Employment and Earnings Among the Homeless in Los Angeles County

von Wachter, Till; von Wachter, Till

Panel Paper: Employment and Earnings Among the Homeless in Los Angeles County

Friday, November 8, 2019

I.M Pei Tower: Terrace Level, Columbine (Sheraton Denver Downtown)

*Names in bold indicate Presenter

Till von Wachter, University of California, Los Angeles, Nefara Riesch, Harvard University and Geoffrey C. Schnorr, University of California, Davis

To better design sustainable solutions to homelessness, it is important for policymakers and researchers to understand the relationship between employment and housing stability. While over a half million people across the United States experienced homelessness in 2017, we still know little about these individuals’ employment and earnings before, during, and after homelessness spells. This paper uses homeless service data provided by LA County and quarterly employment and earnings data provided by the state of California to explore labor market participation and earnings among people experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles between 2010 and 2018.