SI model leaving CA for TN due to homelessness, 'dirty' streets, taxes and more
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass publicized LA4LA during a State of the City address on Monday, when she called on the "the most fortunate" to contribute "personal, private sector and philanthropic funds" to combat the homeless crisis in the city.
The campaign pleads for wealthy California residents to offer funds, so city officials can move the over 40,000 homeless people from the streets of Los Angeles into housing.
"I quite frankly feel a little bit taken advantage of when I, too, have had to struggle and to create my own opportunities through hard work and education," Kristen Louelle Gaffney, Sports Illustrated model and resident of San Diego told Fox News Digital over the phone. "Why should somebody have a piece of my hard work?"
Gaffney, a graduate of Sonoma State University and originally from San Jose, financially supported herself through a college education.
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"I came from nothing," she said. "I think the most my parents did financially for me was pay for a tank of gas and maybe some groceries here and there in college."
"We were very, very poor," Gaffney said.
While Gaffney maintains that she and other California residents have already contributed plenty financially through taxes, she pointed to families cared for by single mothers, veterans and the elderly as the first homeless demographics that she believes should receive free housing.
"Drug addicts should be last on the list," she said. "We should be focusing on the people that need help. Yes, but let’s create more opportunities and less systems that are ‘hand out’ systems that people are absolutely taking advantage of."
Gaffney added, "How can we create opportunities for these, specifically, single women raising children?"
In 2023, 65% of the homeless families in Los Angeles were led by a single mother, according to Gitnux.
In 1990, 196 homeless and 194 housed poor families in Los Angeles were studied by the National Institutes of Health. The study found that of these families, homeless and housed poor mothers were, on average, 29 years of age and had two or three children.
The report states that, at the time, Los Angeles had approximately 35,000-50,000 homeless people.
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In 2023, it was reported that there were over 50,000 unsheltered homeless people in Los Angeles, according to the Public Policy Institute of California.
"You've taken enough from us, and you're only showing me that it's getting worse," Gaffney said of homelessness. She credits her frustration to both President Biden and Gov. Gavin Newsom and their policies.
Gaffney is skeptical of where the billions of dollars previously allocated for solving LA homelessness has gone. She says that she has not seen a positive change in chronic homelessness in Los Angeles, which is spreading far outside the city and onto the campuses of her children’s school.
"The more we claim, and I use the word claim very strongly, that we're helping these people, it seems like the situation is getting worse," she said.
In February, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced "over $188 million for FY 2023 renewal and new projects to the Los Angeles Continuum of Care," which includes various housing projects, according to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.
A total of $1.4 million was to be earmarked for 47 beds for domestic violence survivors experiencing homelessness, according to the source.
"We're constantly giving," Gaffney said. "What more do you want from us?"
As a result of the seemingly incurable homeless crisis in LA, many Americans are uprooting their lives in The Golden State and relocating elsewhere.
Gaffney and her husband, former NFL running back Tyler Gaffney, are only one family on their way out.
The duo, and their three children, are migrating south to Nashville, Tennessee. The homeless crisis, accelerated cost of living, taxable income and an unsafe environment are only a few of the reasons the Gaffney family is moving clear across the country.
"A lot of people come to LA thinking this is the land of my dreams, this is the land of opportunity, this is where I can create something and make a name for myself," Gaffney said. "LA homelessness…there's nothing like it. I've been on the East Coast, I’ve been on the West Coast, I've been in the Bay Area."
"This is the dirtiest I've seen our cities," she said.