Hey, so I found this cool article about homelessness in LA County, and it got me thinking—are we really doing enough?
The article, titled LA’S HOMELESS RESPONSE LEADERS UNITE TO ADDRESS UNSHELTERED HOMELESSNESS AS HOMELESS COUNT RISES, talks about the efforts to tackle homelessness, but the numbers are saying it might not be working as well as we hoped.
The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority dropped the 2023 Greater Los Angeles County Homeless Count on June 29th. It’s showing a 9% jump in homelessness from 2022, with a total of 75,518 people without homes. And guess what? Other big cities like Chicago, Portland, and San Diego are also dealing with a rise in homelessness.
There’s a part about interim housing numbers staying around 20,363. The county even declared a state of emergency in 2023 and is working on places outside the city.
So, this study from UC San Francisco’s Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative says crazy rent prices are a big reason people end up on the streets. The city and county plan to make 8,200 affordable homes this year, but everyone knows we need way more affordable housing.
According to LAHSA, they made 22,540 permanent housing placements in 2022. But get this—the number of people without homes keeps going up. The city’s doing a lot, but it seems like the problem is way bigger than we thought.
I’m thinking, the new 8,200 affordable homes planned for this year are good, but we kinda need that just to keep up with the current homeless situation. If we really go all out and double the effort and funding, maybe we could fix this in 10 years. But honestly, we need a faster solution because the situation is way more urgent than a 10-year plan.
What do you guys think about all this? Let’s chat.
Comments