{"id":21710,"date":"2023-12-22T03:38:01","date_gmt":"2023-12-22T09:38:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=21710"},"modified":"2023-12-22T03:38:06","modified_gmt":"2023-12-22T09:38:06","slug":"homeless-numbers-in-los-angeles-could-surge-again-even-as-thousands-move-to-temporary-shelter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=21710","title":{"rendered":"Homeless numbers in Los Angeles could surge again, even as thousands move to temporary shelter"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 In the hours after being elected mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass made a promise<\/u><\/a> that will be an inescapable metric of her time in office: \u201cWe are going to solve homelessness.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Democratic member of Congress, who had been on then-candidate Joe Biden\u2019s short list for vice president<\/u><\/a>, envisioned streets clear of more than 40,000 homeless<\/u><\/a> people \u2014 a broken city within a city \u2014 and the expansion of housing and health services that would repair troubled lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are going to build a new Los Angeles,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, one year into her first term, Bass says over 21,000 unhoused people were at some point moved into leased hotels or other temporary shelter in 2023, a 28% increase from the prior year. Dozens of drug-plagued street encampments were cleared, and housing projects are in the pipeline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>Yet the encouraging figures belie a hard truth: It\u2019s only the beginning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>Billions of dollars<\/u><\/a> have been spent on homelessness in the region, and an array of new programs are in place. But the mayor says it\u2019s possible that the number of homeless people will continue to increase, in part because of evictions and the end of COVID-19 aid for low-income households.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Bass has made gains, the city\u2019s homelessness challenge can seem insoluble. It requires managing a potentially growing population equal to that of Palm Springs without a computer system capable of efficiently tracking people within it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>\u201cWe\u2019ve been building the plane while flying it,\u201d Bass told reporters recently, assessing her first year. \u201cThis is about inventing something out of air because a system to prevent people from being homeless \u2026 has not existed before.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brian Averill, who heads the Venice Neighborhood Council, praised Bass for her collaborative work with the City Council. Large encampments were dismantled, including a notorious one<\/u><\/a> snaking along the Venice Beach boardwalk, and many former occupants steered into shelter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But others scattered, and tent clusters remain a common sight in many neighborhoods. Those still on the streets often struggle with severe substance abuse or mental illness, sometimes both.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>\u201cWe are nowhere near the end of this,\u201d Averill said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bass took office<\/u><\/a> in December 2022 following the uneven tenure of fellow Democrat Eric Garcetti, whose time in office was marked<\/u><\/a> by soaring homelessness and economic tumult that came with COVID-19, as well as sexual harassment and corruption scandals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The city of nearly 4 million is contending with its unhoused crisis at a time when leaders also are trying to imagine LA\u2019s post-pandemic future. Once considered in a renaissance, downtown has seen a falloff in foot traffic while demand for office space has slumped<\/u><\/a>, as remote jobs and abbreviated work weeks reorder urban life. The Los Angeles area, once known for meteoric growth, saw its population decline, as did the state<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the city\u2019s account, roughly 1 in 3 people who entered interim shelter this year drifted out of the system, and in many cases, probably back to the streets. The wait for permanent housing \u2014 what advocates argue is the end solution \u2014 could last two or more years for those in short-term beds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>Out of nearly 2,000 people who received temporary shelter through Bass\u2019 signature program Inside Safe, a pilot project within broader efforts to bring people indoors, only 255 landed in permanent housing this year, out of about 3,500 total citywide. In some cases, unhoused people have resettled in places cleared earlier by city workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A decade ago, the nation\u2019s second-most populous city was spending about $10 million dealing with homelessness. Bass called for a record $1.3 billion this year to get unhoused people into shelter and treatment programs. The spread of homelessness has had cascading effects on property crime and drug overdose deaths, especially from the synthetic opioid fentanyl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is no single reason why Los Angeles became a magnet for homelessness. Contributing factors include soaring housing prices and rents that punish those with marginal incomes, and a long string of court decisions has made it difficult for officials to clear encampments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>A Biden administration study<\/u><\/a> released earlier this month found that homelessness is continuing to increase in the country and California, which is home to nearly 30% of the nation\u2019s unhoused population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the biggest challenges is not on the streets of Los Angeles but in City Hall itself \u2013 the lack of computer network capable of tracking people and services that would replace a scattershot of city and county systems that don\u2019t work together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CEO John Maceri of The People Concern, one of LA\u2019s largest nonprofits serving the homeless population, called the current system \u201cwildly inefficient.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWho are these folks, how are they moving through the system, who are they connected to?\u201d Maceri asked, spotlighting blind spots in the data. \u201cAll of these need to be understood in real time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bass came to office intent on disproving what she characterized as a myth: Homeless people do not want to come inside. Her Inside Safe program is voluntary, and no one is forced into shelter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On a sunny morning in late October, her trademark program was on display at a freeway underpass on the city\u2019s Westside, where a tightly packed encampment has been standing for four years. Neighbors long complained of open drug use, unsanitary conditions and petty thefts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>Those living in tents were notified weeks earlier that clean rooms with a locking door were available and that the encampment would be coming down. They lined up by buses headed for shelters, their personal possessions stuffed into clear plastic bags by their sides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once residents willing to be relocated had been moved, a front-loader\u2019s steel bucket began to crush tents and dump them in a trash truck. The sidewalk was soon clear, and a fence went up to prevent anyone from returning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Richard Kuebler, who runs a nearby auto repair shop, has for years found discarded needles and human feces around his business that he attributes to the encampment\u2019s residents. A man died on the sidewalk a few steps from his bays. Authorities, he said, typically shrugged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kuebler remains dubious about change, but still, he\u2019s thankful that for once, something is being done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m so happy, I might get a bottle of champagne on my way home,\u201d Kuebler said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>As the tents fell, one of those leaving was Noelia Nunez, who said she had been living beneath the underpass for two-and-a-half years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As with many people who fall into homelessness, the one-time vocal teacher described a traumatic turn: Her father died unexpectedly in 2020, and her life began unraveling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She talked of her time on the street as a grueling ordeal to safeguard herself and her few belongings. In a shelter, she sees herself returning to simple joys others take for granted \u2014 a bubble bath, a locked door, and in time, maybe going back to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Getting ready to board the bus, Nunez twirled in delight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a special day,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two months later, Nunez remains in temporary housing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 In the hours after being elected mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass made a promise<\/u><\/a> that will be an inescapable metric of her time in office: \u201cWe are going to solve homelessness.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Democratic member of Congress, who had been on then-candidate Joe Biden\u2019s short list for vice president<\/u><\/a>, envisioned streets clear of more than 40,000 homeless<\/u><\/a> people \u2014 a broken city within a city \u2014 and the expansion of housing and health services that would repair troubled lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are going to build a new Los Angeles,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, one year into her first term, Bass says over 21,000 unhoused people were at some point moved into leased hotels or other temporary shelter in 2023, a 28% increase from the prior year. Dozens of drug-plagued street encampments were cleared, and housing projects are in the pipeline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>Yet the encouraging figures belie a hard truth: It\u2019s only the beginning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>Billions of dollars<\/u><\/a> have been spent on homelessness in the region, and an array of new programs are in place. But the mayor says it\u2019s possible that the number of homeless people will continue to increase, in part because of evictions and the end of COVID-19 aid for low-income households.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Bass has made gains, the city\u2019s homelessness challenge can seem insoluble. It requires managing a potentially growing population equal to that of Palm Springs without a computer system capable of efficiently tracking people within it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>\u201cWe\u2019ve been building the plane while flying it,\u201d Bass told reporters recently, assessing her first year. \u201cThis is about inventing something out of air because a system to prevent people from being homeless \u2026 has not existed before.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brian Averill, who heads the Venice Neighborhood Council, praised Bass for her collaborative work with the City Council. Large encampments were dismantled, including a notorious one<\/u><\/a> snaking along the Venice Beach boardwalk, and many former occupants steered into shelter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But others scattered, and tent clusters remain a common sight in many neighborhoods. Those still on the streets often struggle with severe substance abuse or mental illness, sometimes both.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>\u201cWe are nowhere near the end of this,\u201d Averill said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bass took office<\/u><\/a> in December 2022 following the uneven tenure of fellow Democrat Eric Garcetti, whose time in office was marked<\/u><\/a> by soaring homelessness and economic tumult that came with COVID-19, as well as sexual harassment and corruption scandals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The city of nearly 4 million is contending with its unhoused crisis at a time when leaders also are trying to imagine LA\u2019s post-pandemic future. Once considered in a renaissance, downtown has seen a falloff in foot traffic while demand for office space has slumped<\/u><\/a>, as remote jobs and abbreviated work weeks reorder urban life. The Los Angeles area, once known for meteoric growth, saw its population decline, as did the state<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the city\u2019s account, roughly 1 in 3 people who entered interim shelter this year drifted out of the system, and in many cases, probably back to the streets. The wait for permanent housing \u2014 what advocates argue is the end solution \u2014 could last two or more years for those in short-term beds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>Out of nearly 2,000 people who received temporary shelter through Bass\u2019 signature program Inside Safe, a pilot project within broader efforts to bring people indoors, only 255 landed in permanent housing this year, out of about 3,500 total citywide. In some cases, unhoused people have resettled in places cleared earlier by city workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A decade ago, the nation\u2019s second-most populous city was spending about $10 million dealing with homelessness. Bass called for a record $1.3 billion this year to get unhoused people into shelter and treatment programs. The spread of homelessness has had cascading effects on property crime and drug overdose deaths, especially from the synthetic opioid fentanyl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is no single reason why Los Angeles became a magnet for homelessness. Contributing factors include soaring housing prices and rents that punish those with marginal incomes, and a long string of court decisions has made it difficult for officials to clear encampments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>A Biden administration study<\/u><\/a> released earlier this month found that homelessness is continuing to increase in the country and California, which is home to nearly 30% of the nation\u2019s unhoused population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the biggest challenges is not on the streets of Los Angeles but in City Hall itself \u2013 the lack of computer network capable of tracking people and services that would replace a scattershot of city and county systems that don\u2019t work together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CEO John Maceri of The People Concern, one of LA\u2019s largest nonprofits serving the homeless population, called the current system \u201cwildly inefficient.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWho are these folks, how are they moving through the system, who are they connected to?\u201d Maceri asked, spotlighting blind spots in the data. \u201cAll of these need to be understood in real time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bass came to office intent on disproving what she characterized as a myth: Homeless people do not want to come inside. Her Inside Safe program is voluntary, and no one is forced into shelter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On a sunny morning in late October, her trademark program was on display at a freeway underpass on the city\u2019s Westside, where a tightly packed encampment has been standing for four years. Neighbors long complained of open drug use, unsanitary conditions and petty thefts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>Those living in tents were notified weeks earlier that clean rooms with a locking door were available and that the encampment would be coming down. They lined up by buses headed for shelters, their personal possessions stuffed into clear plastic bags by their sides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once residents willing to be relocated had been moved, a front-loader\u2019s steel bucket began to crush tents and dump them in a trash truck. The sidewalk was soon clear, and a fence went up to prevent anyone from returning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Richard Kuebler, who runs a nearby auto repair shop, has for years found discarded needles and human feces around his business that he attributes to the encampment\u2019s residents. A man died on the sidewalk a few steps from his bays. Authorities, he said, typically shrugged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kuebler remains dubious about change, but still, he\u2019s thankful that for once, something is being done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m so happy, I might get a bottle of champagne on my way home,\u201d Kuebler said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>As the tents fell, one of those leaving was Noelia Nunez, who said she had been living beneath the underpass for two-and-a-half years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As with many people who fall into homelessness, the one-time vocal teacher described a traumatic turn: Her father died unexpectedly in 2020, and her life began unraveling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She talked of her time on the street as a grueling ordeal to safeguard herself and her few belongings. In a shelter, she sees herself returning to simple joys others take for granted \u2014 a bubble bath, a locked door, and in time, maybe going back to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Getting ready to board the bus, Nunez twirled in delight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a special day,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two months later, Nunez remains in temporary housing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apnews<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 In the hours after being elected mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass made a promise that will be an inescapable metric of her time in office: \u201cWe are going to solve homelessness.\u201d The Democratic member of Congress, who had been on then-candidate Joe Biden\u2019s short list for vice president, envisioned streets clear of more […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":21711,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1321,2021,3097,1420,25214,21056],"class_list":["post-21710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-homelessness","tag-increase","tag-los-angeles","tag-numbers","tag-temporary-shelter","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21710"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21710\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21712,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21710\/revisions\/21712"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}