Once upon a time in the American psyche, Los Angeles and the state of California loomed large in the collective consciousness as a fantasy land of wealth and abundance where success and self-fulfillment were possible. In the 1980s, however, conservative economic and social policies afforded financial windfalls and material gain to one segment of society, while others were cut off from this new prosperity. The end result is that California, the land of opportunity, and Los Angeles, a place of endless possibilities, have become the poster children of homelessness in the United States.
Other factors, including the “War on Drugs” and dysfunction within the healthcare system, initiated a civil quicksand, which in turn engulfed vast portions of the populace, pushing formerly comfortable members of the middle class further down the economic food chain. These include the heralded “Baby Boomers” who rode the gravy train of prosperity in the post-World War II era and now represent a significant segment of the demographic threatened with homelessness, if they are not on the streets already.
A myriad fixes, solutions, and remedies have been proposed, arising most often around election time, as politicians scrabble to expose flaws in the policies of the incumbent they wish to unseat or the challengers who are their competition for the coveted mantle of elected office.
Causes and Solutions
In this context, we may define homelessness to include individuals lacking a stable, secure nighttime residence providing shelter from the outside elements. This includes resorting to living in environments deemed unsuitable for human habitation, including the street or buildings that have been abandoned or condemned.
In the present local administration, our current Mayor Karen Bass boasted credentials somewhat different from most aspirants to public office, being that she toiled as a physician’s assistant and a social worker before entering the political arena in 2004. A focal point of her candidacy was addressing the issue of homelessness, a topic that was and remains a burning one on the political slate in California and beyond.
Several weeks ago, Mayor Bass reported a 3.4 percent decrease to 43,699 from 44,136 the previous year. These figures were culled from the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA), which was formed in the 1990s to synchronize housing and social services for the unfortunate. LAHSA released the results of the 2025 Annual Homeless Count, showing for the first time a second consecutive year of decline in the number of people experiencing homelessness.
The 2025 Count, reported by the University of Southern California (USC), which aligned with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), reported a 17.5 percent decrease in street homelessness since Mayor Bass assumed her office in City Hall. Perhaps more significantly, this is the second year in a row statistics have indicated a decline in an issue that has galvanized national attention.
These proceedings are heralded as a victory for the Inside Safe Initiative, which is devised to move the indigent into interim and permanent supportive housing.
Another validation of the numbers are known reports that reflect the number of people in shelters rose by 4.7 percent, indicating that the city’s efforts at getting those who are unhoused off the streets are making headway.
Perhaps no metropolitan area in America is more closely aligned than the city and county of Los Angeles. As such, each geographic entity shares the same peculiarities and idiosyncrasies. The county’s version of this program, Pathway Home, also provides avenues into interim housing for the 88 cities and unincorporated areas within Los Angeles County.
Initiated in 2023 in tandem with Inside Safe, it claims over 500 people transitioning into provisional housing. More impressively, some 95 of those individuals are said to have segued into more stable housing as of August 2023.
Voices of Dissent
“A good, hard-hitting dissent keeps you honest.”
—former Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.
Alas, anything associated with seemingly insurmountable problems must be taken with a grain of salt. In other words, homelessness is a problem so massive it is inevitable that naysayers exist, especially among the masses.
For all the time and money devoted to research, statistics are not infallible.
A long-term resident of the Baldwin Village neighborhood, commonly known as the “jungle,” is Afro-eccentric philosopher “Akile.” He brings a unique perspective to this subject since he personally has spent a significant amount of time on the streets.
On the subject of city officials well-meaning attempts at intervening with homelessness, he provides a cynical viewpoint, perhaps to be expected for someone transitioning into the later stages of middle age. Given the recent news about a decline in homelessness, he was quick to give an opinion.
“I want to say, I wonder, ‘How can that be?’” He asks, building on what he has witnessed transpired in his community lately. “I see people, new people popping up,” as a reference to new additions appearing aside from the old familiar faces who patronize the Crenshaw District.
He continued, “… I don’t see where Karen Bass is countering that; maybe she’s not able to.” He points to the mushrooming price of housing, specifically in Los Angeles and New York City, where the possibility of home ownership, the cornerstone of the American Dream, continues to be beyond the grasp of people of color.
The ability to purchase a home is “…so far out of kilter that she can’t alter anything. She can only play in the existing situation. They tear down a bunch of homes and build some houses that we don’t need.”
By this he refers to the process of gentrification, in which the “powers that be” can revitalize an area, resulting in environments beyond the reach of its previous residents monetarily.
“The homelessness does not appear to have lessened. If anything, they’re manipulating the figures; they’re not telling the truth. I’m not saying she (Bass) is not telling the truth; she’s speaking on the data that’s being provided to her. Somebody may be hiding the truth. She can only speak to what she can speak to.”
He added, “That said, I think that she is doing a good job—but she’s not able to do it by herself.”
Going north into the heart of Skid Row, activist General Dogon weighed in on this issue, somewhat provocatively. “Stevie Wonder can count better than the mayor and LASHA!” he declared.
A longtime advocate and a member of the Los Angeles Community Action Network (LACAN), he speaks with the authority of twenty-odd years as a homeless person turned activist.
He hints that the count might be off because the powers that be do not take in the “…damn county jails, hospitals, people sleeping on their moma’s couch, people sleeping in garages, the real number of people in campers/mobile homes, people in cubby holes—-all these people are missing.”
“You got volunteers and not trained professionals doing the count,” he said, a telling statement given that he remains a consistent presence in the environment where the data is collected.
“The count should be ongoing year around to ensure better accuracy, and to make sure of the right data that shows who is homeless, where how long and who’s housed already.”
Always the Dollars: Big Talk and Questionable Legislation
“When I am back in the White House, we will use every tool, lever, and authority to get the homeless off our streets.”
—Donald Trump, campaigning in spring of 2023
Even before he took office, Donald Trump stated his intention would be to pressure states to ban homeless encampments. A central tenet of the MAGA initiative and the Republican playbook is the reduction of unnecessary government and the reduction of taxes whenever possible. This means the Grand Old Party’s perennial practice of placing social programs on the chopping block.
Former U.S. Treasury Secretary and Harvard University President Larry Summers of Harvard weighed in on the president’s recent passage of his highly publicized “Big Beautiful Bill.”
He notes that the plan’s key elements will increase families’ costs for health care, food, and utilities—such as historic cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
These latest developments give credence to Akile’s view that the mayor can not resolve anything on her own. While Bass and current Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom are for the most part in sync policy-wise, access to funding at the federal level remains a questionable proposition.
In light of what may have been accomplished, one fact remains the same: as this paper appears in print, some 30,000 Angelenos will still be sleeping outside.
