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Racing from her last class of the day at Cal State Long Beach, Shellv Candler had about an hour to get to Wilmington. Her mother was trying to save her a bed at the Doors of Hope Women’s Shelter, but curfew was 6:45 sharp. The college student’s commute by bus and train was stressful. But she and her mother had been through worse. The foreclosure of the family home. Evictions. Relatives who could give them shelter for only so long. Some nights, with nowhere to go, they’d ridden the bus until...

Nearly every day, a person staying at the Torres Shelter manages to beat homelessness and turn his or her life around. Now, the shelter has a new, in a long line of the most recent success stories, one of many that prove anyone can get back on their feet. This story proves how one woman used kindness and perseverance to move out of the shelter, and found a place to live Marjorie Totten didn't expect to find herself homeless. At 68 years old, she says she had to escape a domestic violence...

For the past nine years, Linda Orozco has been looking for the impossible in all the wrong places. Tuesday morning, she may have finally found what she’s been looking for. Since 2007, Orozco has sought help for her son, now 36, afflicted with the twin demons of schizophrenia and methamphetamine addiction. For the past three years, her son has been living on the streets. Orozco estimates he’s been arrested 20 times and committed to the county’s Psychiatric Health Facility ( PHF ) at least six...

Sonoma County does not adequately monitor the use of psychotropic drugs among local foster youth, raising the possibility the county may be inappropriately medicating children or over-prescribing the mind-altering medications, according to a report released Tuesday by the California Auditor’s Office. County officials, however, strongly questioned some of the findings and insisted state auditors reviewed only limited documentation of the care foster youth received. The state did not review...

The City Attorney’s Office and various city and county partners are launching a program to house and rehabilitate people who repeatedly commit misdemeanor crimes such as public drunkenness or trespassing downtown. The offenders often are homeless people who commit quality-of-life crimes, meaning offenses such as disorderly conduct, public drunkenness and trespassing. City Attorney Jan Goldsmith said the SMART initiative — the acronym stands for San Diego Misdemeanant At-Risk Track — is an...

Orange County is set to get its first emergency medical centers dedicated to treating people who suffer sudden psychiatric episodes, addressing a void that critics say long has burdened local hospitals and left mentally ill patients with inadequate treatment. County supervisors voted Tuesday to accept a nearly $3.1 million competitive state grant that will help pay for building renovations and program start-up costs for the expanded care at two undetermined locations. Supervisor Andrew Do...

Where in California has the gap between rich and poor grown most since the Great Recession? The Bay Area, home of your Zuckerbergs and Steyers and some of the most expensive zip codes in the country, seems like a logical answer. Over the past decade, what other part of California has minted as many members of the “1 percent” as Silicon Valley? But according to research from the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California , income inequality in the Bay Area has worsened only marginally,...

From the organizers of the 2016 ACEs Conference , San Francisco, CA, October 19th -21st, 2016. Please consider submitting your project today! We know building connections and learning across fields is the best way to advance practices that support children. That’s why we’re very excited to invite you to submit your work to the 2016 Conference on Adverse Childhood Experiences Project Showcase . We’re looking to highlight research, programs, tools or other initiatives that: Highlight the role...

Last year, as anyone looking for an apartment knows, we saw huge rent increases, with double-digit jumps throughout much of the Bay Area. But 2016 is a different story, with an average rent growth of only 3.7 percent projected for the San Francisco metro area this year, according to research from AppFolio . The property management software company found that all of the action has moved east, and not just to the Oakland metro area, which at 4.2 percent has the highest projected rent growth in...

SAN JOSE -- Talking to a man who could lose his apartment and wind up homeless in a city of soaring rents where the median home price has hit $1 million, Ray Bramson understands the frustration and despair. He's been there. At six years old, Bramson lived inside a tent in Hawaii for several weeks after his father's job as a photographer ended. He remembers a childhood that at times was like "an extended camping trip." "We went from having a house to moving around and camping and having all...

Efforts are underway in figuring out how to best provide care for children who have experienced trauma in their lives, with regional expert organizations looking at one of Long Beach’s very own health care providers for guidance. Experts from First 5 LA, the California Community Foundation, the California Endowment and the Ralph M. Parsons Foundation are among a group of organizations that recently announced a collective effort to advance a comprehensive approach to trauma-informed care in...

At 10 a.m. on a recent Wednesday, a line of parents pushing strollers filed into a conference room at the Sacramento County Courthouse. They sat at rows of narrow plastic tables, shushing their babies and gazing up at a man in a black robe. Hearing Officer Jim Teal sounded his gavel. “This is the time and place set for Early Intervention Family Drug Court,” he began, gazing sternly at the rapt faces of parents who sit before him. “Graduation from this court is considered a critical factor in...