{"id":90362,"date":"2019-11-11T19:30:49","date_gmt":"2019-11-12T03:30:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theavtimes.com\/?p=90362"},"modified":"2019-11-11T19:31:22","modified_gmt":"2019-11-12T03:31:22","slug":"op-ed-homelessness-the-slippery-slope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/2019\/11\/11\/op-ed-homelessness-the-slippery-slope\/","title":{"rendered":"Op-ed: Homelessness &#8211; The Slippery Slope"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure id=\"attachment_65798\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-65798\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-65798\" src=\"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Homesless-encampment-Lancaster-300x183.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"183\" srcset=\"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Homesless-encampment-Lancaster-300x183.jpg 300w, https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Homesless-encampment-Lancaster.jpg 624w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-65798\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">[File]<\/figcaption><\/figure><strong><em>By Gail Van Etten<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>We all have more in common with the homeless of our community than we do with the millionaires.<\/p>\n<p>Eighty-five percent of the nation is exactly three to six months away from homelessness due to unforeseen illness, accidents, or job loss. Yet most people do not have a back up plan nor do they believe it can happen to them. The safety nets you think unemployment, workman&#8217;s comp, or social programs provide will not cover a mortgage, rent, or any extra bills. Welfare, general relief and emergency food programs are a joke.<\/p>\n<p>I know from first-hand experience. Go investigate for yourself.<\/p>\n<p>GR emergency relief is $221 a month. Emergency food stamps is $200. If you bring in more than $900 a month from any workman&#8217;s comp, disability or unemployment, you don&#8217;t qualify for social programs. Now if you have children that might be different.<\/p>\n<p>If you are single with less than $900 a month income in any form, you can get $400 a month from the state as social aid. So let&#8217;s say you do qualify, and you get $800 a month from whatever source, and the state gives you $221 general relief. Wow, that&#8217;s a whopping $1,021 a month and $200 food aid that cannot be spent as cash &#8212; it&#8217;s strictly for food items.<\/p>\n<p>Try renting an apartment on $1,000 a month, plus utilities&#8230; Even if you look for a room for rent, most people won&#8217;t rent to a person who is not working. So if you don&#8217;t have a family member willing to take you in if you lose your job, get hurt and can&#8217;t work, have an accident and become disabled, you&#8217;re screwed!<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re already homeless and you have no income, the social programs will give you $221 a month cash aid and $200 food aid.\u00a0Try pulling yourself up out of homelessness and poverty on that&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Most people in the Antelope Valley are not homeless due to drug addiction. Veterans, mental health, disability and job loss are the main reasons.<\/p>\n<p>Do the research yourself before you judge.<\/p>\n<h4><em>About the author: Gail Van Etten is a Lancaster resident.<\/em><\/h4>\n<p>&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Gail Van Etten We all have more in common with the homeless of our community than we do with the millionaires. Eighty-five percent of the nation is exactly three to six months away from homelessness due to unforeseen illness, accidents, or job loss. Yet most people do not have a back up plan nor [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":65798,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1480],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90362"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90362\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}