For many people, homelessness is unimaginable. Yet it occurs due to a number of reasons, including poverty, a lack of affordable housing, substance abuse or mental illness, changes in family structure, low paying jobs and so on.

While securing a minimum wage job might fulfill a persons' needs for food, water and clothing, housing is often more difficult to come by, particularly in the city of Los Angeles. From children and teenagers, to single adults and families, every demographic is represented in L.A.'s homeless community. While the reasons they are in these situations varies, the truth remains; there are 91,000 homeless people living in Los Angles County, according to a December 2005 survey conducted by the Institute for the Study of Homelessness and Poverty. But, what can someone do to help these people with such monumental needs? What can they do to help themselves?

Over the past few years, Life & Times has dedicated several stories to various ways that the community is helping homeless people get a second start to their lives and also ways that impoverished people are working to help themselves. Collected below is just a sampling of the stories we've done which shed some light on this often forgotten part of the community.

		CARE – NOT CASH If you were getting only a few hundred dollars a month from welfare, would you hand over most of it in return for room and board? That idea is being tested with homeless people in San Francisco. It's called "Care. Not Cash." Could southern Californians learn something from the City by the Bay? Saul Gonzalez heads north to find out.
		STEVE LOPEZ TACKLES SKID ROW He got swept into the lives of L.A.'s most wretched and forgotten. What he found was resilience, talent and hope. Toni Guinyard goes to skid row with award-winning L.A. Times columnist, Steve Lopez.
		HOMELESS REFUGE BY THE RIVER Has Ventura come up with an answer to the homeless problem? A tent city near a river has become a clean haven for those who would otherwise be on the street. Hena Cuevas visits "River Haven" run by the homeless residents themselves, to see if it might work for L.A. and other cities.
		HOMELESS IN HOLLYWOOD The people who live on the streets of the world's most famous neighborhood are distinctly different from the homeless on skid row. Now that millions of dollars are pouring into Hollywood's revitalization, are there any plans to create permanent housing for the homeless? Sam Louie looks at one project that is offering some hope.
		SWEAT EQUITY How hard would you be willing to work to own your own home? Well, some families in the Coachella Valley are willing to contribute forty hours of hard labor a week to help build their own home. That's in addition to their regular job. So does it pay off? Sam Louie tells us about a program that takes sweat equity to a whole new level.