At 61, Linda Fett arrived at the Union Rescue Mission on skid row this year without any savings. After her divorce in 1992, the long-term caregiver used what little money she had to pay bills, including car payments and other expenses, in order to live independently.
Fett now receives about $220 a month from the county's general relief program, with $150 going into the Union Rescue Mission's Gateway Project, which provides short-term housing for those on the verge of homelessness. That leaves her about $70 a month to pay for basic necessities.
"The biggest hurdle I kept coming across while being a caregiver was that rents were high, even back East," she said. "I kept driving around to find affordable housing … I didn't really have much of a savings. I lived on my paycheck."
