The Los Angeles Homeless Containment Thread (Stockton, Salinas: listing, real estate, renters)

[CA4Now]

Nearly two decades ago, California voters passed a landmark tax on millionaires envisioned as a game changer for mental health.

Supporters promised the new money would drastically reduce homelessness and improve access to services for all Californians.

“No one who is mentally ill and now on the street will be on the street in five years,” promised the late Rusty Selix, who was executive director of the Mental Health Assn. of California and a co-author of the ballot initiative, Proposition 63. “That doesn’t mean there won’t be homeless. But you will see a measurable decline.”

Since voters approved the tax in 2004, it has generated an escalating gusher of money — $29 billion in total, half of which has come in just the last five years.

Those funds have boosted early intervention programs in schools and communities, created wraparound services for severely mentally disabled homeless people and enhanced community outreach. Backers say the money has drastically improved life for hundreds of thousands of Californians.

But amid a steadily worsening homeless crisis, it’s clear the results have fallen far short of the initial promise.

A Los Angeles Times review points to several major, overlapping reasons, including chronic and systemic underfunding of other social and mental health programs, unpredictable swings in revenue, bureaucratic infighting between state and county officials and, in the last few years, a severe shortage of mental health clinicians.

https://www.latimes.com/california/s...l-health-money

[CA4Now]

"Ask just about anyone for their thoughts on what causes homelessness, and you will likely hear drug addiction, mental illness, alcoholism and poverty.

A pair of researchers, however, looked at those issues across the country and found they occur everywhere. What does vary greatly around the country, they found, was the availability of affordable housing.

In their University of California Press book “Homelessness is a Housing Problem,” authors Clayton Page Aldern and Gregg Colburn looked at various contributing issues of homelessness, including mental illness and addiction, and the per capita rate of homelessness around the country. By looking at the rate of homeless per 1,000 people, they found communities with the highest housing costs had some of the highest rates of homelessness, something that might be overlooked when looking at just the overall raw number of homeless people."

https://www.latimes.com/california/s...ity-prosperity

[Tulemutt]

Originally Posted by CA4Now

"Ask just about anyone for their thoughts on what causes homelessness, and you will likely hear drug addiction, mental illness, alcoholism and poverty.

A pair of researchers, however, looked at those issues across the country and found they occur everywhere. What does vary greatly around the country, they found, was the availability of affordable housing.

In their University of California Press book “Homelessness is a Housing Problem,” authors Clayton Page Aldern and Gregg Colburn looked at various contributing issues of homelessness, including mental illness and addiction, and the per capita rate of homelessness around the country. By looking at the rate of homeless per 1,000 people, they found communities with the highest housing costs had some of the highest rates of homelessness, something that might be overlooked when looking at just the overall raw number of homeless people."

https://www.latimes.com/california/s...ity-prosperity

Good catch CA4. How many times have we read the uninformed post that addictions and mental illness are the causes of homelessness? No matter how many times it’s pointed out there are 20 million addicts and 14 million severely mentally ill in this country - yet only 500,000 homeless - the mythology reigns supreme.

The cause of homelessness is found in the high costs and low inventory of affordable housing.

[2sleepy]

Originally Posted by Tulemutt

Good catch CA4. How many times have we read the uninformed post that addictions and mental illness are the causes of homelessness? No matter how many times it’s pointed out there are 20 million addicts and 14 million severely mentally ill in this country - yet only 500,000 homeless - the mythology reigns supreme.

The cause of homelessness is found in the high costs and low inventory of affordable housing.

But if we make it about the people and their problems and possible shortcomings then we don't have to feel guilty for being a wealthy nation that is unable to provide shelter for it's own citizens. We can just say "well they're either nuts or junkies" shrug and put the whole thing out of our mind.

[Suburban_Guy]

Homeless and hoarding in L.A.: The special struggles and anxieties of unhoused people

In his dim motel room, flies and dust swirled through a slanted blade of sunlight. A shoulder-high heap of boxes, trash bags, electronics and clothes prevented him from opening the curtains.

Mario Blanco, 53, sat at the edge of his bed with his dog, Leo the Lion, staring at the items he’s been hoarding in his room for a year. Empty cups, medication bottles, stacks of paper, old photos, McDonald's bags, scattered toiletries, dog food cans, a dirty fan.

Blanco was embarrassed by the scene.

“I’ve been throwing away things little by little,” he said.

[Suburban_Guy]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlLvHWP_IY4

[Tulemutt]

Originally Posted by Suburban_Guy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlLvHWP_IY4

So, I’m curious. You post these youtube videos about the homeless in the LA and SF forums on a kind of regular basis … without any narrative or explanation of your own. What is your point in posting? Repetitive visuals of essentially the same misery presented without any new information about proposals and programs, etc., serves what purpose?

Not an attack here. Honest question.

[CA4Now]

Originally Posted by Suburban_Guy

Homeless and hoarding in L.A.: The special struggles and anxieties of unhoused people

You highlighted this man's hoarding problem, when the point of the article was to emphasize the difficulty that many homeless people have after their housing vouchers have run out. The article also pointed out the issues that lead people to become homeless in the first place.

From your article:
The end of the voucher program came as Los Angeles County officials have gradually shut down sites of a larger shelter program called Project Roomkey, which was launched at the start of the pandemic to use hotels to minimize the spread of COVID-19 among people living on the streets. The program provided a lifeline for homeless people and gave county officials the chance to place them in permanent housing.

[Tulemutt]

L.A. cracks down on homeless encampments near schools, over protesters’ jeers
The Los Angeles City Council voted Tuesday to prohibit homeless people from setting up tents within 500 feet of schools and day-care centers, during a raucous meeting where protesters shouted down council members and, at one point, brought the meeting to a halt.
https://www.latimes.com/california/s...aycare-centers

[V8 Vega]

500 Ft. isn't very far, only a couple of short blocks.