“To reduce the enormous health disparities among homeless people, we need to bring the entire built environment into the discussion.” ~ Ben Henwood
“I loved attending sessions that felt extremely relevant to our current culture and living in Los Angeles.” ~ Winona Leon, Harman Fellow 2015
“Homeless is not who someone is; rather, it's their current circumstance.” ~ Ethan Ward, LAist
It requires degrees in public health, psychology, and preventative medicine. It cannot be fully understood without a solid grasp of the history of race and income inequality. Urban planning, housing market trends, and public policy are critical factors to bring to the equation. Collaboration, cross-disciplinarity, and just caring enough are all essential to solving it.
“It” is homelessness -- one of the most intractable problems of our generation and our city of Los Angeles, and which demands an integrated, multi-disciplinary, or polymathic, approach. But it is not what an unhoused person is. Persons who are homeless are children, the elderly, veterans, sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, entrepreneurs, students, full-time workers, our neighbors. For our final fall semester session, Associate Professor of Social Work Ben Henwood, an expert on housing and integrative support for homeless individuals, will engage our diverse polymathic student community to tackle this human crisis from every possible angle.
