Homelessness
Over the past decade, $6.5 billion has been spent trying to solve Los Angeles County’s homelessness crisis. (Epoch 3/8-14, 2023)
Instead, Los Angeles county homeless population has increased from 39,000 in 2011 to nearly 75,518 today as detailed in a single-night count in January 2023. In Los Angeles city, the Angeles Homeless Services Authority estimates that 46,260 people were homeless in the city of Los Angeles in January 2023 with homelessness increasing approximately 14%. (WSJ Chrisine Mai-Duc July 2023)
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in February 2023 authorized it’s largest ever annual budget to attack the homeless issue at $609.7 million. The Supervisors award grants to primarily nonprofit companies to provide services for the homeless and attempt to reduce the number of homeless. Former Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva says there is no governance, no oversight and no accountability on the results from these grants, and in fact, these groups are self perpetuating in that they would be out of work if there were no homeless. Villanueva says the county keeps shoveling money at the grantees and the problems keep getting worse. Cheap illegal drugs, with little to no criminal consequences for using them on the street, along with the promise of free food and possible permanent housing have only made the city extra welcoming for homeless drug addicts. “You’re enabling the dependency and normalizing the deviancy” he said. Instead, he says mental health facilities and substance abuse treatment centers are needed, as both can help get to the root of some of the fundamental issues of why people are living on the streets. These bad policies are creating an open door invitation to the homeless population from all over the country to move to Los Angeles.
Drug and Alcohol Addiction and Homelessness in Oregon
Portland Oregon decriminalized drug possession and created “safe sites” with clean needles for the population dealing with drug addiction. The result has been increased crime, increased homelessness, increased demand for medical and food support. Oregon now has new legislation coming up for a vote to revoke the lenient laws allowing open use of drugs and reinstituting jail and monetary penalties.
We need addiction recovery, not enablement.