It’s taken us nearly 3 decades of being imbedded in the war on homelessness in Southern California to fully develop a ground- up social enterprise model antithetical to the current homeless response system. The current system is a top down government driven approach based on a belief that most homeless are victims and therefore must be taken care of by the state.
Covey said: What you see, is what you do, is what you get. By incorrectly seeing and treating the homeless as can-nots this state has operationalized a massive dependency culture underwritten with hundreds of BILLIONS of dollars (not even near an exaggeration). This culture has been like a magnet of ever increasing human suffering, unlike anything you can imagine.
The state REQUIRES a one size fits all approach that provides taxpayer funded drug housing (yes, heroin and meth use is allowed) AND denies all nonprofits the ability to use work requirements. This has sent the message out that the state will pay for their housing with no obligation to work, stop using drugs, or help themselves.
We have “lifeflighted” over 7000 homeless out of this toxic system and through our holistic accountability empowerment model have grown most beyond their vulnerabilities and ended their dependencies through jobs.
There are only a handful of us orgs left in CA. Like the island of misfit toys, we have acquired a deep inside understanding of how the Homelessness Industrial Complex works. It’s every bit as ugly as you’ve heard.
2
My engineer friends earn 500,000 a year or more in California and are just there to earn more money.
This divide, the poverty and hopelessness is only going to worsen unless the corporations try to make the state more livable for those with no engineering degrees.
2
The picture is no different from the Dharavi slum of Mumbai, India.
2
So now we are going to have detention cages for the homeless.
Maybe he'll take the illegal wall money and build homes or shelters for the homeless? I truly doubt it. Just more distraction and a desperate attempt to achieve something, anything as the election draws nearer.
2
“the president has decided to exploit the homelessness crisis for political purposes, particularly in cities and states where the conservative policies of over-budget cutting, excessive housing costs and poor public services are combining to dramatically increase poverty and public health risks...about which we will do nothing constructive"
/fixed
2
Trump claims an interest in tackling homelessness. Good. California has a big problem and has been extremely unsuccessful in coping with it. The ordinary people who experience the filth and fear in their own neighborhoods seem to be fed up. What looks to them like illegal camping is mischaracterized as a “housing” problem. Constantly expanding housing and services seems to constantly expand the nasty misuse of parks and sidewalks. If Trump can refocus the concern, regardless of his motive, there is a bit of hope. Or, the fed up folks of California just might vote for him.
2
$335 million annually for a population of 22,000 people is (doing rough math) over $15,000 per person a year. And that is in addition to the $1.2 billion earmarked from a bond issue, which is over $50k for each of those current 22,000. That is a lot of money for housing and services.
1
There are towns and counties in every state of the union where roughly 30% of the population lives below the poverty line, and many more live close to it. If three out of ten citizens live meagerly and paycheck to paycheck, is it any wonder that perhaps one in three of them must decide to pay the rent, or to feed themselves? one minor set-back and the trip to the street can be very short. Mr. Trump has never known the pain of being down and out. He might try it for a week - at least - before rushing to judgement.
2
I have seen many homeless people on 5th Avenue near Trump's building. Perhaps he could allow them to live rent free in the Trump Tower?
1
Keep trump away from the homeless.
He has already proved himself incapable of handing any problem bigger than Bolton's Mustache.
Allow him near homeless children - ? For, though everyone keeps bringing up the mentally ill or those who truly do choose the street over a violent homeless shelter, the FACT is that there are CHILDREN living on the streets with their parents.
Trump has already proved that he must not be allowed near children in desperate straits.
He will lose their parents,
He will misplace the babies,
The parents will be separated,
Their children will be lost.
He will hand over BILLIONS to his buddies and, then, when Trump is gone, the buddies will be gone, too, and no one will ever be able to get the children back to their parents.
Look, this is common sense: If a grown-up trashes everything in sight and then laughs about it and sneers at our dismay, then you do NOT hand him real, live, defenseless babies.
He already HAS homeless and defenseless children and look at what he is doing with THEM!
"When they tell you who they are.... believe them the first time."
3
Why is President Trump weighing in on homelessness in California? Forgive me my suspicious nature, but what’s in it for him? His concern most certainly isn’t coming from a place of genuine altruism.
2
@Allison
He wishes to insult and belittle the population of the state that strongly endorsed Hillary Clinton for President. As always he has no answers to any questions or solutions to any problems.
3
Doesn't Trump own a bunch of hotels?
If he REALLY wanted to do something.........
1
Nothing will be solved as long as the questions are centered on what instead of why. What type of housing is needed is not the question. Why do people have mental trouble and take drugs is what has to be examined.
This of course, would make the issue one of public health and as there is no money to be made from the helpless, no one in American politics – on either side - will ever do anything about it.
The sad reality is that some people have it easier than others and a small percentage of society is deeply troubled. So unless government decides to have state-run, tax-payer funded mental health care facilities for the betterment of society, nothing will change.
1
Can we just admit that Trump has a black hole where a heart should be? The solutions are well known at this point: substance abuse counseling and treatment, mental health counseling and treatment, dedicated housing that has in building coaching and lifeskills training, and transitional support. All of this costs less per year than incarcerating someone.
I've also been on the mindset that some homeless should be trained in skilled trades, so that they can collect a wage while also building their supportive housing. ANd let's not forget that a fair amount of homeless actually are employed, but they're in menial jobs in cities with serious affordability crisises.
2
To successfully address this problem in California and reduce the total number of homeless, first we must identify the primary cause that makes individuals homeless. Fortunately a half century of data is already available.
Are they mentally ill? That population may need housing and custodial supervision as well as supervised healthcare. Once state hospitals and group homes met that need. That option has disappeared. Providing housing alone leaves the root cause—mental illness unaddressed.
Are they so far below the poverty line despite being either employed at subsistence wages or being quite unemployable that they live in their cars because rent is unaffordable? Solve that problem by increasing the minimum wage, and the housing stock.
Are they on the street because chemical addiction makes it impossible for them to exercise adult agency to autonomously become responsible for managing their lives?
A pattern emerges. People are homeless because for whatever reason—poverty, unemployability, mental illness, drug addiction, and personal tragedy of other sorts they lack the personal and social resources to cope in the world? Inability to afford housing is only a single component of much more intractable problems.
Solving those problem will cost much more than schemes to build and house the homeless. Tragically, the will to pay for a social safety net sufficient to the problem does not exist.
3
As a formerly homeless person and current journalist, I encourage the Times to stop referring to a "crackdown" on homelessness. The word implies that homeless people are choosing to be homeless and doing something wrong in the process of living without a house or shelter. Homelessness exists because we operate a financial and economic system which allows for people to literally lose everything and be left with nothing - that's what we should be cracking down on. Journalists should question why homelessness is ever allowed. Use wording which places blame and accountability on the systems which allow this to happen.
5
First this: Word of the efforts by the administration, which has repeatedly sought to cut housing assistance in its budget requests, alarmed advocates for the homeless and angered city leaders across California.
Then this: “Simply cracking down on homelessness without providing the housing that people need is not a real solution and will likely only make the situation worse,” said Mayor London Breed of San Francisco, whose city has been an object of the president’s scorn.
Only in California can the offer of Federal assistance be met with such reactions. First by the Times which sounds the alarm in the first quote and then follows up with only one official who doesn't even seem to understand the problem nor have knowledge of the solutions that might be offered but the administration.
I understand the Times and most of its readers don't like Trump. I don't either but give him a chance. Get his ego engaged and you might be surprised at what he can accomplish.
2
What LA really needs is less influx of people. We can build all the shelters and low income housing, etc. that our taxes can afford but in order to solve the problem, we need to keep the numbers we are helping at a somewhat stable level in order to effectively assist them. You can’t empty out a boat flooded with water if holes in the boat allow water in at twice the rate you’re able to remove it.
There are too many people in LA and more seem to arrive everyday whether economic migrants from other countries or the young and the dreamers who come from other parts of the U.S. looking to make it big in California’s various industries (entertainment, tech, etc.) . There is only so much housing to go around and even less “affordable” housing for people making minimum wage or less. It's no wonder we have a homelessness problem.
5
Homelessness is not a result of "liberalism". It is a result of a lack of well paying jobs, affordable housing, income inequality, social safety nets, and in some cases mental illness. The very issues the current administration has done nothing to alleviate, and everything to make it worse.
5
Homelessness problem in the liberal bastion of CA … hmmmm … how come? Aren't they moving in all right directions, removing inequality, green initiatives and such? Well, it seems only as long as it does not affect the 'haves', as for those on the poor side, they can always sleep on streets, it's mostly warm enough.
4
California would be better equipped to address the problem if it wasn't required to kick in an unfair amount to the National Treasury to prop up welfare queen red states whose largest expenditure is for their football coaching staff.
Kentucky alone receives $40 billion more from the federal government than it contributes . Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama all run deficits when it comes to their fair share . Who picks up the bill ? The blue states pay their bills . So if you are going to present yourself as a citizen of a proud , self sufficient State you should move to a blue one or just say thank you .
2
@Denis Sweeney: the money you are "kicking in" to red states is almost entirely SOCIAL SECURITY…Medicare and MEDICAID.
I thought liberals wanted those programs?
Surely you know FEDERAL DOLLARS in those programs follow individuals, not states. Red states have a lot of old people and retirees, and the very poor.
They also have military bases! so that's another source of dollars.
But mostly it is social programs and entitlements.
2
It would be nice if the Trump administration were to build free public housing for the destitute or mentally ill homeless who live on the street. But a "crackdown"? Not sure what that might mean.
When refugee Jews from all over Europe crowded the streets of Paris, the Nazis certainly cracked down on them by loading them onto trains....
1
The homeless problem cannot be solved locally. San Francisco threw a $300 million bond issue at the problem last year.
The result after spending the voter-approved $300 million (to be paid back by higher taxes on home owners...) was no net reduction in the homeless.
When some homeless are housed, others come to take their homeless places.
We need a national polilcy on homelessness because, increasingly the wealth disparity in this country and many controls over building multi-family housing near cities means that the number of persons who are homeless will grow.
The only real solution to homelessness is both zero immigrantion and zero population growth. That would be good for global warming and has zero chance of being implemented.
Many homeless now live in vehicles and cities, including San Francisco, have parking lots with utility hookups for Homeless RV's with electricity and bathrooms. Welcome to the 21st century.
5
Laughable (if only it were) for the (white) House to claim poor public service delivery in cities at it actively seeks to eliminate many public services nationally. Ummm, any connection? One of those services is to the mentally ill (one of the first homeless people I ever saw was in Washington, D.C., and he was actively arguing with himself)--what investment, not just an unfunded mandate, is the federal government willing to make to help the District and States solve this?
1
There's a lot of talking about mental illness and the homeless but I can't recall incidents where homeless shoot dozens of people with an assault rifle. And I'm willing to bet there are plenty of homeless with guns.
Many homeless people haven't slept well for as long as they have been unsheltered. Lack of sleep is part and parcel to being homeless.
Mental instability follows on the heels of those who sleep in tents, or cars, or just on the street. Try missing sleep for three days then take an IQ test.
Thinking clearly becomes difficult after missing just a single night's sleep.
Trump's attempts to embarrass California over the homeless should be countered by pointing out that Ronald Reagan turned out the mentally ill onto the streets decades ago when he closed down California's state mental hospitals. That's when this crisis began and it's been made worse by our country's politicians. Mental illness is now only one facet of this crisis and it's not the biggest aspect; it's a result of capitalism calling the shots and generations of people working low paying jobs.
This didn't start yesterday and it won't end tomorrow. I haven't heard a single solution yet but leaders in Seattle are beginning to find the right path.
2
When Ronald Reagan was the governor of California, he had the state run mental hospitals closed. This caused many mentally ill people to be on the streets as homeless. And the situation continues.
Also, I would like to know, concerning the homeless in California: how many of them were born and raised in California, versus how many came here from out of state?
2
@stb321 Came from out of state? And what would that tell you?
1
@stb321 And since Reagan why haven't the Democrats who run the state built new hospitals? They've had plenty of time to do it? Maybe the ACLU-backed ruling that you can't hold mentally ill people against their will has something to do with it?
3
@stb321: Reagan did not do this.
He was governor, yes.
But it was the ACLU who sued, and won, and insisted "the mentally ill have RIGHTS, even to be homeless on the streets!"
Reagan was powerless to stop them.
That was the BEGINNING of this vast problem.
2
"..unsheltered people has become a source of friction across the state, in cities including Eureka, Oakland and San Francisco."
A quick Google search shows that Eureka rents are $400 below the national average. I'm sure I would find homeless populations and lot of other cities with cheap housing. OK? Now stop the political posturing about rich greedy landlords and start helping these people.
1
@Max: sorry, but the problem is provably much worse in big, costly Blue Cities.
There are homeless everywhere, but the numbers are vastly lower in affordable cities.
Because there are so many wayward people with no idea what to do with their lives the federal and state governments and private companies should create national service corps
to teach and train young adults. It could be modeled on the military system at first to get young people into better physical shape and then then expanded into apprenticeship programs to give people meaningful work and pay do they don’t have to be homeless in the first place.
3
@Mike I can just see those "wayward" homeless people, many of them schizophrenic, crippled, in wheel chairs or otherwise afflicted, parading around in some sort of national service corps. Perhaps they could march in lock-step like the military as you suggest, accompanied by a fife and drum band and waving American flags, all wearing MAGA hats. Liberty Leading the People, Part II.
I'm not sure I'd call homelessness the result of liberal policies. NIMBYism is a very conservative idea. The idea that poor people shouldn't be allowed to have homes in the same areas as rich people? Not very liberal at all. Yet, I will grant, many people who CALL themselves liberals/moderates are actually die-hard economic conservatives. This breed flourishes in California.
I've watched too many high-end apartments and town homes built in the last few years, and too few dwellings for working class families. Somehow I doubt that President Donald Trump, real estate mogul, is the man to fix that disparity.
5
@Roarke California could send those folks to Manhattan, where the cheapest rents are $4000.00 a month.
1
trump could build housing and problem solving institutes for the homeless on his under used/useless golf courses.
2
@jahnay They could also stop watering the greens. Save lots of water that way.
1
If 90,000 is 70% of the homeless people in LA, and 918 of them died last year, that's a crude death rate of 0.71%. The US death rate is 0.84%. How is that somehow astonishing? People die every day. It seems that the death rate for the homeless is actually lower than it is for the average person. I don't see how that is a "thing" to obsess about.
3
According to today's Los Angeles Times, Trump is proposing razing the homeless encampments and putting them in “Government-backed facilities.” That sounds like concentration camps, or worse.
Trump's visit will likely be political theater condemning his nemesis California, Los Angeles and their "socialist" policies, provoking another Trump wedge issue. I'd expect to hear: "See, this is what happens when you vote for Democrats!"
3
In the late 80s the ACLU brought a case against the government - the mentally ill were in institutions against their will and it 'was wrong.' The government released the mentally ill onto the streets as it shuttered facilities and made it almost impossible for family to institutionalize one against their will. That was the beginning.....
6
Homeless people gather at the train station Trump will be taking you East to your new homeland. The gossip about Madagascar are rumors.
There needs to be a larger conversation about service resistant homeless people. Can’t count the amount of times I’ve offered food or a bus pass to a person on the street and they have sneered, literally: “I can’t buy drugs with this.” How do you help those people? What do you actually do? Give them a house to trash? The problem is so much bigger than escalating rent.
5
@Olivia: I recently had the sad experience of seeing a home on my street -- a once lovely single family house -- utterly trashed.
It had been bought by a trustee for a mentally ill woman whose parents had put money in a "special trust" for her use. The woman demanded her own house, despite apparently no ability to do normal home upkeep. The lawyer bought her the nicest home on our modest, working class street.
By the time I saw it, after 4 years of her living there….it was ready for the bulldozer. She had torn out walls and flooring, glued stickers all over doors and formerly nice woodwork. She'd thrown away doors and torn vents out of the woodwork. She clearly wanted to "remodel" somehow, but with no ability to do the work. Kitchen cabinets were torn off hinges, Every appliance was gouged, greasy and filthy. The bathrooms were unspeakable. She had inexplicably torn out the steps from the garage into the house.
Apparently at some point, the trustee visited OR neighbors frantically called him to let him know things were off the rails. She was hauled off to a group home somewhere, and the house put on the market.
Now, she was not HOMELESS nor poor, obviously. But given a home "for free", her mental illness allowed her to utterly destroy it.
Now imagine this times 600,000 homeless mentally ill people….
2
so many of the trump dumpers are slacker mayors whose cities ARE the problem.
the once size fits all notion that army barracks in utah will serve to solve is just nuts...the faux dems have got to get to eye level and see the people in the tents (suggests we go for a walk and bring some bags of food to share as we talk face to face with those who live in the street).
the discovery of the depth of the need, health care, rehab, social services might get some of the electeds "woke"...the solution, however national the problem is, is local, sometimes one-on-one but surely local in that centers for showering and eating, clean clothes, health care and shelter (secure however temporary)...are essential first steps..."first feed the face and then talk right and wrong" says playwright bertolt brecht.
Having a decent home is a human right.
4
We have learned from the coverage of the NYTimes that in one of the concentration camps in Florida, that the cost paid by this government to the "owners" is $750 a day, per adolescent.
For this princely sum the young women there (under 18) get to have the guards step into the doorway and heave handfuls of tampax at the young women.
The "guards" get a good laugh out of it.
There used to be a matron there who spoke Spanish but she is long gone.
Do I want a Trump anywhere near a homeless person?
Are we daft?
Odds are that trump will foist this all off onto a "religious" buddy of Falwell or some such.
"Everything he touches, dies."
I don't recall who said that, but it's the only warning you'll get on this.
NO TRUMP, EVER!
1
Trump is looking for homeless people to round up because the private prison companies need more customers as they may be running out of new immigrants to put into cages.
2
In my part of the state, City Councils and county planning commissions have approved, and continue to approve, massive new office complexes accompanied by hotels to provide lodging for business travelers, but no or very limited new housing. When new rental housing is proposed, cities demand that the developer pay exorbitant fees. A developer recently canceled plans for a much needed new apartment complex in Mountain View after the city demanded fees of $120,000 per unit to purchase land for parks and schools and to provide city services. The mayor of my city recently replied-all to an email about another large apartment proposal by asking "How can we thwart this?" She remains mayor. Her no-growth housing policy remains in place, bolstered by a year-long moratorium on the so-called "gatekeeper" proposals needed to approve increasing housing density.
City councils are run by private home owners who do not want more people around them, because hell is other people. Office buildings provide higher tax revenue to provide more services for existing home owners. Bills in the state legislature to require cities to allow more housing are voted down, time and time again.
The current homeless situation is the inevitable result of these deliberate policy choices.
3
We, as a nation, have chosen to ignore mental health issues for decades. Homelessness is our reward. Don't look for Americans to deal with the problem because we are just to self-centered to give a damn.
1
The federal government should find a way to sue local governments on behalf of the homeless and withhold fed funds from these democrats pet pork projects. Use the pork money to open or reopen mental facilities across the country. Geraldo Rivera did not do the mentally ill or American society any favors with his bs Willowbrook espose.
1
We have a huge population and a mild climate year round. Look at your own state. For every 1,200 people, you have 3 homeless people. In California, for every 1,200 we have 4 homeless people.
Homelessness needs no blame, it needs no harsh words, it needs no name-calling - it needs hard-work, brain-storming and solutions. Homelessness is not about political parties, Fox News or MSNBC, it's about people living on the streets struggling to eat, addicts with drug problems, mentally ill people who aren't getting treatment. I am not a social worker or expert in this field, the experts should be given free reign and the budgets needed to help get people into treatment and with a roof over their heads. Those of us with safe lives should give thanks for our lives and help those in need when we can. Name-calling and blame solves nothing.
53
The majority of the homeless population suffer from extreme depression and mental illness. Affordable housing is not the answer. Specialized hospitals and treatment facilities are needed.
15
I don't understand isn't the solution simple. Raise taxes on the wealthy movie industry folks and silicon valley millionaires and buy land and construct housing for the poor.
8
Yes, liberals' compassion often interferes with their ability to create reasonable solutions for homelessness. But why do we have so many here in California? Two reasons:
1. When Reagan was governor, he completely dismantled our mental health infrastructure, and the state has never recovered.
2. Nobody freezes to death or dies from heat stroke in California, and so it's a hospitable place to live on the streets. Add in the long history of other states busing their homeless to us, and you have a critical mass.
2
"He said that the president signed an executive order to ease affordable housing development in June"
This is Trump's real motivation. Guess who is in the business of low cost housing? Jared. He's practically a slum lord in Baltimore. What a nice setup for when the Trumps leave the White House in January 2021.
4
The idea that these people are living in boxes on Skid Row because they're priced out of the local real estate market is ABSURD. The real issue is not complicated. These are people with serious mental and addiction issues. We need public institutions to forcibly house people whose sickness prevents them from accepting help.
People are suffering and dying, but the Left will continue to twist reality to conform to their pet income inequality issues, rather than actually do something about it.
10
@Max
Many of the homeless are indeed mentally ill or addicts, but a lot of them hold jobs. They do the stuff that doesn't pay well. They make your sandwiches, wash your car, etc. And it's the Left that does the outreach to figure this out and try to help. So being priced out of the local real estate market isn't the entire reason for the homeless, but to ignore reality and twist the situation to conform to YOUR pet theories isn't helpful. Do something other than reinforce your current biases.
1
@Chatulim9
The people holding jobs are not the ones living in squalor on the sidewalk. And that is the homeless population that seems to be the immediate issue in LA.
1
Maybe trump has plans to "send them back" he just hasn't figured out to where exactly.
4
don the con at his hypocritical best....
NO plan for universal medical care
NO plan for universal mental health care
CUT requirement for mental health care
CUT funding for poverty programs to save a bucks that can be given to the top 1%
NO increase in or support for minimum wage
NO support of low income housing
AND THEN BLAME THE POOR
4
Next up, private prison providers applying for grants to run the facilities for the homeless.
This is another way to make homelessness profitable for Trump’s buddies. The Kushner family can turn their slum holdings in to federal gold so Ivanka can buy a new diamond tiara.
3
I presume this means the Trump administration will be increasing aid to cities that are struggling to deal with this problem. I certainly don’t have deep answers, but many others do and they need more resources. We own a business in Oakland located a few blocks from a homeless encampment we pass almost daily. It isn’t pleasant, but look at them as people, not an issue- they are God’s children just like all of us. Our business supports Lava Mae- you can do the same. Please donate to them. Help give these people a little bit of dignity.
“Lava Mae brings mobile shower trailers to the streets to deliver hygiene and restore dignity for our homeless neighbors in San Francisco, Oakland and Los Angeles.”
2
A big source of the problem in places like CA is zoning which restricts the supply of housing. Zoning should exist to separate residential areas from industrial uses due to concerns about pollution. It should not exist to prevent a neighbor from building a multifamily unit because it might impact someone's view. Even in major cities in CA, neighbors get to overrule zoning rules and decide what gets built.
At the same time, we also need to be realistic about encouraging migration in this country. If you can't afford to live in San Francisco on your wages, maybe it is time to move to a cheaper locale like Texas. In the late 90s, I lived in San Francisco and rent got to be too much, so I moved away. I ultimately came back when I could afford to. Didn't want to leave, but I wasn't going to become homeless instead of moving away to somewhere where I actually could afford to live.
5
@Matt J.: I only wish I had a dime for every suffering person on THIS FORUM ALONE whom I have advised to move to an affordable part of the country -- they are suffering homelessness, job loss, etc.
BUT THEY WON'T. They are deeply vested in being in a specific zip code -- of being hipsters and identifying as "someone who lives in WESTCHESTER" or "a San Franciscan or New Yorker!" and they will NOT give up that identify....even if it means living in mom's basement with no job, or homeless.
2
There are a shocking number of homeless people in my area, so I have ample opportunity to observe the problem. It's completely obvious that at least half suffer from severe mental illness.
There will never be a solution that does not include massive, govt-funded mental health services. That means taxes, so Trump and his party will never even attempt to fix the real problem. Furthermore, many (most?) of these people are clearly unemployable, so the conservatives' go-to solution, "pull yourself up by your bootstraps," simply doesn't work. *No one* is going to hire a person who's talking to demons or wearing urine-soaked clothes. That's what we're dealing with here.
As usual, Trump isn't even proposing an actual solution, but simply using CA as a punching bag again.
79
@Jomo So they’re unemployable and can’t stay on the streets for a variety of reasons. What then?
2
@Jomo
Yes, there is always that Reagan Era solution of, "just get a house."
1
@Jomo
I've lived in the L.A. area my entire life and never seen it this bad. It is kind of scary when you walk by a homeless person who is shouting at someone who isn't there.
Many of them should be in mental facilities, drug rehab, and some are just down on their luck. But I don't see the problem getting anything but worse.
13
Hmmm. As an Angelino, I noticed homelessness becoming a major issue around the time rents started to soar in the city. Rental properties being rented out as Air BnB's, instead as housing. New apartments started being built for people with money, not middle class incomes. Fancy, high-rise buildings with "ammenities." So if you want to lay blame anywhere, let's start with greedy landlords and the lack of rent control in most of Los Angeles.
We rent our home in LA. My family and I were thinking of moving this year, as our kid started a new school some miles from our current place. When we saw that we would have to pay about $600-$1000 MORE for what we basically pay now, we decided that we would make the best of driving and using public transportation. I seriously don't know how young people can come here and start a career without having 3 roommates in a two bedroom apartment to help pay the rent.
5
@Amy Duddleston Since when is receiving a return on one's investment in real estate (with the magnitude of the investment to build or buy real estate in places like LA being massive) being "greedy". If your 401(k) yields a high return, do you return some of the money to the funds you're in and ask them to return it?
4
Hopefully, next week will be the last time Trump is in California.
3
Homelessness is another crisis that did not exist until the left created it. Just like AIDS, drug addiction, and so forth. You have to ask yourself why these problems did not exist seventy-five years ago when government at all levels spent more on parks and less on social services. The answer is that the left perpetuates its power by creating crisis after crisis, and then building a well-funded industry around each one with my tax dollars. You don't solve homelessness by spending money on it. You solve it by spending nothing. Imagine that you see 100 hungry ants swarming your front stoop. You figure the best way to get rid of them is to pour a little honey on the stoop, reasoning that once they eat it they will be satisfied and go back into the grass. So you do that and come back the next morning. Instead of a clear stoop you have 100,000 ants swarming the honey.
10
@SHerman - please provide some valid statistics for your invented claim that homelessness was not widespread seventy-five years ago. That was shortly after the Great Depression combined with the Dust Bowl.
You know, millions without jobs, going to soup kitchens, Okies fleeing to California, freight trains full of homeless drifters? My grandfather in NYC used to feed men who'd come through - but so did people in rural areas.
Homelessness out in rural areas (you know, the "Real America") is a Real Problem, too. For example, while the big California cities have shelters for the homeless residents, the rural counties in the same state do a much worse job of being able to provide shelter - so their homeless are mostly outdoors.
Of course, the rural homeless, living in the woods or in their cars in parking lots, are far less visible so you can't blame liberals for them.
1
How do you “solve” homelessness without money, then? Kill the ants with poison? Seriously, it was your analogy. So what is the solution?
@SHerman
Ants work and receive ample return on their labor.
Similarly, people in Detroit and other urban communities worked and received ample return on their labor. This was partly due to the diligent efforts of their unions, without which the captains of industry would have offered them very little. In any case, the people did not all of a sudden become lazy and decide not to work. They had nice middle class homes with well kept lawns in which they took pride. What changed the picture was the insatiable appetite for profit on the part of the captains of industry, who, with no regard for anything BUT their on bottom line, engineered an exodus from the communities that had grown dependent on them. The same thing is still happening today. Capitalism requires some regulation. Unfortunately, we are living in a time when "E pluribus unum" and "We the people...." are being shown to be a crock of lies. Seventy-five years ago the government spent more on parks and less on social services because there was less need for the services and the wealth class was doing quite well. The wealth class is doing even better today and the term "middle class" is a joke. In other words, are you working your ass off and falling farther behind? Just say NO!
1
Montgomery, Alabama, the Heart of Dixie and First Capital of the Confederacy, is subjecting panhandlers to jail time, but you won't hear that on FOX because it doesn't fit with the "failing liberal states" narrative.
3
I moved to NYC in 1958 after only a few month in college. Homelessness, meaning living on the streets was almost non-existent. The minimum wage was a dollar an hour, which believe or not one could live on. Housing was available for those earning minimum wage since they were often conversions from full floor suites to single room occupancy, with a shared bathroom, and a small kitchenette.
Compared to living on the streets, this allowed refugees from the path of college to professions to find their way in minimum wage jobs and private living facilities. Of course NY city and state then had an array of continuing education, to industry based high schools and 2 year colleges, all the way up to respected City Colleges, that were at the level of ivy league, all absolutely free.
N.Y.C came close to economic collapse, technically insolvent in the late 1970s, a murder rate about 6X that of today, and then started the road to recovery. It became a city only for those of great wealth, with the indigent having no work, now done by computerization. IE: several hundred thousand messengers and clerks replaced by this technology. All those elevators had operators, and messages needed a messenger.
I was blessed with this era of NYC being a refuge, where lost individuals had a decent chance of finding their way. Human beings, even those with minimal abilities were still need as part of society. Now...........
5
Not enough affordable housing is being built around the country. California has a particular problem due to the high incomes in some of the major cities and that attracts high-end developers, the kind that created Trump and Trump-like real estate moguls. Any efforts to increase affordable housing requires pubilc policy and some public money which is never going to come out of this adminstration. Exhibit A-Trump's tax law is full of giveaways to real estate interests that serve high-end developments and make building affordable housing more difficult. Trump's CA tour is political theater which is what he is good at. Pubilc policy? Not so much.
4
I lived in SF. When I went back there last year, the homelessness problem has just grown worse. While walking in SF, it's not advised to be looking at your phone if not you will walk on some homeless or on some feces.
California is mostly controlled by the Democratic party, yet income inequality is growing there and more and more people are being left behind.
This in my opinion is proof that no party has the magic solution. Problems have to be solved using smart and pragmatic ideas.
12
@Chaks Extremely successful cities have their own problems. How many cities n the Midwest, Rural America and the South have too many homes because people leave to go to California, Arizona and other successful states.
I wonder how many of California homeless were encourage to move there by stingy mean spirited GOP states.
@GUANNA
Many cities in the "Midwest, Rural America and the South" began vacating in the late 1990s under Democratic President Bill Clinton's watch, when American industry was vacated to China with the President's blessing.
1
@GUANNA: so all of California's homeless as former Midwesterners? hahahahaha...uh...no.
I think you could prove this. Sure, some panhandlers are drawn to the mild climate, but in general....this is not a Midwest to CA influx.
We do not have "too many homes" but enough that almost everyone is housed. Homelessness is rare here. Certainly not 60,000!!! in one city!!!!
Are you suggesting the homeless moved to CA for generous welfare? is that really your argument?
1
More cages! The trump solution. To hell that so many on the streets are veterans. Something to which trump can’t relate. 56,000 women on the streets of America are veterans. How does trump say thanks?
And you vets who support trump, I thought you leave no one on the field. More bull.
8
Trump is going to solve homelessness in CA? This will be a true embarrassment in the making for him. He is a rich man with no understanding of homelessness. The president is looking only for political opportunity. CA is a State with NO patience for the likes of him or his party. Does egg look good on a backdrop of a bottle tan and thinning blond hair? Absolutely. It will be the picture of the year.
7
"liberal policies of overregulation, excessive taxation and poor public service delivery" ?! The nerve - perhaps if the Trump administration stopped the mooching by Red states off California federal tax dollars, California would have the resources to address service delivery to their homeless and lower their state and local taxes! And overrregulation of what exactly: Regulating car emissions in a state that decades ago was notorious for its air pollution? Really?
7
Rent increases in California have been huge since the housing crisis of 2008. Rental property here is increasingly owned by large wall street firms. Most renters here have no idea what person is actually their landlord, since the investors are hidden in layers of llc, corporations, and trusts.
When I was evicted 7 years ago from my last rental, it was a 3 bedroom 1.5 bath house, in Albany, which rented for $2350.
Similar rentals, if you can find, them now, are over $4000 per month.
7
The rise in homelessness parallels the widening gap in wealth and income in America.
10
I’m tired of hearing about how housing costs are making people homeless. Believe it or not, you don’t have to live in an expensive coastal enclave. Half of my family has moved out of state for more affordable housing, most to Texas and some to Washington. No one is forcing anyone to be homeless. If you can’t afford to live somewhere, don’t live there. I’m floored by some of the coverage I’ve seen of homelessness in my current city. For example, an employed woman making around $2500/mo (admittedly a very poor living, and that should be addressed) who is living in a van with her teenage daughter because they “cannot afford housing.” $2500 would have them living like queens in some of the places my family have moved to in Texas, and no - they are not dying, middle of nowhere towns. Instead, the obviously irresponsible woman (admits she has terrible credit, etc. which is why she has a problem getting an apartment as much as cost of rent, which is certainly very high) forces her daughter to live in a vehicle because she “doesn’t want to leave town.” I’m tired of being told I have to pay the price (literally, through taxation) to help people who are too pathetic to help themselves. It’s anti-American to coddle these people.
19
@Beatrix Sure, that family living in the van can just up and move to … where? and do what? If they can't afford a roof over their heads, and likely very little food for their bellies, they sure as heck don't have the means to do all that would be required to move somewhere else. And further, if the employed woman is making 2500/mo in CA, that will be about 1500 in a local with lower cost of living... so they would STILL be unable to afford rent.
1
There is a book titled ‘Eviction’. Written by a social worker, it follows several people in Milwaukee in their struggle to find and keep affordable housing. The author followed these people for a year. It might surprise you the reasons some people end up homeless.
3
Say that I want to move from LA to live a new life in Houston. Roughy 1,500 mile trip to a new city I know nothing about driving a van that might break down. Assume gas will cost $200-250 and assume the van holds together. Arrive in town and start looking for work... "Do I really need an address for my job application?" At the same time I have to enroll my daughter in school... but which school and what part of town will we be living in? I don't know yet. Wait, how much in school supplies? Maybe I find a minimum wage job within 2-3 weeks. I haven't had an income this whole time and minimal savings to live off of. Oy, the meter maid got me because my vehicle isn't registered to Texas... how much is it for registration? It's month 4, I can finally afford an appartment but I've been told I need to fork over 1 mth deposit. Great, my van broke down and I can't get to work so I lost my job. etc, etc, etc...
It's extremely difficult to start over in a new city when you have nothing to start with. Maybe what is really needed is a non-profit that can pair able bodied homeless people to jobs outside of California with additional assistance to get them started in a new town. Obviously those on drugs or have mental issues will need a additional/different type of assistance.
5
Why would CA cities want trump's help regarding homelessness. Their doing such a great job on their own. Aren't they? What possible insight could Rudy Guiliani, who made more inroads into solving the homeless problem in NYC than any other mayor in any other city, give to these CA mayors? Because, just ask them, they know how to solve it on their own. Just look around. See?
9
Per capita, New York has quite a bit more homeless than California.
The liberal press only discusses the homeless crisis in terms of the cost of housing and is able to cite the incredibly high cost of homes in California as the cause of the homeless problem.
This article totally ignores discussion of drugs and needles and defecating and urinating on the streets and the explosion of rats as medical and social problems. In LA it has resulted in many cases of Typhus and other diseases from the Middle Ages.
It totally ignores the fact that the cost of housing is so high in California in large part due to the liberal and nonsensical over-regulation of the housing industry. Things like needing to put solar panels on roofs.
If housing is the answer, go back to World War II and build barracks. Grant exemptions from the strangling regulations so that cities can construct basic housing.
Then, begin addressing the mental health and drug problems that are endemic to the homeless.
10
Give me a break! Does anyone believe Trump cares about homelessness?
There is a reason California is thriving as a Democratic state and has sued Trump 46 times (and so far, won all but one case).
6
The administration is just carrying out their usual lying and polarizing, while politicizing a growing problem. If you were homeless, would you rather be in a city that showed some humanity, or in a 'get-tough' city that bullied you, fined you, and vilified you as the president does?
So, more homeless in Portland OR? Big surprise.
To slash social services, vilify the poor, and then blame liberals for the increase on their sidewalks is cruel, deceitful, and was never intended to truly address the problem.
This article should be far more pointed about the administration turning homelessness into right-wing propaganda.
5
There is something morally wrong with a system that lets people who work full time cannot afford housing.
7
I'd like to know in detail how LA increased funding to address the homeless population and then ended up with more homeless people. Sounds like they severely underestimated the problem or didn't have a clue on how to address it.
There are a percentage of the homeless who are mentally ill and need to be placed in facilities to help them (good facilities, no warehouses). The other percentage are motivated to become self-sufficient but need assistance. There are some who frankly don't want any assistance and would rather panhandle.
Significant funding needs to be allocated for all these groups. And tough love support needs to pull all these folks off the street. It is embarrassing for them and me to walk past people with syringes, trash and the smell of urine in the air. Letting these folks camp out on the streets is a disgrace and an utter failure in leadership.
5
We raised our sales tax. At this very moment, shelters are being built, as well as low income housing, all around Los Angeles. All of these projects take time to implement.
If Trump can crack down on the true culprits causing homelessness, it would be the only good thing he ever did. I don't know how. I doubt he knows what he's talking about...homelessness isn't a choice by the sufferers.
27
The irony is that cities that "do something" about homelessness tend to be magnets that attract those from cities that do nothing.
Where I live in Boulder, they've begun to attach a sort of residency and registration requirement for services to homeless people. With the aim of treating the underlying causes but also not making it easy for transient homeless to exploit the system.
4
Yes, it's complicated! Many factors contribute to homelessness, including housing costs, addiction, mental illness, and unemployment. Please don't forget the impact of the high rate of incarceration in California--this started with the 3 strikes law, that resulted in an overpopulation of the state's prisons, a dumping of these prisoners on county jail systems, and release into the streets of nonviolent offenders without support for reentry into the employment market. Also the historical volitiliy of the employment market in California, the cycles of boom and bust that are the hallmark of the state creates a class of people who are socially expendable--employable when there are jobs, but with salaries that cannot keep up with the high cost of housing when the demand is high due high employment.
4
A big part of the problem is that affordable housing is nowhere near high-paying jobs, and commuters may travel two hours, or more, just to find a comfortable home they can afford. One trend is people living in lower cost urban hubs taking daily commuter flights to Manhattan. The search for affordable housing is getting insane.
3
It is important to separate the issue of 'Trump' from the issue that is "homelessness.'
While homeless people do not belong on public walks, roads and parks, the issue that is homelessness must be dealt with first for what it is--a combination of health, mental health and economics.
It is a difficult problem to solve and vexing to citizens in beautiful cities like San Francisco, LA and NY who must step over and around these neglected souls, dodge their waste and sometimes become the victim of their crimes and grifts. Our political class tends to view this solely as a matter for law enforcement and it is not.
Removing Trump, on the other hand, is simply a matter of voting this spotlight seeking cheeseball out in the next election--just about one year away.
3
Income disparity and the redistribution of wealth to the top has contributed to housing costs exceeding wage-earners' budgets. California's great weather is also a draw to those without houses.
Maybe Trump will sponsor a federal $15 minimum wage and Carson will support more 'public housing.' Maybe trump will fund substance abuse treatment and mental health services, job training and child care subsidies.
Or maybe he will simply smear the states that won't vote for him.
2
The current bureaucratic solutions for homelessness are not working. Just spending more money on the same ineffective programs will not improve the situation. San Francisco now spends over $25,000 per person in its "navigation centers" (service centers for the homeless) and has closed the juvenile hall to turn it into a homeless center. All this proves the lack of creative solutions in these bureaucrats-get-fat operations.
First everyday needs: the cities need to open basic toilet + shower facilities in these areas and they must be staffed to make sure they don't become drug dens. San Francisco has tried to put in place a few portable toilets on a truck, when much larger facilities are required.
Next the police need to arrest and the DA needs to send to prison the big time drug dealers. In a recent day the feds arrested 32 drug dealers and the local police arrested 50 big dealers, mostly from Central America, IN JUST ONE DAY and ALL IN THE SHADOW OF SAN FRANCISCO CITY HALL. Meanwhile
drug users are sprawled out on the side walk there.
Next the cities need to put a tax on store front empty over 6 months with the possibility of renovating said properties
with a small grant from the city into studio and one bedroom apartments. Then homeless who are willing to sign a contract to keep the unit clean and not use drugs therein can be housed.
We need a Marshall Plan for the homeless, and now.
6
Lets also not forget that high real estate prices which promote homelessness are also the result of foreign international investment into properties in the US.
4
Here's a sentence I never thought I'd write: this is a smart move by the Trump administration.
Not that I expect them to be able to follow through with a workable plan. Homelessness is an extremely complex problem, in fact it's actually several problems (a mental health care crisis, substance abuse, economic inequality), any one of which would be challenging to address. Trump is nothing if not simplistic in his thinking, so it's hard to imagine him doing anything other than using homeless people the same way he uses immigrants: ie, as a symbol that riles up his base.
But I would have to admit: that's smart, politically speaking, and it has the potential to force Democrats in office here to come up with solutions that actually work.
What's going on with homelessness in CA is shocking. It's unsafe, it's ugly, and nobody likes it. If Republicans shine a light on what's going on and promise solutions, people are going to listen, and it just might make the GOP relevant in CA politics again.
If Trump and his minions propose a "lock 'em up" crackdown, I think people are going to be surprised at the level of support it receives in our supposedly liberal state. And it would be up to Democrats to come up with something more workable and humane. Which is kind of how the two party system is supposed to work.
3
I have my doubts that Trump has any real concern about the homeless themselves, other than not wanting to see them on the streets or possibly bringing down housing values in wealthy neighbors because they are an "eyesore". He will try (or at least say he is trying) to remedy these problems as a back-handed way to attack liberals and Democrats. Or perhaps he will actually allocate government funds to build affordable housing for these people. All, no doubt, built by private firms in which he and other members of his administration have a vested interest, Not unlike the private facilities that house the immigrant children, private prisons for their parents, Christian orphanages connected with Betsy de Vos who are "rescuing" migrant children ( likely never to be seen by their parents again), etc I have friends in California, so I know what problems there are with so many people living on the streets there. But putting roofs over their heads isn't enough to solve the roots of the problems. It's a complicated issue and will take a many faceted solution to alleviate. Including having a government that cares more about the people and their needs than the corporations and their greed.
@Ann Correction - On the fourth line of my comment, it should read "wealthy neighborhoods" rather than "neighbors".
What if instead of building one more multi-billion dollar aircraft carrier to add to the 11 we already have, we used the money to build housing for the homeless? The homeless situation in LA is truly dire, especially in downtown. New luxury high rises dot the downtown landscape with new low income housing non-existent. There is no market-based solution to homelessness. The government must build low income housing and offer mental health services to the any homeless who need it. We can solve the national disgrace that is homelessness. We must do so now.
1
There are millions of immigrants living in California illegally and this has to be a major cause of the housing shortage. California politicians promote more illegal immigration with their sanctuary policies because they say they are compassionate, but their compassion seems to be missing when it comes to our own most vulnerable citizens that are being forced onto the streets as a result.
4
Trump and his associates have to realize one fundamental truth: No matter what solution is applied to the homeless program it is going to cost money.
Sweep up all the homeless and put them in prison, it is going to cost money to keep them there. Cut food stamps and housing subsidies, other costs primarily health care will go up. Do nothing and costs, including non-monetary expenses and threats to public health , will go up. The idea the homeless problem will go away if the government just spends less on it is an hallucination,
Trump actually has one good argument, though. If the US allows hundreds of thousands of poor immigrants just to walk across the border the homeless problems in Los Angeles and New York and elsewhere will NEVER disappear no matter what solution is applied.
Another important issue is that homeless problems are regional problems but cities are the only entities trying to solve them. The more cities do, the less everyone else does. Everyone else is more than happy to ship homeless to LA or New York because it doesn't cost them anything to do so.
2
It is seldom mentioned that one of the primary causes of the surge in homelessness is the elimination of welfare under the Clinton administration. Where did that money go? Is the nation better off for it? It is hard to imagine any political appetite for returning to welfare. Does Trump want to put these people in jails at vastly greater cost to say nothing of inhumanity?
1
Maybe he wants to make it impossible for them to sleep in the street so they'll be forced to sleep in his hotels. Anything to drum up new business, now that 2/3 of the electorate wouldn't stay in a Trump hotel if you paid them.
1
Giuliani's idea of dealing with NYC's homeless population was to bus them upstate well into the night and bus them back down to the city during the day. It cost us taxpayers a fortune and didn't help with aiding our fellow citizens with any reason change or solutions.
2
Simple solution...All the good and devoutly religious Republicans of the U.S. Senate could push for a raise to the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $7.30 and cut Social Security payments to widows over the age of 90 to pay for it.
Like climate change and other serious problems that threaten the quality of human life, homelessness may be talked about on occasion by our politicians and pundits, but it will remain largely ignored or quickly forgotten if the subject happens to come up. In fact, the only service that most Americans are willing to provide to the homeless is that of the lip. That's because, I'll wager, most Americans believe homelessness is an entirely self-inflicted problem, and usually the result of drug and alcohol use, mental illness, and/or laziness.
Of course when those who hold such beliefs find themselves without jobs and/or unable to pay the obscenely escalating rents (especially in places like SF and LA), attitudes toward the homeless begin to soften and even evince compassion. One would think those who are followers of Christ's teachings wouldn't need to lose their jobs or homes to feel such compassion. Alas, as history amply shows, one can call himself a Christian, but behaving as one appears to be nigh impossible when it comes to our homeless brothers and sisters (and to refugees and immigrants). Hypocrisy has always been America's best friend.
1
Wishing I was allowed to edit my submission after I clumsily and mistakenly hit the send button. As I was saying rather pathetic feds are considering stepping in as local officials do little to nothing. I foresee this situation continuing to worsen by this time next year increasing the pressure on the state legislature to pass State Senator Weiner's legislation to end local control of zoning resulting in residents having no input on housing density or placement. Meanwhile homeless are assaulted and dying on the streets in record numbers. Of course mental health issues are part of the problem. Being homeless exacerbates those issues and can be the cause for those not otherwise afflicted. Something's got to give.
1
Considering all the information in the article, it seems that LOW WAGES are a measurable part of the problem....so businesses should increase wages to slow the problem. Lets see how THAT works
1
As a frustrated resident of CA, I'd be more than happy to see the Federal government get involved in this crisis and help to solve it. However, I don't trust Trump or his band of lackeys to do anything meaningful and substantive to actually solve the problem. Trump doesn't give a darn about the homeless population as human beings; he doesn't care about poverty besides that it means you're some kind of loser if you're poor. Considering how he's treating immigrants and refugees in government facilities, I find it specious at best to think his administration could treat the homeless and poor with any kind of humanity and compassion. We don't need to lock away the homeless so our streets are more aesthetically pleasing - we need to build affordable housing so that people working full time (as many homeless in CA do) can actually put a roof over their own head. If the Feds want to start building the massive amounts of affordable housing we need, I'm all for it. But somehow I doubt solving the problem is Trump's goal; he wants to disappear the problem so he can beat Democrats over the head with his 'amazing' solutions to an intractable problem that has been growing for the past three decades.
2
The obvious nonsense in this approach (essentially outlawing homelessness? Really?) aside, the numbers from Los Angeles in particular seem to mirror the experience in New York City - rising numbers despite increased efforts, including spending more money. In addition to the ever-increasing cost for housing, there is an often-voiced suspicion that offering more and better services for the homeless will actually attract more homeless persons to move to that city, town or even state, resulting in, at best, a zero sum game or even an increase. However, is that true or false? What do the data on this tell us? What really drives the numbers up, and what is just smoke and mirrors?
@NYTimes: Could you please do a deep dive into this and publish your findings? Thanks!
43
@Pete in Downtown Great comment. I'd love to read a well-researched, thought out, non-biased, apolitical article (or even a book) addressing the epidemic of homelessness.
3
@Pete in Downtown Actually, there was a study and it looked at the homeless in NYC. Since the city softened it's approach and started promising homeless folks housing, homelessness in NYC has skyrocketed.
1
Why so many unsheltered homeless people in California? Just compare the winter weather anywhere in the U.S. to San Diego, L.A., San Francisco and Phoenix. No sharpie attack on the weather map will change that reality.
26
@sloreader
Also wonder how many of the homeless are from southern and mid-western states that offer few services to the needy because they don't have the money or the will to raise taxes. Should liberal cities start busing the homeless back to the states they were born?
3
Of course Trump is obfuscating the truth here. To blame liberal policies for homelessness is absurd and ignores many other factors.
Many progressive cities actually prioritize social services and programs to help the homeless population and so when conservative cities offer nothing but a bus pass for their homeless populations, is it any surprise they tend to end up in these progressive cities, carrying the brunt of the burden lazily passed off by unsympathetic regressive mayors?
Another attribute of these more progressive cities with larger homeless populations (LA, Portland, Seattle, etc.) as compared to red state cities is that the climate allows for people to live outside year-round relatively comfortably. Being homeless in a Dallas summer is obviously a bit more unpleasant than being homeless in San Francisco.
We all know that Trump lies as frequently as he breathes, but this is worth clarifying when it comes to this issue
24
@Josh This focus on California has Santa Monica's own Stephen Miller and the upcoming election written all over it!
2
How do you force people to afford housing, utilities, etc. when 40 hours / week at minimum wage isn't enough for rent alone?
78
@IT Gal
How about moving to a city or state that is affordable?
1
@Ed Wasil - Like San Diego ?
1
This year's survey of the homeless in LA County found that 22% became homeless this year. Little affordable housing has been built for years. Last week a lawsuit was filed to stop a program to build more. LA County and City voters approved funds to build temporary shelters and transitional assistive housing yet to my knowledge none have opened. Mayor Garcetti talks good but seems to do little. A vocal minority of residents oppose shelters from Venice to Lincoln Heights. In Eagle Rock residents oppose a Bus Rapid Transit route on a major boulevard because public policy now calls for denser housing along transit lines. The son of one opponent is arrested for arson and attempted murder for setting a homeless encampment on fire that caused a brush fire that could have burned down many homes and left even more people homeless. The city's response is to ban homeless near brush and from certain streets. Advocates got court orders to prohibit the city of LA from dismantling homeless encampments but it doesn't apply to cities bordering LA so they sweep their homeless across the border such as Glendale did with the aforementioned encampment. Tents now start at the LA city border while residents around us complain about the number in LA. Last week Councilman Cedillo opposed a proposed shelter in Echo Park on city owned land as he seems to have objected to every proposal. Rather pathetic feds cinsid
9
Trump heard about homelessness in a briefing or in FOX and crested a performance art piece to play on FOX. He has the attention span of a gnat and is just plAying this serious issue for yucks on FOX as a way to denigrate liberal areas.
News flash, Donald: many of the homeless in our liberal city are from red areas of the state.
53
@Djt, uh oh, you told trump a fact. That went down like a kidney stone.
This has nothing to do with with improving the plight of the homeless. Trump will use this information as a cudgel to inflame the fears of is base while decrying how badly the Sanctuary cities are handling their citizens and your federal tax dollar's. And it will be another group of people who he can add to his list of the "Other" who are threatening his followers very existence.
35
Many families are living paycheck to paycheck and are one medical crisis away from homelessness. I was on Medicare and my wife was between jobs when she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Without the Affordable Care Act, I would be bankrupt and homeless. If successful, Trump’s attacks on the social safety net will only increase homelessness.
65
@Fritz
I have never understood why so many Americans are against the ACA. As someone self employed I went without insurance for years. A friend of mine also went without insurance and in December before the ACA went into effect he had what he thought was the flu. The ACA act saved his life because when we got our insurance he finally went to the doctors and it turned out he had cancer. You and your wife will have enough to go through fighting pancreatic cancer you shouldn't be spending that time also struggling to keep your home.
20
@Ginaj
A lot of people feel it's unfair that one can have a relatively modest income and still not qualify for subsidies under ACA. It can be very expensive under those circumstances.
7
Do we need a "fact finding mission" to figure out that homeless people need 1. Jobs that pay higher wages and/or 2. Apartments that charge cheaper rent. I'm sure the Trump team will come up with an ingenious idea like tax breaks for billionaires to build luxury apartments and hotels. That should straighten out the homeless problem just great for the layabout children of Russian Oligarchs and Saudi oil barons.
31
@Dave
On come on, there has to be a better way to cure poverty than seeing that work pays more money !
1
@Dave Most of the homeless are not looking for a job. They do not want to work as they are addicted, mentally ill, or both.
Judging from the wandering homeless caravan of RVs that moves around the block of the public school I teach at in East Los Angeles, economic indicators are positive for them as well . . . . Now one of them is towing a large boat, which I can only assume someone is sleeping in also as it's miles from water here. Hot wired into a street light the band of Gypsies look like they've got all the comforts of home and then some.
2
People are priced out of housing. Affordability is not only defined by housing costs but by income levels. As the rich get richer developers will cater to them. We need a national minimum wage.
6
Said the biggest problem creator in chief.
Trump is at his finest when he is finger pointing at our problems he has no intention of solving.
“Crack down!” Rhetoric of an ass not a president in charge of millions of hard working, imperfect, people, including veterans, in need of help to repair their lives.
13
@Abe Nosh . ... ummmm.. that made no sense whatsoever!
The answer is obvious, build low cost housing and make certain these places are well attended without torment. Rent in ALL of California is high and will not go down, ever. Millions of retirees are destined for the streets as rents become impossible. President Trump is opposed to rent control. If trends continue a one bedroom apartment in 2022 will be $1500 a month in every state. Very few wage earners or persons living Social Security can afford it. Senator Mitch McConnell wants to reduce or abolish Social Security, Food Stamps, and federal healthcare, to reduce the deficit. Only a rational and sustainable housing program solve this problem.
18
@David Fairbanks... You mean you don't believe another corporate welfare tax cut for the uber rich will fix the problem?
6
With the largest population in the nation you’d assume we’d have the highest numbers in a lot of categories including homeless; but there is no discussion or comparisons and only the simplest ideas about high rents. But when a person has reached homelessness it’s always about more than the rent. Once you’re living in the street, it’s a long way back to be able to get - much less keep- a job. Meanwhile developers take advantage to push building more housing at market rates as if it will ever trickle down to those who need it. It doesn’t. You need a combination of managed housing and social services - and even then these can be resisted. We need to stop looking for simple solutions and doing quickie reports politicizing human tragedies. If Trump wants to help: show us the money. Somehow I doubt that’s going to be the purpose here.
107
Money? For what?
What about mental health?
Trump has an idea. Let’s figure this out.
7
Where can a minimum wage worker afford to live? How does one afford to move?
21
@Carolyn C A fair number of the homeless do in fact hold jobs, at least here in the San Francisco Bay Area. You're right as a generalization, though. And "market rates" for housing are widely seen here as housing for millionaires.
12
What do Californians have to lose? Obama did nothing
12
The mental sickness that is Donald Trump. Mean, cruel and perverted.
Disgusting.
14
Homelessness is a complex problem. Housing costs, mental health problems, a shortage of homeless shelters, and a reluctance for people who are homeless to use homeless shelters are causing homeless people to camp out. Housing costs are high in California. I suspect the gentle climate of California, which attracts people to it, also makes it easier for people to camp out.
26
When Rudy Giuliani went after the homeless in NYC about 30,000 of them simply disappeared.
I think the solution he will propose to Trump is ... Soylant Green.
(Kids, look it up.)
4
“Like many Americans, the president has taken notice of the homelessness crisis, particularly in cities and states where the liberal policies of overregulation, excessive taxation and poor public service delivery are combining to dramatically increase poverty and public health risks,”
The utter absurdity of this statement is mind boggling. Taxation as a cause of poverty, homelessness? Low income people pay few taxes. Overregulation? How in the world does that hurt anybody but the wealthy? They will say, trickle down, or what’s good for General Motors is good for the country. Yeah, go tell that to the guy living under a railroad bridge.
42
“I think they feel that there’s got to be something that creates an incentive, carrot and stick, for cities to do something about it,”
Not sure about what their "carrot" approach would be for the homeless. But if Giuliani, Trump and the Trumpublican party had their way the "stick" approach for the homeless would certainly be prison time or concentration camps. Don't we already have that with immigrant families coming in through Mexico? So why would you expect them to treat the homeless any different?
Hey I got it! Let's hear from HUD Secretary Ben Carson. Maybe he has some good ideas on government housing programs for the homeless. Oh I forgot, it's Ben Carson.
11
@Gaston Corteau… Ben who?
2
So what's the problem with federal authorities taking a look at the homelessness problem? I mean it's not as though the municipal officials have done such a great job over the past decade or so. Been to San Francisco recently? Quite reminiscent of those old images of Calcutta. Careful, don't step on the filth.
19
@BD
The problem with federal authorities taking a look at homelessness is incompetence and amorality at the top.
@BD It depends on the federal official and their pre-existing perspectives.
@bes ... no incompetence and indifference at the top when it comes to municipal officials? Walked the streets of San Francisco recently? Be sure not to wear expensive shoes.
1
What a moral monster.
He's run out of children to cage, and now this? Harassing homeless people across the country?
And the Evangelical so-called Christians are going to say that this is the President God chose and Jesus supports? I remember that from the Sermon on the Mount: Blessed are the tormenters of the helpless. Blessed are the child cagers. Blessed are the harassers of the homeless.
What's next? He's going to be caught torturing cats in the White House garage, and the Trump supporters are going to shrug and say, let Trump be Trump?
75
“Crackdown” on homelessness?? Why not “help solve” homelessness?
90
@Mary
Notice how he starts with California when D.C. has hordes of homeless he could be tossing into the flames?
1
The NYT still has not figured Trump out. He's pointing to the defecating on the street homeless population in CA to raise the nation's awareness of the terrible job the Democrat 'leaders' of LA/SF q43 doing dealing with the problem. Watch as the foolish Dems running these cities move to prevent Trump from helping the homeless.
15
It's true, Trump's enduring concern for those less fortunate than himself is acknowledged throughout our nation.
17
It’s against the law to be poor in the USA
7
Can you at least acknowledge that people don’t enter politics in order to build condos or any other kind of housing? That’s what construction companies and financing are supposed to be for.
The city government has been welcoming tech companies and their employees with open arms, which is all well and good, except there wasn’t and isn’t enough housing to accommodate everyone affordably. The market largely took over and made already-expensive housing completely out of reach for most people living here. Developers are more interested in building market-rate housing for tech workers because they’re being paid enough to afford it (although when you talk to them, they’re not exactly thrilled about how much of their pay goes towards rent either). Meanwhile landlords for what had been more affordable units have been having a field day of no-fault evictions in order to displace the people living here already thereby allowing them to drive up the rents at dizzying rates. So what happens when the tech companies evaporate? Landlords will sit on empty units (which they’re already doing) rather than lower the rent they’re asking for and we’ll still have loads of homeless and empty units.
1
I'm sure the Trump administration, which was calling the gun violence epidemic in America a mental health crisis just a few days ago, will see the homelessness situation in California—something that actually is in large part a mental health crisis—and not utter a single word about it being the byproduct, e.g., of the state lacking proper mental health treatment infrastructure. You can bet on it, in fact.
Concern for the mentally ill is only feigned by these folks when there is some sort of political gain to be had. Instead, the political gain to be had, in this case, is a bit of political theatrics: issuing a warning to the general American electorate that if a democrat is elected to office in 2020, the entire country will have the same homelessness problem California does. It's an absurd claim, of course, but that's what they're going to do.
16
How can a state with a budget surplus in excess of $20 Billion allow this to go unchecked?
They have the money, I am sure there are abandoned facilities, either state of federal, that can be used.
Instead of resisting, how about cooperating on this one issue? Get Trump to donate federal land/buildings to the project and then everyone can win.
11
@Jason A.
It hasn't gone unchecked ---guess what Jason, wealthy people don't want homeless shelters built near them. Poor people live near hear because there are jobs but they cannot afford the housing. Some just live here because we don't harass them every day. It's sad that we are the richest state in the country and yet we have so many homeless.
BUT trump is not coming here to help if he were then republicans would stop cutting assistance to the poor. He is coming here to show his base what horrible people liberals are --- his whole campaign is about hating on socialists.
For $100K, couples will get a photo opportunity with Trump -- for just showing up at one of Warren's FREE events you get a selfie with her. Which one of these people do you think really wants to help the poor?! I know the answer do you?
1
"Housing First" is the model that needs to be used across the nation.
If Trump wants to eliminate homelessness in America, he should announce a national public-private partnership to implement "Housing First". Use public debt to encourage the construction of housing for the homeless and to provide them with the necessary support services.
Such a program will stimulate the economy, create jobs in construction and help homeless move forward with dignity.
11
Homelessness, and the precipitating causes - the continuing inability of the poor and working classes to afford increasingly expensive housing, mental illness, and drug abuse - are serious issues. But with Ben Carson at HUD, nobody dealing with the opiate epidemic, Republicans trying to further erode already inadequate safety net programs, and Trump himself at the helm, it's ludicrous to think that they will have any constructive ideas or plans. Unless they can figure out a way to deport the homeless...
18
Trumperdoo helping the homeless, that's rich.
(Apologies to "Preacher".)
Another of his shameless ploys to promote favorable optics without actually addressing the underlying problems.
It doesn't occur to his base that homeless people disproportionately gravitate to warmer climates that offer better social services.
10
How about another big tax cut for the rich?
56
Best answer to reducing homelessness? National healthcare.
71
How do you arrive at that conclusion? The homeless are already the recipients of massive social welfare in the form of free (to them) healthcare. They utilise vast amounts of care at local hospitals, with many individuals being responsible for annual bills of $1M . Housing and in-patient programs are what they need. There is a persistent myth in this country that if you are extremely poor, you cannot access healthcare. This is false. MediCal in California and Medicaid nationwide provide free healthcare to MILLIONS of Americans, including the unborn citizens of undocumented mothers. It is the working poor just above the set poverty thresholds and the middle class who are being decimated by our lack of socialised medicine. Not the ultra-poor.
9
@Jane Absolutely right Jane. As a lifelong californian what i remember about the homeless was there wasn't hardly any right up till Governor Reagan shut down all the mental illness facilities here in california. that really got the ball rolling with increasing the homeless. What a Gov he was.
17
@daniel r potter It seems a lot of the problems we are facing today can be linked to Reagan. Things are "trickling down" all right - but it isn't the wealth that's been hoarded at the top.
Most of the 'homeless' are so as a result of their drug addictions. If you don't address that problem first, you're not going to solve anything.
59
@sheikyerbouti
Actually housing people is the first step to recovery. Recovery is difficult under any circumstance but is impossible if you go to treatment and have to return to the street.
Housing is health care. Recovery is health care. Both are needed as they support each other.
17
@sheikyerbouti Based on my experience working with the homeless here in SF, the problem is rooted in mental illness--or, more accurately, a lack of mental health care--first, and drug use second. As a homeless man once put when I asked him if people on the streets were mentally impaired or drug addicts, he said, "they're crazy AND they're drug addicts."
29
@nora m
Wrong. The first step in 'recovery' is wanting to 'recover'. San Francisco hands out free, clean needles and provides 'safe spaces' for these people to use. The weather here is great. Rarely rains, rarely cold, rarely hot, never snows. Lot of people with money to panhandle from. Lot of things to steal and sell. And since we foolishly passed Prop 47, they can do pretty much anything without fear of going to jail. The city of SF just passed Prop C. $300M/yr more to toss at the 'homeless' 'problem'. Why would these people ever want to leave. We made our bed.
6
For over 4+ decades my woodworking shops were in neighborhoods in San Francisco where the numbers of the homeless, often with jobs, continued to rise. Just several weeks ago I mentioned to my wife that Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi from her home in Pacific Heights and vineyard in the Napa Valley is simply not aware of how vulnerable she is to intense criticism from Republicans for allowing the worsening squalor in the streets of her City. Wealthy San Francisco, and Los Angeles also, under her Democratic leadership, has proven itself incapable of creating shelter for everyone. President Trump is not going to let her, the State Democratic Party, and a Democratic presidential candidate forget the negligence.
16
@john sheridan
Forgive my foggy mind this morning. Pelosi is in the House, not Senate, but the fact remains the House can't get funding for these programs without Senate approval.
17
@john sheridan
Interesting slant, but incorrect. Do you realize Pelosi serves in the Senate (not state government), where she is outnumbered by the GOP? Now ask yourself honestly, which party supports social programs like healthcare, housing assistance, food stamps, minimum wage increase, job training, public education, etc. that benefit homeless, Democrats or Republicans?
10
Are you suggesting that President Trump has some empty cages that he needs to fill?
2
I can't wait to hear President Trump's ideas.
7
I live in Charleston, WV and we've had a homeless problem for the past decade. There is a camp in the woods near my neighborhood. But of course since WV voted for Trump he will have to keep pretending it's a Garden of Eden with no social or economic problems and he will do nothing here.
82
@Patrick People like Trump love to criticize 'liberal' cities, but they cannot point to any major US cities run by Republicans in recent history where they've been able to solve these difficult issues.
5
@Patrick
Wilmington NC, now has homeless on many/most of the major stoplights. I have at least 3 homeless encampments within 2 miles. Beer and liquor cans and bottles piled on the road side. This is all multiplying massively since 2007.
Saw same in Anchorage in July when I visited
It’s not a” political” failing it’s a social one,
Addiction
Gutting of live - in mental health facilities since 2000.
Growing unemployment of the unemployable, not counted as unemployed as they aren’t looking for jobs, have no addresses, file no tax returns and in most cases are not even on any government dole.
Of course the politicians don’t really care, they just consider it a “ gotcha “ game, point fingers, pontificate.
3
I lived in Los Angeles for two years and was constantly upset about the homeless situation. The local newspaper produced an excellent series of articles about the problem. About half of the population had serious mental and drug problems. About half had lost their homes because of becoming unemployed. For these people, all they needed was help for two months until they became employed again. Seventy five percent had always lived in Los Angeles. Most people who live in shelters have children and are a priority for those services. The easiest fix is to give financial assistance to people who are unemployed but seeking a new job. The people who have drug and mental problems will need close assistance, that can be costly, but necessary for any real gains to happen.
113
@Kuhlsue Actually, many living on the streets do not want to live in a shelter and are not interested in a job. That is a fact that has come out in many studies. What is outrageous is the number living without a choice of a shelter. I know CA is expensive, but so is NYC where few have to live on the streets.
Also, we have all kinds of assistance available for those that need it. Unfortunately, the mentally ill and addicted are not likely to go through the process of getting that help.
2
@Kuhlsue
The issue of mental illness is huge. The mentally ill are often the ones that refuse any form of help. They end up - and remain - on the street.
It's really ironic. While there were problems in places like WIllowbrook, the closing of all those places left many with no place to go. Many of those hospitals still sit vacant with equipment and records still in place, strewn about vandalized empty facilities, What a waste. These abandoned places show up regularly on 'urban archaeology' sites (though many are out in the country).
I can't help but think that the smart move was redesigning institutional care within existing facilities instead of dumping patients into inadequate 'outpatient care.' You can still see patients on the street with medication induced tics.
We have a relative who has resisted treatment all his life. His parents refused to recognize the severity of his issues. He was left without oversight when they died. He was combative with his siblings who finally walked away. Though provided with funds to buy a place to live and funds to live out his life, he has been hospitalized numerous times. At least those incidents got him on SS disability and some oversight. I am sure that without his parents insisting he buy a place to live and providing for him he would be on the street. He may end up there yet.