The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority is conducting a count of all the homeless people in the county this week. An estimated 29,000 people were recorded as homeless in the area, according to a 2009 factsheet provided by LAHSA.  It said the Metropolitan Los Angeles area has the highest density of homeless, with nearly one in 100 people without a home.  Alternatively, the San Fernando/Santa Clarita Valley recorded the lowest number of homeless people in the area. According to LAHSA,… Read more

Two CSUN alumni presented their documentary films Friday night in the CSUN Cinematheque. Kate Ryan and Paul Laverack are both 2007 graduates of the Cinema and Television Arts (CTVA) program. Laverack’s documentary, “Survive the Night,” chronicled the experience of CSUN students as they spent the night on campus in November 2009 to get a glimpse of the struggles that the homeless endure. Students slept in boxes and bundled up in sleeping bags as they endured the cold. In the documentary,… Read more

Whatever their background, non-students being in the library is not a crime. In the six years that Gabriel Castaneda, assistant supervisor and former CSUN student, has been working in the Oviatt Library, he recalls about five community members, assumed to be homeless, that came into the library weekly. None of them gave him much trouble, he said. “They keep to themselves. They are quiet most of the time and don’t really bother anyone,” said Castaneda. “After a while, we even… Read more