PLANNING WATCH – Los Angeles, like most American cities, is a testimonial to failed housing policies. Even though the “experts” and the media attribute homelessness to drug use and mental illness, a UCSF study reveals that this only applies to about one-third of the homeless. Plus, many of the homeless turned to drugs or developed mental problems when they were forced to live on the streets. Furthermore, the millions living in overcrowded conditions are clearly victims of external economic forces, not drug use or mental illness.
The real causes of homeless and overcrowding are rarely presented to the public: rising economic inequality, inflated housing costs, and the end of public housing. Furthermore, for the minority whose drug use and/or mental illness cause homelessness, we are not told why their conditions are not treated. Nor does the media ever tell us why most people with severe mental illness – over 16 million in the United States – are not homeless or living in overcrowded conditions. After all, there are about 650,000 homeless people in the USA, and even if they all theoretically suffered from mental illness, they are only 4 percent of this population. Why have the remaining 96% kept a roof over the head? Since this important question is not asked, here are my answers.
Real causes of the housing crisis…