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California’s Aging Homeless Crisis Is Dire — Our Government and Leaders Must Act
Governor Newsom speaking at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles. Photo Credit: Office of Governor Gavin Newsom.
More than 85,000 Californians over the age of 50 are homeless on any given night.
Nearly half of single homeless adults are aged 50 or older, and that percentage is increasing, with seniors now the fastest-growing segment of the homeless population.
An analysis of older adult homelessness just published by the UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative reveals that over 40% of homeless seniors first became homeless after the age of 50. For most of these individuals, the pathway to homelessness was very different than for those who first experienced homelessness at a younger age.
Many times, there was a catastrophic precipitating event, such as illness, disability, or death of a family member with whom they shared housing. The resulting loss or reduction of income left them unable to pay rent.
With very limited incomes and a woefully insufficient supply of low-income senior housing, they found themselves among the thousands of Los Angeles’ vulnerable elders struggling to stay housed.
At Jewish Family Service LA (JFSLA), with an array of services touching thousands of seniors across Los Angeles, we hear these heartbreaking stories every day. Thankfully, an innovative program called Home Safe has been helping to prevent many seniors and dependent adults in similar situations from becoming homeless.
Home Safe, funded by the State and administered by Los Angeles County in partnership with community nonprofits like JFSLA, has literally saved thousands of lives over the past five years.
Lenora is one such individual. Her downward spiral began with the development of severe, chronic medical conditions. She is barely able to walk and is unable to adequately care for herself. She lost her job. She is isolated, without a support network of family or close friends. Her apartment is classified by the city as “uninhabitable” and she has accrued significant rental arrears.
Through the interventions of JFSLA’s staff with the Home Safe Program, we have been able to stabilize Lenora’s situation and are on track to help her relocate to a safe and habitable housing unit.
Lenora was alone, in a terrible, precarious situation. Thanks to Home Safe, she is no longer facing these challenges on her own.
But Lenora’s story may not be the case for many others. Additional funding for the Home Safe Program is not included in Governor Gavin Newsom’s budget proposal currently being debated in Sacramento.
Without future funding, the program will sunset over the next 12 months, leaving thousands of older and dependent adults without this lifeline.
I shudder to think of what would happen to Lenora without the Home Safe Program. And to William, Miriam, Anthony, Leandra, and the other individuals that JFSLA currently serves through the Home Safe Program.
There is an ancient Jewish teaching: Whoever saves a single life is considered to have saved the entire world. The Home Safe Program is saving lives every day. It needs to stay fully funded.
All of our elders deserve to live in dignity and safety. We can, and must, do better.
Eli Veitzer is the President and CEO of Jewish Family Service LA.
The post California’s Aging Homeless Crisis Is Dire — Our Government and Leaders Must Act first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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US Moves Patriot Missile Batteries from South Korea to Middle East
A Patriot missile battery. Photo: IDF.
i24 News – American Patriot missile defense batteries will be moved from South Korea to the Middle East, according to reports in Asian media on Friday, amid speculation over a potential military action against Iran’s nuclear program and escalating bombardments of Iran-backed jihadists in Yemen.
US President Donald Trump threatened Iran on Sunday with bombing and secondary tariffs if Tehran did not come to an agreement with Washington over its nuclear program, and the United States has moved additional warplanes into the region.
Washington and Seoul have reportedly recently agreed on the “monthslong” partial deployment of the Patriot Advanced Capability-3, in what is understood to be the first known case involving the relocation of United States Forces Korea (USFK) assets to the Middle East.
Iran in recent years has largely dropped the pretense of enriching uranium for a civilian atomic energy program, as it’s reportedly teetering on the nuclear precipice. Israel believes that a nuclear Iran represents a grave existential threat, consistent with the exterminationist antisemitism of the Islamic Republic’s anti-Israel rhetoric.
After the election of Trump, a known Iran hawk, the likelihood of an U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities has increased precipitously.
The post US Moves Patriot Missile Batteries from South Korea to Middle East first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Report: Iranian Plot to Assassinate Azerbaijani Rabbi Foiled
The Azerbaijani capital of Baku. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
i24 News – Iran enlisted the services of a Georgian drug trafficker to carry out an assassination of a prominent Azerbaijani rabbi, the Washington Post reported Saturday, citing security officials.
The plot to murder Rabbi Shneor Segal, foiled by the State Security Service of Azerbaijan in early January, also involved a plan to attack a Jewish education center, the officials said.
The plot was set in motion by an officer with Iran’s Quds Force, who met with Georgian criminal Agil Aslanov, handing him a photo of Segal and detailed instructions on how to murder him, the officials cited by WaPo said. Aslanov’s fee for the foiled hit was $200,000.
The State Security Service said the two men “worked to collect information about a member of a religious community, and sent the location of his residence and workplace to a representative of a foreign special service agency via the appropriate mobile phone application.”
Iran is known to be behind multiple plots against Israeli and Jewish targets, many of which have been foiled by Israeli and foreign security services.
However a recent plot saw three citizens of Uzbekistan murder an Israeli rabbi in the United Arab Emirates on Iranian orders. The three were sentenced to death earlier this week for the murder of Zvi Kogan in November.
The post Report: Iranian Plot to Assassinate Azerbaijani Rabbi Foiled first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Netanyahu to Depart for Washington on Sunday Directly from Hungary to Meet with Trump
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the Prime Minister’s office in Jerusalem, Feb. 16, 2025. Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg/Pool via REUTERS
i24 News – Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will depart to Washington DC on Sunday directly from Hungary—where he is presently on an official visit—to meet with US President Donald Trump, i24NEWS learned on Saturday from an Israeli source.
The visit comes following a phone conversation between the leaders on Friday, and a call with State Secretary Marco Rubio a short while ago.
As a result, the planned visit to Washington of Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz will be postponed once again.
Topics of discussion between the two leaders are expected to include the possible military action against Iran’s nuclear facilities, the Gaza war and the future of the war-ravaged Palestinian enclave, the US bombing campaign against Iran-backed Houthi jihadists in Yemen, and the recent imposition of tariffs on Israeli products.
The post Netanyahu to Depart for Washington on Sunday Directly from Hungary to Meet with Trump first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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