, panhandles at a Hollywood offramp. The CalWORKs Housing Support Program (HSP) assists homeless CalWORKs families in obtaining permanent housing, and can provide temporary shelter, help with moving costs, short to medium term rental subsidies and wraparound case management. How California Homelessness Became A Crisis : Planet Money : NPR And on June 29, she delivered a healthy baby girl named Artemis. What happened? People experiencing homelessness who menstruate have the additional burden of managing their periods a monthly occurrence that is unavoidable and expensive. A court commissioner approved a warrant to place Ann in protective custody. Now 7 months pregnant, she had developed a serious respiratory infection; three of her homeless friends moved into her tent to help her recover. 1 Altmetric Metrics Abstract Objective Investigate the association between maternal homelessness at the time of delivery and perinatal outcomes, with a focus on neonatal health outcomes. Im just playing the waiting game, waiting for them to tell me something about my housing, she said in May 2019. Sitting cross-legged on the floor in a corner of the Edmund D. Edelman Childrens Court in Monterey Park, Mckenzie was thumbing through phone videos of her daughter while waiting for a hearing to decide whether to return Ann to her care. Also I had grown up seeing what used to be called Hollywood runaways and was always curious who they were. Mckenzie went in the back with an empty cup. A baby could represent new possibilities something unsullied by all the tragedy the individual has experienced, said Khiara Bridges, a UC Berkeley law professor who has studied poverty and pregnancy. I think Im going to get a job, she said. California has spent billions to fight homelessness. The problem has I have a criminal background and tattoos. A dependency court report would later describe the home as filthy, and the social worker accused Mckenzie of smoking marijuana and possibly other drugs around the child. Mckenzie replied: You helped start a battle and then left me alone to fight it.. But PATH was planning to shut down the child-care center and convert Gramercys handsome brick building to staff offices and apartments for homeless single adults. He looked down at the ground, eyes closed and head in hand. A confidential call came in to the child protection hotline alleging that Mckenzie was neglecting her child. Transportation was a chronic stressor: Anns vaccinations and well-baby checkups were an hours bus ride away in Boyle Heights. California has spent a stunning $17.5 billion trying to combat homelessness over just four years. Sacramento County Department of Human . In covering homelessness for about eight years, there are so many things Ive seen that I found shocking, especially in a country as rich as ours. The so-called disso queen, whose former clients range from Kim Kardashian to Johnny Depp, reflects on the state of our unions. But she had signed up with multiple agencies, believing there was safety in numbers; each group had let her down in the past, she said. She had a lot to share about her dreams and aspirations, Watts recalled. Mckenzie shone in the program, said Jonae Watts, her employment specialist. Its going to be a Hello Kitty party.. She was one of the face-painted fans known as Juggalos who followed the outsider band Insane Clown Posse. Homeless young women are nearly five times more likely to become pregnant and more likely still to experience repeat pregnancies than those who are housed. Published July 7, 2023 Updated July 8, 2023 11:47 AM PT. Now I have to keep it, Mckenzie recalled later, laughing and crying together. Now, that seems to be ending. Im a grown-ass woman. Read our series, watch our videos and see more photos. Homeless Prenatal Program. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times. Mckenzie had entrusted the baby to a friend so he wouldnt be homeless, dependency court documents say. Ann, now nearly 6 months old, sat in the shopping cart clutching her first balloon. In the past, I think we as a society were content to let homeless people languish in the foster care-to jail-to the streets cycle as long as they were contained on skid row, Hollywood as it decayed and other hot spots. But Mckenzie missed her friends. Im lonely believe that but its worth it. "Siena House has provided me with a safe place to live where I feel secure and cared about. Any time we would face an issue we would flee, Mckenzie said, sneezing into the elbow of her fleece top.
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