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LOS ANGELES – The number of homeless people in Los Angeles County has increased by 12% over last year, officials said Tuesday despite government spending of $ 619 million to alleviate the problem.
The annual punctual count has registered nearly 59,000 homeless people in the county, the largest number of them – 36,000 – from the city of Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, a counting county agency, submitted its report to the supervisory board at its meeting on Tuesday.
The 2018 count showed a slight decrease in the homeless population, which amounted to just over 53,000. Supervisor Janice Hahn called the new numbers "discouraging".
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Tents sheltering homeless people lining a street in downtown Los Angeles last week. (AP Photo / Richard Vogel, File)
"Even though our data shows that we are hosting more people than ever before, it is hard to be optimistic when this progress is disrupted by the number of people falling into homelessness," Hahn said.
The defenders of the homeless reproach elected officials for not doing enough to keep people off the street.
"Delay, inaction and spin: it's all [Los Angeles] Mayor [Eric] Officials from Garcetti, City Hall and Los Angeles County are facing the human homelessness disaster in Los Angeles, as they attempt to alter the expected number of homeless, despite spending money. more than $ 619 million spent on the problem in the region over the past year. Michael Weinstein, president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, said. "Government policies and the official response to the homelessness crisis in Latin America just do not work."
The count showed a 24% increase in the number of homeless youth, defined as people under 25, and a 7% increase in the number of people aged 62 and over. According to officials, about 29% of homeless people are mentally ill or have a substance abuse problem.
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In downtown Los Angeles, large homeless camps have invaded many blocks and fueled a public health crisis as lockers, rat infestations and epidemics have become commonplace in recent years.
Similar counts in other parts of the state have shown an increase in the homeless population, as cities continued to face the lack of affordable housing, soaring rents and the costs of the cost of housing. life and resistance of residents to shelters for the homeless.
"If we do not change the fundamentals of affordable housing, the road will be very long," said Peter Lynn, executive director of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA), at the Los Angeles Times. "If we do not anticipate affordability, we will have a hard time overcoming homelessness."
In the neighboring region of Orange County, supervisors canceled a plan last year to install emergency shelters for homeless people in three wealthy cities after fierce opposition. In San Francisco, this year's residents raised more than $ 60,000 after launching an online crowdsourcing campaign to fund a lawsuit against a 200-bed homeless shelter project.
Nevertheless, Los Angeles County voters responded to the call to deal with the problem. Two years ago, they voted to increase taxes and housing obligations to make massive investments to solve the homelessness crisis.
A homeless camp on a street in downtown Los Angeles near a highway in January 2019. (AP Photo / Richard Vogel, File)
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The LAHSA said it helped 21,631 people settle in permanent housing in 2018 – a pace that could quickly end homelessness if rising rents and stagnant low wage wages do not help. had not pushed thousands of others into the streets.
About a quarter of the population became homeless for the first time in the past year and about half of these cited economic hardship as the leading cause, said the government. authority.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
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