Vulnerable Populations - Homeless People in Los Angeles County, California - Research Paper Example

m homelessness problem that last for a long time having this disability which is often complicated by means of getting addicted to drugs and suffering from some physical illnesses. According to the statistics regarding Los Angeles County in California, almost one quarter of the county’s homeless population are homeless as they are chronically ill. The chronic homelessness is described as an unaccompanied disabled person who has been made homeless for more than a year or has at least suffered four periods of homelessness in last three years (National coalition for homelessness, 2009).

In Los Angeles County, there is increasing number of youngsters who have become homeless and there is also growing number of homeless veterans in the area. According to the report submitted by the government of Los Angeles, cited by Burt (2011), about 18% of homeless in County are veterans which are a 3% increase from last year i.e. 2010. Even the number of male and female veteran homelessness has increased by 51% and 22% respectively. According to Einspar (2010), homelessness is described as a lack of permanent housing that usually results either from extreme poverty problem or inability to have instant access to living environment which is suitable and ideal for the people.

Recently, there has been growing trend of family homelessness and the main factors that have contributed to increase in this problem are decline in rental housing as they are unable to cover the rent amounts charged to them and widening of gap between income that is earned and cost of housing for families that have low income. Almost all vulnerable populations are facing extreme poverty and are at great risk for both mental and physical illnesses (Nooe & Patterson, 2011). In Los Angeles County, families that have children have received attention from government authority as it is the rising area of population that is homeless.

Most of the cases have revealed that homeless families mainly comprise of mother