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Alex Nguyen
Ali M. Meghdadi
English 39C/ Section 33321
February 6, 2015
The Contradictions of Urbanizations

Urbanization, the result of the Industrial Revolution, transitioned America from a place of
agriculture into factories. Towns and cities grew larger as more people migrated in hopes of
employment opportunities because cities offered opportunity for people living in the countryside.
The cities acted as a beacon for those who live in rural areas due to the fact that cities
represented a higher standard of living. The transitioning has caused immigrants and Americans
to suffer due to an increase in population leading to people competing for limited resources that
increase unemployment leading to major problems such as increase in homeless due to increase
in poverty and increase in
rent cost. The increase in
major problems has
caused an increased in the
amount of people without
homes.
Homeless has
caused problems towards
Figure 1: Comparison between the number of homeless and
amount of streets and shelters counts.

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many surrounding cities. Los Angeles Police Department police officer assigned to Skid Row has
seen police officers from different regions dump homeless citizens on Skid Row in Los Angeles
(Valle). Instead of helping the homeless, police move them in order for them to not deal with the
problem. Figure 1, by Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count, shows that there has been an
increase in homeless citizens since 2005 and has increase to 58,423 people as of 2013. That was
an increase in 8,000 people within two years. The dumping of homeless citizens was one reason
why there was an increase in homeless people on the streets in 2005. The main reasons that
homelessness is increasing is due to failure to meet financial needs such as buying food to feed
oneself and ones family, paying ones bills such as rent.
There is not enough help towards the homeless. One possible explanation is because of a
predisposition towards homeless. People associate the notion of homelessness with the beliefs of
laziness and hostility. Majority of American would think it is their fault for being poor and
because they were not resilient enough to get out of their own situation, it is their fault. Just
because people worked hard, overcame struggles, and benefited does not mean that those who
are homeless did not work hard. It does not mean that they were lazy and did not overcome
struggles. There are people in society that do not realize that these poor people are just like us
and everyone else in the world but just born in different environment or because of tragic events
that happened. If the community is more aware of the cause of their lack of a job, education, or
home, people might be more willing to lend a hand and help instead of having these
preconceived biased notions of homelessness. Another presumption people have is that homeless
people is something to be weary of and that the homeless should stay away from non-homeless
which encompasses the rest of the world.

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Hailey Yook, a student at University of California Berkeley, noticed the reaction of other
students around homeless people. Homeless people are common around Berkeley and could be
common around Irvine in the near future; one would see around five to fifteen homeless men and
women with their belongings while walking to class. Students would walk by homeless people as
if they were part of the background or even move away like they had a horrible disease. Imagine
a situation where homeless men or women dressed in dirty apparels with their cart of belongings
walked down ring road and sat on the same bench as you or even inside your class. You would
probably move away and if you had friends, they would move too. The action of moving away
from a person can greatly offend them and then a problem might occur. The unfair treatment
towards homeless people will invoke negative feelings because of social segregation and caused
them to get outrage towards people who treat them in the same manner. Eventually their anger
might get the best of them and provoke irrational action such as stabbing. This is what happened
to Yook at UC Berkeley: A woman who appeared to be homeless sat down on a nearby bench
with her cart of belongings. Almost every student she sat by got up and moved to another spot
farther away from her, as if she had terribly wronged them in some way (Yook). People fear
homeless off the presumptions that they are beggars, addicts, mentally ill or violent. These
presumptions are because of an illusion that people with homes are better than homeless people.
The notion that homeless individuals are lower in class is due to unfamiliarity. This unfamiliarity
makes homelessness harder to overcome especially with the increase in unemployment leading
to more homeless individuals.

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Before urbanization, unemployment has not been recognized as a problem in rural area.
This is because they
had everyone they
needed and made use
of who they have, in
order to sustain a
decent lifestyle. Los
Angeles is now the
most urbanized city in
America. It also has
Figure 2: Describes the unemployment rate between Los Angeles
and New York between the year 1990- 2014. The data was acquired
from the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics.

the highest

unemployment rate and living cost. With the high unemployment and high living cost, it is
known as the City in decline (Black). The number of jobs opportunities has declined since the
1990s. Figure two shows that in 2005 unemployment rates were low. From then on,
unemployment rate skyrocketed to almost three times the amount in six years in
2011. That spike on figure two correlates to figure ones increase in homeless from
2009 and onward. As more people become unemployed, they become homeless.

The increase in unemployment was due to the fact that Los Angeles added a million residents
between 1980 and 2010; however, during that same time, the city lost 165,000 jobs (Black). The
loss of jobs and the influx of immigrants caused unemployment to increase drastically as you can
see in figure 1 during the year 1990.

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Figure 3: The percentage of immigration immigrating

all over the world immigrating
towards Los Angeles every 30 years.

Figure 4: Varieties of immigrants

towards Los Angeles.

The migration of immigrants from Mexico, El Salvador, Philippines, Guatemala, and

Korea to America, as depicted in figure 4, has increase competition for limited resources. The
immigrants seek employment and a higher standard of living. With the influx of immigrants,
immigrants became a huge part of the total population in Los Angeles. Figure 3 shows a graph
depicting the percentages of immigrants in Los Angeles. That is a 10 percent increase ever since
1980. This increase in immigrants and constant amount of housing in Los Angeles will not
provide enough homes. Immigrants will have to live in the slums or become homeless or move
elsewhere. The amount of immigrants that move elsewhere will compete with the resources that
are available. The migration of immigrants to other parts of America will only increase in
housing and increase in competition for jobs. This will affect the opportunities for future kids
and adults to get a decent paying job.

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As immigrants migrated into

Los Angeles, poverty rates for
all ages except seniors increase
due to competition as shown in
figure 5. There was a trend in
decrease poverty rate from
Figure 5: Poverty rates from the year 1970-2010
separated by age.

2000 to 2007. The decrease in

poverty was due to the fact that people were settling in and because of the decline in immigrants
moving in to Los Angeles. Decrease in poverty rates does not mean increase in household
income (Connell). It could mean that the population is barely surviving. Los Angeles Times
writer Rich Connell illustrates the lifestyle of Brigitte Erickson in order to represent the
economic turnover in 2008. Erickson lived a comfortable lifestyle; she goes out to eat, has a nice
apartment, and enjoys other entertainment. However, in 2008 a big rent increase forced
Erickson to move out of her Arcadia apartment, and the rising cost of gas and other consumer
goods impelled her to go out less often (Connell). In figure 5, there is a slight increase in
poverty rates in 2008, that increase made Erickson loses her home. Despite the decrease in
poverty rates, the number of workers in Los Angeles County who earn less than $25,000 has
dropped only slightly from 2006 (Connell). This tells me that poverty rate is not proportional to
income rates. As poverty increase, living expenses increase. However, income does not increase

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and with the increasing living expenses and declining of jobs, citizens of Los Angeles need
multiple jobs and support to survive (Black). Andres Cruz used to be working- 50 hours per
week at 12 dollars an hour. On top of that, he sells popsicles in the park to make a living.
However, he got laid off and now has to compete with others selling popsicles, making 40 dollars
on a good a day. His second job maintaining a coin laundry mat at 8 dollars an hour is what he
does to get by. These are significant problems that can arise from unemployment and job loss.
Employment does not mean that there will be less poverty, especially with the increase in cost of
living.

In Los Angeles, the rent burden was 30 percent and now in 2009-2011, rent burden has
increase to 60 percent. This is significant to not only Los Angles but America as well. Americas
rent burden went. The drastic increase in rent is due the competition of housing. Los Angeles
rent control prevents the financial incentive of building more apartments leading to high
competition for these apartments. The high competition for homes raises the prices of housing.
Rent control is a law that limits the amount a landlord can raise rent. Although rent control is a
law that limits rent increase, it does not keep rent cost low. Rent has risen 25 percent between the

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year 2000 and 2012 in Los Angeles (LA Rent). The competition will drive the prices up, creates
risks of growth in homelessness and overpopulation. A person living in rent controlled units pay
an average of $1612 a month (LA Rent). That is 19,344 dollars a year solely for rent. Over 30
percent of the full time workers cannot afford that kind of money solely on rent. Most
immigrants work multiple low paying jobs. Jobs that are below minimum wage at 40 hours a
week will get you 320 dollars without tax reduction. A month that is 1,280 dollars, that alone is
not enough to pay the average, unsanitary apartments in Los Angeles. Not only that rent control
cannot keep rent low but it also discourages landowners from building more apartments. This is
because rent control is only applied to apartments made before 1978 and that is 80 percent of all
apartments. Landowners do not invest in building more apartments because that will not be
financially incentive. Because of urbanization, millions of immigrants will come to America and
compete for resources such as jobs. Cheaper labor will make it more difficult for future
Americans to get a job.

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