Best known for its wealthiest pockets (there are more than 5,200 people who each have over $30 million in assets in Los Angeles), sprawling L.A. County also suffers from severe poverty and economic inequality. Concentrated wealth and gentrification have led to exorbitant rental prices and a lack of affordable housing, factors that have added to an acute homelessness problem. 

According to the Census Bureau’s 2013-2017 data on L.A. County:

• 55,000 people experience homelessness on an average night in L.A.
• 17.0 % of the population, or 1,688,505 individuals, lives below the federal poverty level
• 19.6% of families with children under age 18 live below the poverty level

Many of those struggling are part of L.A. County’s large and diverse immigrant population, a group that makes up 36% of the total population. Los Angeles is also home to a large number of refugees — since 2002 California has settled about 108,600 refugees, more than any other U.S. state.

The city has voiced a strong commitment to supporting refugees — in February 2019 the city council passed a resolution making L.A. a sanctuary city, and in December 2019 the council additionally declared L.A. a “welcoming city” for refugees. To provide support to some of the most impoverished of those refugees, Family-to-Family is working with Human Rights First, a non-profit, refugee rights organization that identifies refugee families in need to us and coordinates our program there.

Click here to sponsor a refugee family in need. In addition to refugees living in L.A., some of the families we sponsor are living in the New York area. After you sign up, email us and let us know if you have a preference about their location at moreinfo@family-to-family.org.