California
A new report estimates it will cost $21.7 billion to end homelessness in L.A. in a decade.
* The South Bay city reached “functional zero,†but with a looser definition than the group that coined that term.
Two Los Angeles County Supervisors are proposing a radical overhaul of county homeless services by creating a new department that would take back hundreds of millions of dollars from the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.
An audit of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority has found lax accounting procedures. The LAHSA executive director says she knew of these problems and has been working to fix them.
After starting a homeless court, building up its shelter, housing and outreach services, the South Bay city of Redondo Beach has reached the point where more people are getting shelter and housing than becoming homeless.
Los Angeles County supervisors gave qualified approval to a plan to study the creation of a county department to manage homeless services.
Politics
Arizona voters approved a ballot measure intended to force police to crack down on homeless encampments by giving property owners tax rebates if they can prove damages.
Samuel Villalba became a member of the Mexican Mafia in the 1980s. Police found him shot to death in a homeless camp in 2021 and recently arrested one suspected gunman.
Anaheim City Council, in effort to clear homeless people from public properties, unanimously supports laws to ban sleeping on sidewalks and smoking in parks.
More than 160 people have been arrested under Fresno’s new camping ban. Meanwhile, local leaders have started blocking efforts to build homeless housing.