A report being released this morning paints a staggering picture of a quickly growing Skid Row population. Women living on the streets are increasing in number and are older compared to past years, according to the study. More than 90% of surveyed Skid Row women also have experienced physical or sexual violence in their lifetime.
“The report has a range of findings, but it is clear that targeting services and dollars to specific groups of homeless people is what gets to the root of the problem rather than just churning more people through the system. This is certainly true of women,” said Anne Miskey, CEO of the Downtown Women’s Center.
The report, dubbed the 2016 Downtown Women’s Needs Assessment, was led by the Downtown Women’s Action Coalition (of which DWC is a partner) and based on surveys conducted with 371 homeless or formerly homeless women by the USC School of Social Work. It comes on the heels of a count by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority that reported a 55% increase in the number of homeless women in Los Angeles County since 2013.
A key finding is that women in Skid Row are getting older: 60.2% of women were 51 or older, compared to 47% in 2010. Older women reported poorer health than in previous surveys.
The trailing effects of the economic recession continue to be cited as a cause of homelessness. The DWAC report notes that nearly two-thirds of surveyed women graduated from high school or completed their GED. In 2010, just 31.8% of women responded that level of academic achievement.
The most shocking statistics concerns violence: 91% of women reported having experienced physical or sexual violence in their lifetime, with 34.3% having endured domestic violence or sexual assault within the last year.
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