Imagine your life without food and without a home; looking for something to eat in garbage cans and living under highway 91, isn't that scary? Well, if the government does nothing, this will become a reality. Poverty and homelessness have been a major problem in the United States. According to Emily Alpert Reyes, a writer for the Los Angeles Times newspaper, approximately 8.9 million people in California live under the federal poverty line ($23,021 per year for a family of four); in Los Angeles approximately 25.9% of residents live with an income below the poverty line. The poverty rate in Los Angeles has increased in recent years because the city's revenues are in long-term stagnation and expenses are increasing (Kantor, Brian, and Contreras-Sweet). Poverty and homelessness in Los Angeles can be prevented by providing homeless services, raising taxes, and creating more jobs. The government should provide more services to fight poverty. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, Franklin D. Roosevelt created the New Deal to provide relief. These services have helped many people in poverty. The New Deal programs were successful because by 1940 “the economy was coming back to life with a surge in defense industry production” (FDR creates the WPA). One of the services the government offers to prevent poverty and homelessness is the Affordable Housing Trust Fund. This program generates affordable housing for very low- and low-income residents of Los Angeles. This program doesn't really help because “Los Angeles has become a city where rental and for-sale housing is well beyond the reach of the working poor and moderate-income residents, resulting in increased overcrowding and low disposable income for citizens. other needs...... half of the document ......dules/emp-pov.htmPhil Bartle is a professor of sociology and has served as chief advisor for the Uganda Community Management Program (CMP).United Way of Greater Los Angeles “ Year 3, Quarter 3 Report” http://www.unitedwayla.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Y3Q3-Final.pdfUnited Way of Greater Los Angeles is an organization that helps people get out out of poverty by providing housing, education and money. The president of the organization is Elise Buik. "History of the United States from Pre-Columbian to the New Millennium". A NewDeal Evaluation http://www.ushistory.org/us/49g.aspThe Independence Hall Association (IHA) was founded in 1942 to spearhead the creation of the Independence National Historical Park. The IHA owns ushistory.org, which supports the mission of educating the public about the Revolutionary and Colonial eras of American history. Their main goal is to teach history to others.