The homeless experience food insecurity since most of them cannot be
employed. Lack of employment makes it difficult for most homeless people to get
proper clothing and a place to call home. Some homeless people are not even
admissible in some shelters because of their histories. Food costs money and
the lack of it has led to large numbers of homeless people eating irregularly
whenever they come across it. Lack of food has led some of them to commit a
petit crime to get food and something to eat. Baton Rouge has a good number of
homeless people. It is unfortunate that most people do not respect homeless
people and view them as being useless and not worthy of being in society.
Anybody can become homeless depending on circumstances. The objectives of the
study were to model the homeless population in Louisiana versus and years, and
to assess the potential impacts of urban forest food gardens on the health of
the homeless people in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The benefits of food forests
were categorized based on health, financial earnings, and mental health, among
others. Google scholar search engine was used to access Louisiana’s historical homeless
population data. The data was modeled with respect to years using Microsoft
Excel statistical tool kit. Future homeless populations with respect to the
time this work was completed were predicted using extrapolation. There was a
sharp increase in Louisiana’s homeless population in the years 2004 to 2006,
and 2008 to 2009, respectively. A model developed in this study predicts the
homeless population in Louisiana to rise to approximately 11 thousand by 2030.This study proposed the
introduction of food forest projects to rehabilitate the homeless population of
Baton Rouge through learning agricultural and forestry skills, entrepreneurial
skills, and employment. The framework of improving the lives of the homeless
Baton Rouge community can be applied to other cities with residents
experiencing homelessness.
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