Homeless News
No Improvement In The Homelessness Crisis In Los Angeles, Increases By 10%
The homelessness crisis is getting worse in Los Angeles than in previous years and has increased by 10%.
John Moeses Bauan/Unsplash
Los Angeles is on a drive to combat homelessness which is guaranteed to fail badly. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is focussing only on providing affordable housing without thinking about the problem.
The leaders are not taking note of the reasons why people are becoming homeless by simply assuming that it is due to the shortage of affordable housing instead of the mental health of individuals and drug abuse.
The mayor declared homelessness to be a citywide state of emergency since the number of homeless people grew by 10%. The prominence of sprawling encampments and other distressing incidents made it the primary concern during the mayoral race.
However, her notable initiative, Inside Safe, involves a $250 million endeavor to provide temporary accommodation for the homeless in motels, with the ultimate goal of assisting them in securing permanent shelter in various forms.
Bass has donated nearly $1 Million for the construction of affordable housing and providing other desired services. She is planning to scale the program citywide despite receiving resistance from the homeless.
There are 75,000+ homeless people in Los Angeles. In the first five months, Inside Safe got some 1200 people off the streets. The program targeted encampments having dozens of tents.
Also, the leading cause of death among homeless people since 2017 is ODs with the numbers increasing every year as said by the Health Department.
Besides this, half of homeless Americans report mental health issues. Even if these homeless people are provided with housing assistance, they are sometimes kicked out because of their behavior like outright violence.
Consequently, homeless people refuse to go anywhere where they are said to follow inconvenient rules. Los Angeles also has a lesser number of psychiatric beds to treat mentally ill homeless people.
Bass admits that the homeless crisis in Los Angeles can get worse before improving. The need is to change the approach and include more love. The individual root causes of homelessness cannot be addressed by providing free housing, and ample access to voluntary services.
Article Sources
The content provided in this article draws inspiration and includes quotes from various reputable sources, including news articles, government data, and interviews. Affordable Housing 411 strives to ensure accuracy and credibility, but the information presented may be based on some external sources. We encourage readers to refer to the referenced materials for more in-depth insights and verification.
Editorial Board. “Los Angeles’ anti-homelessness drive is doomed to fail just like NYC’s”. NY Post, July 9, 2023,
Los Angeles homeless move doomed to fail like New York’s (nypost.com)
Share
<
