USC fights increasing LA homelessness across multiple disciplines


Design by Naylee Nagda

Nearly 58,000 people are homeless on any given night in Los Angeles County, according to the Los Angeles Homeless Service Authority’s 2017 data report.

As homelessness in Los Angeles reaches an all-time high, the University community, in its second year of partnership with LAHSA, has been coming together to fight the crisis. From student-run organizations to faculty-organized housing projects, the University has shown consistent dedication to solving this growing issue.

Assistant professor of social work Benjamin Henwood has been a key member in researching homelessness in Los Angeles. Henwood began a two-year study analyzing current treatments for homelessness and their levels of effectiveness.

“[Homelessness] was an intellectual interest of mine, but then actually doing the work … people who experience homelessness are in a lot of ways dehumanized,” Henwood said. “So, the impact of being able to work with people and showing them the kind of respect anyone would want and seeing what difference that made has had a big impact on me.”

Henwood said that the accelerated rate of aging for the homeless population has impacted the effectiveness of treatments. According to Henwood, homelessness results in the human body showing signs of physical aging at a quicker rate. The project intends to better address the needs of the homeless population.

“You get sicker quicker, you die quicker,” Henwood said. “The housing programs designed for this population don’t necessarily consider them an elderly population, so even though the average age is 55, [their bodies] are closer to [that of] a 75-year-old.”

In addition to conducting research, Henwood leads the Grand Challenge to End Homelessness, a program by the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare that aims to end the crisis in 10 years.

Ending homelessness entirely, however, is not easy, but according to Henwood, students can help contribute to the initiative.

“Students can get more involved and aware of the issues by volunteering for the homeless count,” Henwood said. “That in itself doesn’t necessarily contribute to ending it, but it’s part of the process. What’s most clear is that students might want to get involved, but I think changing policies and getting more support and resources is important.”

According to Henwood, another complication with the initiative to end homelessness lies in funding.

“The funding is an issue for our initiative to better organize and develop the infrastructure we need,” Henwood said. “We don’t spend a lot of money on this and then we wonder why it’s such an issue.”

Another USC faculty member, lecturer Sofia Borges from the School of Architecture, has also demonstrated an interest in tackling the issue of homelessness by connecting her knowledge of architecture to the cause.

“It all starts and ends with shelter,” Borges said. “That’s the most fundamental human need … and especially in a place like Los Angeles [where] we have a housing shortage. As architects, we have the rare skill to be able to design shelter and house people … Housing should be a fundamental human right and … we should be at the forefront of that issue.”

This belief has led her to make USC alumni David and Mary Martin’s idea for MADWORKSHOP Homeless Studio — which delves into the architect’s role in addressing homelessness through traditional housing solutions — a reality.

Borges and USC assistant professor of practice in architecture Ronald Scott Mitchell collaborated with MADWORKSHOP, a design education foundation, to coach fourth-year students at the School of Architecture in their development of structures, which can ultimately be used as housing for the homeless.

“The studio and the students proposed not only a plausible solution for emergency stabilization housing in Los Angeles, but also that project was really city supported … and so, to have [USC] really get behind that idea, not just the terms of saying they support it but to actually put some funding toward it … [is] a good thing to do,” Borges said.

Another initiative to address the growing homelessness issue is the Share-A-Meal Foundation located on campus. The student-run organization, which is connected to the nonprofit Khalsa Peace Corps, operates every week to help the homeless.

“What makes us unique as a charity is that we operate out of a food truck, so we’re basically a mobile kitchen, so we serve the homeless directly from there,” said Robert Stark, the head of USC Share-A-Meal.

In the past year, the University has collaborated with several organizations across Los Angeles to bring more awareness to the growing homeless population, and develop solutions to combat it.

In April 2017, USC held a summit where President C. L. Max Nikias hosted various social work groups in an effort to combat the issue. Since the summit, the initiatives USC has taken have been slowly working toward the prevention of homelessness as a whole.

“[The University community has] a moral imperative to help those in our community who are struggling just to survive,” Nikias said at the summit.