Los Angeles has 6,000 more homeless people today than a year ago. This population has increased by 9% in the county, and 10% in the city, according to the most recent census prepared by the municipal services. In total, some 75,500 people live on the streets, in camps or in vehicles. In 2022 there were just over 69,000. The figure, which has been made public today, puts pressure on the efforts of local authorities to reduce one of the most visible problems in the city. Karen Bass, the mayor of Los Angeles, took office last December and immediately made the issue one of her priorities. At the moment, the effectiveness of the crusade undertaken, which includes the investment of more than one billion dollars, is in doubt.
55% of the homeless population increased mainly in three areas, according to the census, which was taken on three days in January. One of these is West Los Angeles, in neighborhoods like West Hollywood, Venice and Santa Monica, among others. The other region of conflict is the city of Long Beach, in the port. In each one, census takers recorded about 2,000 new people who had become homeless due to rising housing prices, mental problems (a quarter of the population say they suffer from them) and substance abuse (present in one third of the cases). South Los Angeles also had an increase of 1,600 people living on the streets. The count does not include another 20,000 people who already live in shelters set up in recent years.
Latinos are the ones who suffer the most from this phenomenon, since they are 43% of the homeless population. This percentage, however, has not increased substantially compared to the 2022 count. Hispanics are the majority in Los Angeles County, a vast region of 10 million people spread over 88 cities. However, the phenomenon of begging punishes African-Americans particularly harshly. Three out of ten people living on the streets are black. This despite the fact that the group represents less than 10% of the population. The census has reported that more Asians live on the streets compared to the numbers collected last year, but they only represent 2%, about 1,200 people.
Karen Bass, the mayor, has taken the report self-critically, acknowledging that she is facing a “huge challenge.” Through a statement, she said that she will continue to work with all levels of government to “confront this crisis as the emergency that it is.” “Several lives depend on it”, she has assured her in the text. The politician, the first woman to run Los Angeles, has found a vote of confidence from the Supervisors, the body that oversees Los Angeles County. Janice Hahn, one of the supervisors, has described the new numbers as “disappointing”, but said that 2023 should serve as a turning point in the fight against homelessness, a problem that has plagued several California cities for decades. .
Homelessness has been on the rise since 2015. Growth has only let up in 2018, when a 4% decline was reported, achieved after a $1.2 billion investment in new, affordable housing construction, which is so scarce in the metropolitan area is one of the main causes of the crisis. But this period was followed by two years that erased any optimism. Begging increased almost 26% in the county between 2018 and 2020. The pandemic made everything worse, increasing cases by 4.1% in 2021. In almost eight years, the phenomenon has increased 70% in the county and 80% in the city .
For this reason, Bass turned the subject into his obsession. He has championed the cause since he took power in a city with more than 40,000 homeless people. On his first day in office, he submitted his plan of attack to a vote by the City Council, which approved it with the urgency that the issue deserves among public opinion. This would invest some 100 million dollars in moving people sleeping on the streets and in tents to shelters run by local authorities or by non-governmental organizations. He also launched an emergency declaration that gave him access to federal and state resources to deal with the situation. To encourage cheap housing construction, he declared a moratorium on regulations that barred new construction.
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Bass’s proposals represent an investment of about 1.3 billion dollars, mainly in investment funds for construction. It’s an increase of nearly $300 million from his predecessor, fellow Democrat Eric Garcetti. At the moment, after six months in office, the mayoress has reported that her Administration has taken some 14,000 people off the streets. Some 10,000 have gone to shelters, while some 4,300 have been able to access housing thanks to financing models with the help of the authorities. The mayor’s measures take time, but the problem that afflicts the county does not stop growing.
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