Skid Row in June. An inside view.

June was a busy month on skid row in downtown Los Angeles.  The number of people living on the streets increased.  The number of violent crime incidents increased.

The number of families on the street increased.

The number of "permanent" dwellings on the street increased.  

All I can do is count the people I see in a specific geographic area.  I don't have any "hard" facts and figures although some folks downtown in some government offices seem to listen to me.

I can however, give you a bit of a snapshot from June from the folks over at Union Rescue Mission, the largest mission in the USA which sits at ground zero in the middle of what is the highest homeless population in the nation.

By the way, if after you read some of the below figures feel free to visit www.urm.org and look at the many ways you can help.  Even $10 will feed a family of five.  The folks at URM accept any credit card on their donation page and even accept paypal.  In a hurry?  You can feed five people in less than a minute from your cell phone.  To donate $10 to Union Rescue Mission, text the letters URM to 85944. You will receive a confirmation text message. Reply with the word YES to complete the transaction. 

A few pieces of data for the month of June:

• 123 people were seen by the mental health clinic at URM
• 436 people were seen by the doctors on site at URM from UCLA
• 570 people were seen by the dentists on site at URM from USC
• 55 people were seen by the legal staff at URM for legal assistance
• 4,293 hours were spent by volunteers
• 20,931 nights of shelter were provided by individual
• 2,501 night of shelter were provided to families
• 70,185 meals were served.  In one month. In June.

In reference to that meal count.  At the end of last month URM was half way through the calendar year.  At that point 920,867 meals had been served.  Looks like by the end of this month (July) they will pass 1,000,000.

Services provided continue to increase.  Donations continue to decrease.  Please think about what you might be able to do to help and please pass along the link to this piece.