CA- LA Homeless Crisis, August 2019

[imstilla.grandma]

Homeless people across Los Angeles are illegally using fire hydrants as a source of water to bathe, shave, even fill water balloons, leaving the hydrants damaged and often useless to firefighters during the critical fire season, an NBC4 I-Team investigation finds.

The I-Team's findings come more than a month after LA Mayor Eric Garcetti ordered the LA Fire Department to immediately find and fix all damaged hydrants near "high density homeless encampments." NBC4 found the city has failed to do that.

The mayors order was in response to a July I-Team report that first documented how people living on the streets, desperate for water especially in the hot summer, were hijacking hydrants, often in the downtown and Skid Row areas.

That's the same area where numerous fires at homeless encampments have been erupting, threatening the safety of the homeless as well as residents and workers in nearby buildings.
Los Angeles Homeless Illegally Use Fire Hydrants to Fill Water Balloons, Bathe, Shave
<modsnip>

 

[Filly]

Darned if ya do and darned if ya don't.

We had a tremendously high profile but not visible homeless drug encampment in Philadelphia. Sooo they rounded everyone up and gave them the boot as they cleared that area. In return all the homeles addicts made their "home" in plain sight. All within a mile of eachother or so. That sure didn't work so they cleaned that up. Meanwhile everybody is still migrating.

Yes, it is very sad, but a nightmare for the community. Kids walking to school watching people shoot up, and turning tricks, and dodging used needles.

Big note is we have had an outbreak of Hep A due to human waste.

A running joke out there is "How do you make a crack addict happy?". Answer is "An open fire plug and a bar of soap". I have no answers but wanted to weigh in as I'm baraged on the el on the way to work with speeches that run from "I'm sorry to bother you, but my cat needs food and we're homeless". Cat naps in baby carrier. to "Hey, I ain't gonna lie to y'all but I'm dope sick. Anybody got anything? A dollah? Change?"

 

[glamourkitty1922]

Homeless people across Los Angeles are illegally using fire hydrants as a source of water to bathe, shave, even fill water balloons, leaving the hydrants damaged and often useless to firefighters during the critical fire season, an NBC4 I-Team investigation finds.

The I-Team's findings come more than a month after LA Mayor Eric Garcetti ordered the LA Fire Department to immediately find and fix all damaged hydrants near "high density homeless encampments." NBC4 found the city has failed to do that.

The mayors order was in response to a July I-Team report that first documented how people living on the streets, desperate for water especially in the hot summer, were hijacking hydrants, often in the downtown and Skid Row areas.

That's the same area where numerous fires at homeless encampments have been erupting, threatening the safety of the homeless as well as residents and workers in nearby buildings.
Los Angeles Homeless Illegally Use Fire Hydrants to Fill Water Balloons, Bathe, Shave


<modsnip>

California won't even install public bathrooms or water sources for the homeless. California has the highest rate of unsheltered homeless in the country. People have to have water to survive, and if Cali cared they would try to find shelter for the homeless instead of creating apps like Snapcrap to inform the city where the homeless have been using the sidewalk as a toilet.

 

[Charlot123]

<modsnip: quoted post snipped> The climate in California is such that it is easy to live and survive on the streets, all year long, this is what made it a magnet for the homeless. It would be interesting to study the demographics of previously poor neighborhoods around university cities, are people squeezed out of them into the streets?

This is a very good project; if you can, please consider it for help

The Gubbio Project

 

[imstilla.grandma]

Advocates for people experiencing homelessness and tenant groups say that local officials haven't done enough to combat unaffordability or protect the communities disproportionately affected by it.

"If you have those forces, then what do you, as elected officials, do to counter them?" said Carol Sobel, a civil rights attorney. Sobel has sued the City of Los Angeles several times on behalf of unhoused clients. "The percentage of homelessness represented by Latinos and black people is extraordinary. It is overwhelming. But it's also true that the historically black communities have been gentrified."

Homelessness, she added, is only one end of the barbell. In Los Angeles, like in other municipalities around the country, COVID-19 is exacerbating inequality that was already there.

"We know that since the onset of the pandemic, the country's super rich have gotten richer," said Roy. "I think that unless we are willing to tackle this fundamental question of inequality, it's very difficult to tackle what is now a massive crisis of eviction and houselessness, and one that threatens to get much worse."
Introducing: Samaritans

Homelessness In Los Angeles County Rises Sharply

https://abc7.com/homeless-crisis-los-angeles-union-rescue-mission-covid-19-coronavirus/9392184/

 

[imstilla.grandma]

The non-profit organization Economic Roundtable this week released its latest report, titled "Locked Out," which uses data from the 2008 recession to predict how bad the pandemic-induced recession will affect the homeless population.

"It looks like the impacts could be twice as bad as they were in 2008," said Dan Flaming, president of the Economic Roundtable. "This recession is particularly bad because it's hitting vulnerable workers harder than the last recession."

Currently, L.A. County counts roughly 15,000 chronically homeless individuals. Over the next four years, the forecast calls for that number to nearly double.

"Our unhappy forecast is that it could go up by 86%," Flaming told Eyewitness News. "That would be catastrophic for us."

The county's overall homeless population, which includes so-called "couch surfers" and others who bounce in and out of homelessness, is currently hovering around 66,000. The Economic Roundtable forecast pegs that number at 89,760 by 2023, a 36% increase.

L.A. City Councilman Kevin DeLeon is pushing a new program to build even more homes for those on the street called the "25 by 25" proposal.

He says the ambitious program "sets Los Angeles on a path to build 25,000 housing units or adaptive reuse, by the year 2025."

But the Economic Roundtable says the best solution is for the government to take a Roosevelt-like approach and start a job creation program, one that puts people to work so they can earn money and be able to afford a home.
'Catastrophic:' Chronic homelessness in LA County expected to skyrocket by 86% in next 4 years

 

[Charlot123]

The non-profit organization Economic Roundtable this week released its latest report, titled "Locked Out," which uses data from the 2008 recession to predict how bad the pandemic-induced recession will affect the homeless population.

"It looks like the impacts could be twice as bad as they were in 2008," said Dan Flaming, president of the Economic Roundtable. "This recession is particularly bad because it's hitting vulnerable workers harder than the last recession."

Currently, L.A. County counts roughly 15,000 chronically homeless individuals. Over the next four years, the forecast calls for that number to nearly double.

"Our unhappy forecast is that it could go up by 86%," Flaming told Eyewitness News. "That would be catastrophic for us."

The county's overall homeless population, which includes so-called "couch surfers" and others who bounce in and out of homelessness, is currently hovering around 66,000. The Economic Roundtable forecast pegs that number at 89,760 by 2023, a 36% increase.

L.A. City Councilman Kevin DeLeon is pushing a new program to build even more homes for those on the street called the "25 by 25" proposal.

He says the ambitious program "sets Los Angeles on a path to build 25,000 housing units or adaptive reuse, by the year 2025."

But the Economic Roundtable says the best solution is for the government to take a Roosevelt-like approach and start a job creation program, one that puts people to work so they can earn money and be able to afford a home.
'Catastrophic:' Chronic homelessness in LA County expected to skyrocket by 86% in next 4 years

By the time they create work, and people earn money, we shall be in the situation of homeless population doubling up. Can you imagine what would happen in such antisanitary conditions?
I believe small houses could be the answer potentially, but the problem is, homeless cluster in the downtowns, they are the lifelines. How to find enough space in downtown LA?

 

[coffeeandacig]

My suggestion to tackle the homelessness problem in LA:

1. Bring back institutionalized mental health services. Half of the homeless population is dealing with psychological illnesses. 25% are dealing with serious mental illness, requiring long term treatment and care.
2. Provide drug treatment programs, en masse. 40% of the homeless population is using one or more substances on an abusive level.
3. Housing, like food, is a necessity. Start imposing stricter standards when it comes to insider trading of houses. Realtors, flippers and investors need to be held accountable for making housing in LA such a dirty business. A market that has made living in an apartment or small house unaffordable, even to those who work in well paying careers.
4. Rent controlled apartment buildings.
5. Illegal aliens should not be allowed housing opportunities, before US citizens.

You cannot put a band aid on a sliced artery and expect the bleeding to stop. So why throw match box houses, and water bubblers at a problem that demands serious work?

 

[crhedBngr]

California won't even install public bathrooms or water sources for the homeless. California has the highest rate of unsheltered homeless in the country. People have to have water to survive, and if Cali cared they would try to find shelter for the homeless instead of creating apps like Snapcrap to inform the city where the homeless have been using the sidewalk as a toilet.

I live in the Los Angeles area. To say something like "and if Cali cared" is harsh. We're looking at the problem, believe me. Many Californians, like myself, voted to create housing facilities. We've also given donations to various organizations which help the homeless.

Part of the reason California "supposedly" has the highest number of homeless is because we have warm weather pretty much year round. Homeless from other states find their way out here.

JMVHO.

 

[glamourkitty1922]

I live in California as well, and California has harassed, arrested, and done everything but make a step towards helping the homeless. These are California homeless, many are even working. Lack of decent paying jobs, lack of affordable housing, and lack of help for the mentally/emotionally/physically disabled is what has created this problem in my state. California politicians have ignored the problem for decades.

 

[Charlot123]

My suggestion to tackle the homelessness problem in LA:

1. Bring back institutionalized mental health services. Half of the homeless population is dealing with psychological illnesses. 25% are dealing with serious mental illness, requiring long term treatment and care.
2. Provide drug treatment programs, en masse. 40% of the homeless population is using one or more substances on an abusive level.
3. Housing, like food, is a necessity. Start imposing stricter standards when it comes to insider trading of houses. Realtors, flippers and investors need to be held accountable for making housing in LA such a dirty business. A market that has made living in an apartment or small house unaffordable, even to those who work in well paying careers.
4. Rent controlled apartment buildings.
5. Illegal aliens should not be allowed housing opportunities, before US citizens.

You cannot put a band aid on a sliced artery and expect the bleeding to stop. So why throw match box houses, and water bubblers at a problem that demands serious work?

1) You are right about deinstitutionalization. Someone watched "Cuckoo's nest" and thought it would be kinder to close all state hospitals. That in these hospitals, mentally ill had five meals a day, a movie night, medications, doctors, residents to talk to, an in-hospital lab, and even a dermatologist to deal with nail and body fungus...sounds unbelievable, right. No need to tear off a fire hydrant, there were showers for 2 or 3 patients. And now we have communicating vessels, street and jail. Do we even know how many homeless get themselves into a jail in winter (or for meals, in California)?

25% is a low number. According to Gabor Mate, qui I every woman living on the street has been raped or violated. PTSD...

2) Drug treatment programs... there are not enough for people with private insurances, much less for homeless.

3) about housing - yes, there is a need in rent controlled housing, but look at what happens in NY where they exist, but the amount is dwindling. When I moved to Boston, there was rent control, and according to people living in such houses, it was not straightforward to get into them. But Boston nixed it in 1994.
Massachusetts rent control repeal fallout in the 1990s a lesson for today

 

[coffeeandacig]

It's naive to think that a multi- millionaire mayor and higher income council members, will ever address the artificially high prices of housing. An actual investigation into the most corrupt, insidious housing market, or any changes to it, would affect their personal wealth portfolio's. Politicians will look like they care, and pay lip service to the issue...But never, ever talk about their personal investments in the same housing market, which has brought them such easy money at the expense of lower income workers.

 

[coffeeandacig]

City of Los Angeles 2019-2020 Homeless Encampments

Open The Books (a non-profit) organization has a map of all the homeless encampments for the LA area.

LA city councilors each employ 22 to 36 aides, many making $100K-plus

"In Los Angeles – a city unable to fix its homeless crisis or fund its pension obligations – all 15 of its city councilors employ a staff of 22 to 36 aides. Of these, nearly 60 earn a salary of more than $100,000.
That data comes from OpentheBooks, a non-profit organization that posts information on local, state, and federal government spending.
The data further shows that Los Angeles’ 15 city councilors each take home more than $200,000 – a salary exceeding most members of Congress.

Meanwhile, this is all in place while the second-largest city is facing a burgeoning financial crisis, made worse by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
A 2019 audited financial report showed that the nation’s second-largest city held a debt burden of about $5.1 billion, which equates to $4,000 for every city taxpayer.
The report showed that most of the city’s financial problems stem from unfunded retirement obligations, including $8.5 billion in pension, and $2.7 billion in retiree health care benefits.

The city’s financial situation was already dire before the pandemic and will likely come out worse."

 

[Charlot123]

Here is an article about WA state, but the issue is the same. Not only adults, there are homeless children.

Homeless students at record high in Washington state | king5.com

Winter holidays in Seattle schools are a difficult time, because these homeless students need warmth, and foods. So they still come, and stay in the gyms, and get the meals. LA has a different climate, but I bet it has the same problems with homeless kids, and maybe even more. How are they getting meals now, with COVID restrictions? Can they do remote learning? Probably not.

How are these issues resolved in LA?

 

[imstilla.grandma]

Project Homekey turns hotels into housing. The program was announced by Gov. Gavin Newsom last June. With $600 million in state and federal emergency funds, Project Homekey allowed L.A. County to purchase 10 hotels that will eventually become permanent housing for people like Frank. All together, they will house 850 people experiencing homelessness.

"We have a huge problem in LA County with people becoming homeless and that is primarily due to the high cost of rents coupled with low wages," said Phil Ansell, director of the L.A. County Homeless Initiative.

Ansell says due to COVID-19, an official homeless count couldn't be conducted this year, but in the previous homeless count last January, 73% of L.A. County's homeless population was unsheltered. Project Homekey is one solution, and it provides not only shelter but also comprehensive support services to help ensure tenants stay on the path to independence and reintegration. Services include case management, employment and educational assistance, nursing and mental health services.
Project Homekey turns hotels into housing, offering shelter for hundreds experiencing homelessness

 

[glamourkitty1922]

Project Homekey turns hotels into housing. The program was announced by Gov. Gavin Newsom last June. With $600 million in state and federal emergency funds, Project Homekey allowed L.A. County to purchase 10 hotels that will eventually become permanent housing for people like Frank. All together, they will house 850 people experiencing homelessness.

"We have a huge problem in LA County with people becoming homeless and that is primarily due to the high cost of rents coupled with low wages," said Phil Ansell, director of the L.A. County Homeless Initiative.

Ansell says due to COVID-19, an official homeless count couldn't be conducted this year, but in the previous homeless count last January, 73% of L.A. County's homeless population was unsheltered. Project Homekey is one solution, and it provides not only shelter but also comprehensive support services to help ensure tenants stay on the path to independence and reintegration. Services include case management, employment and educational assistance, nursing and mental health services.
Project Homekey turns hotels into housing, offering shelter for hundreds experiencing homelessness

Trouble is that there are over 150,000 homeless people in the state of California (and that number is probably very low) and things will get worse when the eviction moratorium is lifted.

 

[Dawookie]

I live in the Los Angeles area. To say something like "and if Cali cared" is harsh. We're looking at the problem, believe me. Many Californians, like myself, voted to create housing facilities. We've also given donations to various organizations which help the homeless.

Part of the reason California "supposedly" has the highest number of homeless is because we have warm weather pretty much year round. Homeless from other states find their way out here.

JMVHO.

The problem with the city trying to build housing facilities is the absurd costs at which they are doing it.

$5.2 Million for 40 64 SQ ft tiny homes? The spent somewhere between $196,000 and $344,000 for the units themselves. That means they spent nearly $5M dollars on getting the site ready. Compare that to Riverside where they spent $514,000 to build a community of 30.

They just opened another tiny village as well that cost $8.6m for 200 beds.

They just finished a 232 bed complex out of used shipping containers that cost $48M.

A 49 unit complex being built in Boyle Heights has seen costs rise to just under $750K a unit

Another 48 unit being built in Sylmar is costing $740K per unit.

That puts those two complexes in the range of what it would cost someone to buy a luxury apartment in LA.

Theyve spent roughly $135M to house between 500-700 people among four projects which comes out to roughly $193K per bed. There got to be a more cost efficient way than what they've been doing.