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Los Angeles has seen a 16% increase in the homeless population over the last year, the latest sign of severe income inequality and a worsening housing crisis in California.
There are now more than 36,000 homeless people in the city of LA and nearly 59,000 in LA County, an increase of 16% and 12% respectively, according to an annual report from LA County released Tuesday.
The county's "countdown", conducted each year in January by thousands of volunteers, is an estimate of the number of people living on the street, in tents, in cars or in shelters. The sharp increases illustrate the growing public health crisis in a region home to some of the richest neighborhoods and people in the United States. Some key data of the report:
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More than 44,000 (75 per cent) of the homeless are unprotected, with more than 16,000 people living in cars and more than 11,000 in tents and makeshift shelters.
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The number of homeless families increased 8% to 8,800, of which more than 1,600 were homeless.
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The number of homeless youth has also increased by 24% to nearly 4,000, and more than half of youth are not protected.
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More than half of unprotected adults are homeless for the first time.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti called the increase "heartbreaking" in a statement. "These results remind us of a difficult truth: soaring rents across the state and federal divestment of affordable housing, coupled with an epidemic of untreated trauma and mental illness, are pushing people towards homelessness faster than they can get out of it, "he said.
The report found that 53% of first-time homeless people cited "economic hardship" as the determining factor and that about one quarter of homeless adults had lost their homes in 2018. A majority of Homeless people have also lived in the county for over 10 years.
"I was screaming that this was a disaster of incredible magnitude," said Reverend Andy Bales, executive director of Union Rescue Mission, a homeless organization in Los Angeles. "Thousands and thousands of people are suffering on the streets … and the more you leave people on the streets, the more it is devastating."
The crisis has disproportionately affected black Americans, who are four times more likely to be homeless in Los Angeles than other groups; they represent 33% of the homeless population while they represent only 8% of the county's population.
Los Angeles County officials, who spent $ 619 million on the crisis last year, said they made progress in 2018, lifting more than 21,000 people home, an increase of 23 per cent over the previous year. compared to the previous year.
The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (Lahsa) also noted that exorbitant rent increases in the area, combined with stagnant wages, mean that one-third of households now spend more than 50 percent of their income on rent. A recent study named Los Angeles as the country's least affordable housing market.
A LA tenant earning the minimum wage would need to work 79 hours a week to buy a one bedroom apartment, and the county would need more than 500,000 new affordable housing units to meet the needs of low-income renters.
"The pressures on Angelenos are severe," said Peter Lynn, executive director of Lahsa, at a public meeting unveiling the figures, adding that the government "can help thousands of people get out of homelessness even if thousands of others fall into homelessness ".
Bales said his own employees could not afford to live in Los Angeles and that the crisis was "at a critical juncture," adding, "I hope it 's the doorbell. alarm".
The data was released a few days after the Wall Street Journal reported that developers in Los Angeles had built a surplus of sumptuous homes in upscale neighborhoods in Los Angeles – with price tags ranging from tens to hundreds of millions .
"The fact that nothing is possible in this city is making more and more people on the street," said Tracy Jeanne Rosenthal, co-founder of the Los Angeles Tenants Union. "What is happening is rent abuse, real estate speculation, the destruction of rent-controlled housing and the overdevelopment of luxury. [housing], "she added.
Rosenthal said she was tired of seeing the homeless criminalized and harassed by police and that social housing and extensive rent control policies were essential to allow people to stay at home and in Los Angeles.
Once people are evicted or expelled because of huge rent increases, they often have no other housing options, she added, "If you are deported to Los Angeles, you are expelled from Los Angeles. Angeles. If you want to stay lodged, you have to leave the city completely. "
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