Mona lives homeless in a tent near Los Angeles’s International Airport. Before the pandemic, police made homeless people tear down their tents every morning. When COVID hit, the CDC recommended that homeless people be allowed to keep their tents up all day. Mona has lived in this park for four months, which she says is safe.

Mona’s house burned down in the Thomas Fire, and when she lost her house, she also lost her work from home job. Mona has a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics. She is two classes away from her Master in Mathematics because she left to go to another college where she received a Master of Science in Industrial Engineering.

Prior to the fire, it had been a while since Mona worked in her field doing electricity research. She ended up working from home, and then that all crashed after her house burned down.

When I asked Mona if anyone is helping her, she says service providers come around providing meals, but there is no path to housing being offered. Mona continued sharing it’s nearly impossible to maintain a job while living homeless in a park. Mona talks about service providers are overwhelmed, which is why it’s hard to navigate the system.

Homelessness is a growing, national crisis. It should be addressed in Washington. Bottom line: Housing is the solution. We need more resources to get folks into housing. Demand action. With your help, we can end homelessness.