Solving the Hygiene Insecurity Issue in Los Angeles County.

Income Inequality

County of Los Angeles

Pilot or new project, program, or initiative

Hygiene insecurity is neglected when being compared to shelter and food insecurity. We have had the elderly, adults, teenagers, and children express the challenges they have experienced because of hygiene cost. Parents have cried because they didn't feel comfortable to attend an interview because they have not showered in weeks. The elderly expressed gratitude because they received oral hygiene from us, they didn't brush their teeth in months. A teenager informed us that they didn't have access to clean underwear in 6 months. This is why hygiene insecurity needs to be addressed now, poor hygiene leads to more deaths or viruses being spread, let's eliminate this issue! In a recent survey, we asked 35 people, should hygiene be provided to students for free? Each person answered yes. We also asked 35 people, would a mobile shower truck be beneficial for the unhoused population, again, they answered yes. Poor individuals can't focus on buying hygiene because they have to buy food instead.

Approximately, in 2022, 70,000 people were considered homeless in the Los Angeles County. In the same year, there was a 9 % increase of homeless young people under the age of 18. The funding will help increase the current percentage of homeless people living on the streets gain access to showers. Since we participate in a large amount of outreach, we would provide showers alongside the hygiene kits we provide. The funding will help reduce the current percentage of homeless youth needing shelter. We would be able to provide housing and hygiene to the homeless youth. This would be two problems being addressed at once. We would also tackle the issue of students struggling to have hygiene. We would speak to the school district to see how we can distribute hygiene to the students. At a Juneteenth event, this past Sunday, we spoke to a high school student about providing hygiene inside of schools for students. She explained that it would be a great idea because some students can't afford tampons, shower gel, or even deodorant. She ended the conversation by saying, she knew these students personally, sadly, they are bullied for having an odor. Although we want to address shelter insecurity for the homeless youth, we are really dedicated to solving the hygiene insecurity issue. Out of 1000 nonprofit organizations, 5 focuses primarily on donating hygiene products. This is why we focus on hygiene; we have watched organizations place a shoe on a person's foot, the foot was infected.

Not only would an increase of people want to be clean, but the youth would also be more susceptible to succeed. LEARN can only be significant if we start helping the youth now. In a previous question, I stated that if we help the youth when they are younger, they will not become an older person living or dying on the streets. Our success for each project would be illustrated by more students feeling comfortable to state they need hygiene. More young adults will be prepared to face the challenges of adulthood, they would know how to be responsible, paying their bills on time. They would know how to budget, they would learn how to build generational wealth, they would understand the importance of investing. Throughout LA County, we have only seen 2 organizations providing mobile shower access. Adding this new program for us would have a great impact because we serve more than one area. For instance, we donate in Culver City, Watts, Compton, San Pedro, Torrance, etc., we travel.

Currently, for the program days we have in place, we use surveys to measure its impact. For example, when participants receive hygiene at the events, we ask questions pertaining to is hygiene important and if they are unhoused, for how long. When participating in outreach, we ask questions like race, name, and how long have they been homeless. Similar to 211, we created our own resource list, we place this list inside the hygiene kits. We provide resources about food, shelter, hygiene, and clothing. This way the person can call use if they need more hygiene, they could also call other organizations for additional help. We also placed ourselves on a hygiene locator, we use another form to track how many people we are serving and how often. We ask for the client's case manager to provide what hygiene they need, how often, and the client's contact information on a particular form we created. For the new programs, we started asking the community are the programs needed.