iAUDIT! – On August 25, LAist published an article on family homelessness. It is heartbreaking. While LAHSA claims overall homelessness has decreased, homelessness among families has increased, and there is no longer shelter space for many of them. What makes the story more tragic is that it describes a wholly preventable crisis. As I and others have been saying for a very long time, local homelessness solutions are mired in failed 30-year-old policies designed to help a population that no longer exists. Now we’re reaping the poisoned fruits of that misdirection. While LAHSA and other agencies waste billions sheltering and housing the same people over and over again, families are being turned away.
Despite claims to the contrary, limited funding is not the cause for a lack of family housing. As I showed in a CityWatch column last year, the cash and real property assets of the largest nonprofits have skyrocketed, along with CEO compensation. But the facilities they’ve acquired, besides being managed like medieval madhouses, are not set up to handle families. Homelessness programs are–theoretically–designed to help individuals who need support. Because those services do not match the reality of today’s homeless population, with high incidences of untreated mental illness and substance abuse, they are largely ineffective, with some evidence they make things worse. And let’s not forget, despite budget reductions from the state and US governments, Measure A is projected to pump $1 billion into the homelessness system–again aimed at the wrong programs because funding is controlled by the same people who claim they’re going broke.
The LA City Controller’s 2022 Measure HHH audit shows us how local government has failed unhoused families. The audit report noted construction of HHH-funded units averaged close to $600,000 each and takes three to six years to complete. Eighty-seven percent of the units built or planned were small one-bedroom or studio apartments. Besides being overpriced for the type of unit, they are not suitable for housing families. Inside Safe, the Mayor’s signature homelessness program, has spent more than $450 million to house 1,144 people. Again, the program is not designed to assist families; Inside Safe places individuals in motel rooms, which cannot accommodate families. So, even if there was sufficient shelter capacity for families, there would be no place to house them.
Measure HHH and Inside Safe are just two examples of a homelessness system that is out of sync with its client population. Recent surveys show homelessness is growing among senior citizens and families, yet most programs are focused on individuals. Many of those individuals are bedeviled by chronic substance abuse or untreated mental illnesses, so when they are placed in shelter or housing, they often have experience behavioral problems that get them removed. Investigative reporter Sam Quinones’ article on the Riverside Bridge Home is indicative of the drug abuse, violence, and property crime endemic in LA’s poorly managed shelters. We can hardly expect senior citizens, children, and at-risk women to enter shelters that cannot guarantee their safety…