News

Apr 17

L.A. County seeks to strengthen the safety net for its neediest residents with funding for the homeless, social workers and healthcare

Los Angeles County pressed forward with an effort to strengthen the safety net for its most vulnerable residents Monday with a budget plan that carves out significant allotments for social services, healthcare and other support for the poor. The proposed budget is a slight increase from last year, and officials said they are trying to channel some of that money toward ...
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Mar 27

Pomona leaders wrestle with a homelessness dilemma: Enforce or assist?

The bandshell at Pomona’s Ganesha Park is a cozy spot where an acting troupe might perform Shakespeare on a summer night. But on a brisk January morning, four tents held center stage — nestled around a rusted, 55-gallon drum still warm from a bonfire the night before. By mid-morning, people stirred and tents came down. A young woman growled at ...
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Mar 18

For Measure H to work well, the federal rule on chronic homelessness needs to be changed

 To the editor: As the head of a community mental health center in the San Fernando Valley, I celebrate Measure H and the promise of more housing for homeless people. (“Are the county and city finally ready to reduce homelessness on a massive scale?” editorial, March 13) The homelessness we have today is an unintended consequence of the 1963 Community Mental ...
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Mar 9

Skid Row's Midnight Mission Now Has Overnight Shelter for Homeless Women

On Skid Row, women only have a handful of options if they need a place to sleep. The Union Rescue Mission is regularly packed with women on cots set up wherever space can be found. The Los Angeles Mission and Weingart Center have longer-term programs, but with extensive waitlists. The Downtown Women’s Center has permanent supportive housing apartments for 119 ...
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Mar 8

Measure H rebounds from early deficit, reaches two-thirds majority

A quarter-cent sales tax increase in Los Angeles County to fund anti-homelessness measures appeared to earn the two-thirds majority needed for passage early Wednesday, with 100% of county precincts reporting. Measure H would generate about $355 million annually for homeless programs over 10 years, backers say. The tax increase would raise the sales tax rate to 9% across most of Los ...
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Mar 2

Last November, L.A. overwhelmingly voted to end homelessness. Don't let Measure S undermine that effort

In November, three out of four voters in the city of Los Angeles agreed to raise taxes to build homeless housing. The overwhelming support for Measure HHH, which authorized $1.2-billion in bonds to construct 10,000 units of housing for homeless and very low income people, sent a clear message: Angelenos want to end the city’s homeless crisis, and they’re willing to pay to ...
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Feb 18

Homeless people don't just need housing – they need services to get and stay housed. Vote yes on Measure H

For homeless people to rebuild their lives, they need permanent housing. But that’s just one of the building blocks to a new, functional life. Homeless people need services to help them leave behind the isolation of life on the streets, get housed and stay housed, and those services are as varied as the reasons they tumbled into homelessness. Someone suffering from psychosis or depression ...
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Feb 14

County voters to decide on quarter-cent sales tax for homelessness programs

When Los Angeles voters overwhelmingly approved a bond measure in November to build apartments for the chronically homeless, long-frustrated advocates hailed the victory as a watershed in their efforts to provide permanent homes for thousands of people living on the city’s sidewalks and parkland. But despite enthusiasm that couldn’t always be contained, proponents of Proposition HHH were mostly careful not to call it the ticket to ending homelessness. ...
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Jan 27

L.A. tallies its homeless population amid concern about rising encampments

The annual Los Angeles homeless count ended early Friday amid disappointment that the street encampments rankling residents across the city are still on the rise. The three-day event, which marshaled 7,700 volunteers for a street-by-street hand count of homeless people and encampments, was held to update Los Angeles County’s homeless count, which stood at 47,000 in 2016. Populations in shelters, ...
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Jan 24

Homeless people face L.A. crackdown on living in cars

Los Angeles’ new ordinance on living in cars was billed as a boon to homeless people, making it legal for the first time to park and sleep in half the city’s streets. But with the measure set to kick in Feb. 6, a new map suggests the law could trigger a crackdown on some of the city’s 28,000 homeless people. The map, which police will use ...
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