Our mission is more relevant now than ever before
Dear Trojan Shelter family,
As you may have heard in recent news, homelessness in Los Angeles has increased by 16%, with a total of 36,000 people experiencing homelessness this past year. The news is sobering, saddening, and frustrating.
Despite the hundreds of millions of dollars being invested to help solve the homelessness crisis in Los Angeles, the drastic increase seems to tell us otherwise. Though my previous newsletter shared the plans Governor Gavin Newsom has to increase total spending on homelessness to a total of over one billion dollars, procedures are slow, and it is going to take time for that money to find its way not only to Los Angeles, but to the many individuals currently experiencing homelessness in California.
A challenge for Trojan Shelter is that we do not know how much of that translates to college students. As we have said, 1 out of 20 UC students, 1 out of 10 Cal State students, and 1 out of 5 community college students have experienced homelessness, but because current research about the issue is so new, we have no idea how much this could have increased this past year.
Trojan Shelter plans to have 11-12 beds available for students each school term. Yes, our work is important, but there is so much you can do to help both within and beyond on organization. The more you share our mission, the greater platform we have to advocate for the need to address college homelessness. Part of our mission is to spread awareness, but we can’t do that alone. It depends on the strength of a collective of driven individuals, not a small team like Trojan Shelter’s executive board or even our large and dedicated volunteer cohort.
Here are some impactful things you can do to be a part of solving homelessness:
Call your representatives and tell them you would like to see more shelters and support for people experiencing homlessness, especially if you live in Los Angeles!
Shift from NYMBY to YIMBY
Sign your friends and family up for the monthly Trojan Shelter newsletter. You can find the interest form here!
Donate to Trojan Shelter at trojanshelter.org/donate
Share our mission!
As Trojan Shelter continues to develop and grow, we encourage you to develop and grow with us. Educate yourselves on homelessness in LA, inform those around you, and mobilize your community to take action by doing a few of these things on the list, or by finding your own ways to help.
We look forward to further continuing to engaging with you and updating you on our progress.
Sincerely,
Matthew Lee, Director of Media