Los Angeles Experiencing Homelessness ‘Emergency’

He said he was pleased this week when city leaders declared a state of emergency on homelessness and vowed to devote up to $100 million to the problem.

“These are our fellow Angelinos”, the mayor said.

Los Angeles has over 40,000 homeless people, many of them congregating on Skid Row and Venice. He knows better than the rest of us that there is no simple solution to what he terms a “mental health crisis” on what is, to our shame, the only real such ghetto in the country – worse than in any other big city.

Bonin also tells KPCC that this call for $100 million might not be a one-time measure in this upcoming budget: It could be a recurring item that the city funds every year.

The officials proposing the injection of funds say the city’s record of pushing homeless populations from one neighborhood to another is a waste of time and money, and ignores the humanity and needs of the individuals. And while Wesson hasn’t stated explicitly where, exactly, the $100 million will come from, he says it will be found “somehow, someway”.

Los Angeles is not far behind New York City in its numbers of homeless.

Huizar spokesman Rick Coca said afterward that officials anticipate it will come from the city’s general fund, adding “a more robust financial forecast for the city” is anticipated in the months ahead.

Funded by a $6 million investment by the U.S. Department of Labor, the five-year initiative will be led by the City of Los Angeles Workforce Investment Board and City of L.A.’s Economic and Workforce Development Department, with support from the employment social enterprise organization REDF.

The announcement comes after the mayor’s directive made Monday evening that the city free up an additional $13 million over the next few months to help those people living in the streets.

The state of emergency motion lists some of the factors fueling the growth of the homelessness as a shortage of affordable housing and the lack of emergency shelter.

“A hundred million dollars won’t even buy all the homeless pillows”. Those events have combined to push the homeless population steadily higher since 2013, to a figure now estimated at 20,000. “Many are in walkers and wheelchairs and live in horrific conditions on skid row”. Some homeless now reside on bluffs overlooking freeways, in ocean-front parks and in hillside nooks and crannies.

Those traveling people have nothing to do with who we talk about when we talk about the unwilling homeless. Without clear guidelines, departments instead tend to rely on ad hoc responses, according to the report by City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana.

“There are many other vulnerable people like me, diabetics, that are on these streets”, says Bales.