As L.A. officials and residents push to get rid of RV encampments, one woman’s story reflects the mountainous obstacles faced by those who try to find housing.
By Paloma Esquivel and Rachel Uranga, Los Angeles TimesRecreational vehicles house residents living beside the Ballona Wetlands, a nature and wildlife area, along Jefferson Boulevard in Los Angeles, California, on July 5, 2023.
She didn’t feel comfortable venturing into the neighborhood. Just to use the bathroom, she had to walk to a grocery store nearly half a mile away. And when she walked down the street, men harassed and followed her. At her age, Garciaros reflects many of California’s unhoused men and women. Nearly half of all single adults living on the streets are older than 50. Many of them became homeless after an event that kicked a fragile financial situation off kilter.
Then, when she was in her late 40s, she suffered a violent attack that left her cycling between psychiatric hospitals and living with family, she says. Post-traumatic stress made it difficult to keep a job, and for a time she rented rooms in homes across the San Fernando Valley, paying about $1,000 a month. But the rooms never worked out long term, and eventually she ran out of money to secure another apartment.
“It’s the safest place I could be under the circumstances,” she said. “I know that if I needed to I could stand out right in the middle of the street and somebody would hear me.” They created a Google spreadsheet with a list of housing and mental health agencies and nonprofit groups that might help her secure an apartment, and spent hours calling, sharing her story, getting transferred, sharing again and growing increasingly frustrated at the lack of a clear pathway.
“Finally I can see a faint light at the end of this dark homeless tunnel!” she wrote on Facebook when she learned about the voucher. “I’ve been through some stuff! But Im feeling better about the future right now, and Im hoping its going to get so bright I gotta wear shades.” “Ray, are you here, honey?” Garciaros called from the sidewalk, where the acrid smell still lingered. “How are you? How can you breathe in there?”
By early August, she tracked down a studio apartment less than two miles from her RV. The listing showed vaulted ceilings, a refrigerator and access to a pool. The manager assured her they welcomed Section 8 and even recommended an upstairs unit. She filed the $45 application fee.Then she lost her wallet on the bus and her application was delayed as she scrambled to get copies of her ID. In mid-August, she learned that it hadn’t made a difference anyway, the application had been rejected.
But Garciaros wouldn’t reap the benefits. In early September, a housing authority worker reached out to her asking for updated financial documents, and she rushed to file them before the week’s end. After she met that deadline, she got yet another request for more documents.
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