LA’s Homeless Women Still Struggling

Published 28 Mar 2008, 8:46 am - 1 Comment -
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women on skid row GUEST: Deborah Burton, Fabiola Sandoval, Community Organizers with the Downtown Women’s Action Coalition

Since 2001, the Downtown Women’s Action Coalition has organized annual community-based research projects aimed at assessing the needs of homeless and low-income women in downtown LA. “Growing Needs and Shrinking Opportunities,” is the latest annual report surveying nearly 200 women. The DWAC has found through its research, dire housing problems, domestic and sexual assault, and failing health statistics for women living in the Skid Row/Central City East community in 2007. Of those surveyed, 62% had been homeless for at least one year while over half reported physical health problems last year. A clear majority of women reported a need for community resources. But because of the lack of such resources, nearly 40% of women reported being solicited for sexual favors in exchange for housing, protection and money. The DWAC report will be officially released at a Downtown Women’s Summit this weekend.

For more information, visit www.cangress.org

The Downtown Women’s Summit on Women, Race, and Extreme Poverty in Los Angeles, will take place Friday March 28th, from 12:30 - 3 pm at 456 Main Street in LA. There will be a keynote address by Jan Robinson Flynt of Black Women for Wellness as well as a panel discussion on the findings of the 2007 Downtown Women’s Needs Assessment and local activist efforts. For more information, call 213-680-0600.

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1 Comment to ‘LA’s Homeless Women Still Struggling’:

our sisters in action shaking up downtown « Esperanza Community Housing’s Weblog on 2 Jun 2008 at 3:24 pm: 1

[...] A month ago was the release of the Downtown Women’s Action Coalition (DWAC) third Needs Assessment. In this post you’ll find a clip of Sonali Kolhatkar’s March 28th, 2008 show where two DWAC members — Deborah Burton, longtime downtown resident and LA CAN staff member, and Fabiola Sandoval, asset manager at Esperanza — participate in the release of the study and share their insights via the radio. Uprising Radio clip [...]

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