U.S. District Judge David Carter, 76, sat at a folding table under a white tent in front of the Downtown Women’s Center on Los Angeles’ Skid Row. From there, he led the latest hearing in a lawsuit between business owners and the Los Angeles city and county governments over the homelessness crisis. During the Feb. 4 hearing, Carter told LA officials—sitting in socially distanced black chairs—to report any progress on the issues the lawsuit highlighted. Homeless encampments surrounded the shelter, and loud music, car horns, and shouting interrupted the hearing, which was broadcast over speakers ..read more

To police or not to police? Homelessness Police George Floyd Compassion Cities In Los Angeles, “defunding the police” led to disbanding a unit specially designed to help with homelessness Homelessness Vol. 36, No. 5 Sophia Lee Arek Arzoumanian was nervous. As the Los Angeles Department of Sanitation environmental compliance inspector, he stood at a residential street corner in Van Nuys—the Los Angeles neighborhood with the densest population of homelessness in the San Fernando Valley—getting ready to clear out an illegal homeless encampment. Most of the individuals living there had already ..read more

The U.S. healthcare establishment’s plan for curbing the pandemic requires pushing the COVID-19 vaccine out to vulnerable populations as quickly as possible. Homeless people meet many states’ criteria for priority immunization but pose unique challenges for health workers who want to help them. Some states specifically list the homeless in their vaccination plans, while others prioritize people of a certain age or with specific pre-existing conditions, which include many homeless people. However, many homeless people don’t trust the medical system or have trouble traveling to clinics or ..read more

During the coronavirus pandemic, residents of Venice, a hip beach neighborhood in Los Angeles, complained of increasing crime and homeless encampments, especially around a nearby “bridge” shelter. Parents told stories of taking their children to school and passing homeless men exposing themselves. Diana Sieker, who lives across from one of the area’s main homeless camps, told The Argonaut the encampment had been growing for the last five years but mushroomed in 2020. She called it “unchecked” and “just like the Wild West.” In the past, LA’s homelessness policy focused on building permanent ho ..read more

Sleeping it off Compassion Effective Compassion Health Homelessness Alcohol Drugs Sobering centers are a new model to help cities handle public intoxication and provide addicts with treatment opportunities, yet some worry they may enable bad behavior Homelessness Vol. 35, No. 23 Charissa Koh In 2014, Brian Sakaluk was homeless in Houston, addicted to alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine. Though Sakaluk grew up in a Roman Catholic family, he smoked cigarettes with friends as a preteen and then tried alcohol and drugs. As an adult he missed work due to hangovers and was fired from multiple jobs ..read more

Census takers wearing reflective vests, face masks, and bug spray are spreading out in groups of four on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of this week to count the U.S. homeless population. The Census Bureau has identified 49,000 locations across the country where homeless people might congregate, Al Fontenot, associate director for decennial census programs, said. The census workers will begin at nearly 10,000 shelters, 5,000 soup kitchens, and other places like mobile food van stops. Then, overnight, they’ll look under bridges, go to transit stations, and visit nearly 33,000 encampments and ..read more

Tiny houses, big hearts Hope Awards Homelessness Charity Effective Compassion Chris Wilson runs the Dream Center to help people escape homelessness, but fighting client discouragement is a constant battle Homelessness Vol. 35, No. 18 Charissa Koh One night in 2013, too few people were on hand to serve meals at the soup kitchen that operates out of the Dream Center. Founder Chris Wilson saw a client who’d been coming for about a year and asked her to help out. The woman, 37, said no, she didn’t want to help serve plates, but Wilson insisted. At the end of the night, she surprised Wilson by ..read more

“Become like little children” Immigration Theology Effective Compassion A pastor ministering to migrants in Mexico sees the wisdom of children’s faith Homelessness Sophia Lee About two months ago, I interviewed a 55-year-old single woman who pastors a church in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Mexico. My interview with her didn’t make it into a story, but my interactions with her left a deep impression on me as my church begins praying about how to help the marginalized in our community. Virginia Ponce has been pastoring El Rey Ya Viene (The King is Coming Soon) Church in Anapra, M ..read more

Inside the outbreak: No shelter Coronavirus Homelessness Health Public Health Homeless people are some of the most vulnerable to infectious diseases—including COVID-19 Homelessness Sophia Lee On a drizzly Tuesday morning in South Los Angeles, the St. John’s Well Child and Family Center mobile clinic had two tents set up for their walk-in patients: One for incoming patients and another to isolate patients who show symptoms of COVID-19 such as coughing, fever, and shortness of breath. Most of these patients are homeless.  A masked healthcare worker screened them all before they signed in: Do ..read more

No simple solutions Mental illness Homelessness California Housing Effective Compassion The problem of homelessness involves much more than a lack of housing Homelessness Sophia Lee Last week, U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Ben Carson came to my city to discuss Los Angeles’ homelessness crisis with Mayor Eric Garcetti. While in L.A., Carson bussed down to South L.A. to visit an accessory dwelling unit (secondary housing in a single-family unit’s backyard) as one possible solution. The Trump administration has criticized California for having excessive red tape that make ..read more