Addressing Homelessness in LA

 

Photo by Michael (Black) Ritter on Unsplash

Homelessness is a very pervasive issue in LA. According to the Los Angeles Homeless Service Authority, there are at least 63,706 people experiencing homelessness in LA County as opposed to 3,684 people in Ventura and Santa Barbara combined. They also reported that "Los Angeles now has the fewest number of housing units per adult of any major American city."

The majority of LA's homeless communities are comprised of black and latino communities, making homelessness a greater indicator of racial inequalities in LA. LA's homeless-related policies in the mid and late 20th century reflect this discrimination as food and shelter programs were designed to support poor white men. In a similar fashion, the roaring affordable housing crisis that we see today can also be traced to a history of housing discrimination via redlining policies towards black and brown communities. In fact, there was a greater emphasis on alienating these communities via methods such as freeway planning rather than developing affordable housing areas.

Mandates by the Community Redevelopment Agency in the 1950s rolled out to clean up heavily-congregated homeless areas, Skid Row being the most popular of them. It was then that stigmas of homeless people as public threats began to exacerbate, giving rise to heightened anti-camping arrests and policing in marginalized communities. It is important to note that solely characterizing someone as homeless misconstrues who they are as people. People undergo many different situations when facing homelessness, which is why it is best to understand homelessness as a circumstance rather than a condition.

Lots of efforts to mitigate homelessness are dependent on engagement teams that reach out to homeless people to refer them to supportive resources. Our Community LA takes an innovative approach, leveraging phones and technology to easily connect homeless people to resources such as mental health facilities and communal food pantries. Through their WIN app, they also coordinate with other organizations and publish empowering videos to aid all people experiencing homelessness in the greater LA area. For more information about OCLA, click here.

Sources:

[1] https://www.cvhc.org/finding-solutions-to-the-affordable-housing-shortage/

[2] https://laist.com/news/housing-homelessness/understanding-homelessness-city-los-angeles

[3] https://oclawin.org/