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California is experiencing its third worst drought in recorded history. Most of us are worried about brown lawns and shorter showers. Homeless people don’t have lawns and showers to worry about; their worries are life threatening.
From Hardship to Helping Others
Elena Davis understands that. She was one of four children raised by a single mother on less than three thousand dollars a year and food stamps. They lived in extreme poverty and on the margins of society.
At the age of 16, after having attended more than a dozen schools, Davis began a successful career as a fashion model with the Ford Agency and worked hard to lift herself and her family out of poverty. Not content to stop there, she’s lifting others, too. Davis is founder and president of I Am Waters, a nonprofit, Houston-based organization that aims to bring physical and spiritual hydration to America’s homeless.
Scholarly Support
In addition, Davis and her husband Gregg, founder and CEO of D3 Energy, have given $100,000 to the UCLA College Department of Sociology to support graduate student research. Under the supervision of Professor William Roy, students will examine how lack of access to water affects the homeless population and what can be done to help.
“Struggle is an inevitable, painful fact of homelessness,” says Davis. “Being without water should not be a part of it.”
Published September 2015
Vulnerable populations can experience a lack of access to water.
Vulnerable populations can experience a lack of access to water.
Vulnerable populations can experience a lack of access to water.
