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iAUDIT! - I, and many other columnists, reporters and analysts, spend a lot of time, thought, and energy writing about the numbers behind L.A.’s homelessness crisis. The numbers are often confusing. LAHSA claims homelessness is down while other sources show it is double the official tally. The City says more people than ever have been sheltered and housed, but nobody seems to know exactly how many stay off the streets or for how long. Homelessness agencies say they’re achieving success, but audits show a horrendous record of financial mismanagement, poor contract administration, and a near complete lack of performance data. All of this conflicting information can easily confuse people about the homelessness crisis.
What these numbers can’t describe is what its like to actually be homeless in Los Angeles. I write about poor program performance week after week, and state, city, and county auditors issue one report after another, but what does all that mean in human terms? Some of my regular readers are unhoused, and often offer their perspective on homelessness. For this column, let’s focus on what a homeless person experiences on the streets of L.A.
If you are homeless in L.A., there is at least a seven in 10 chance you are living on the streets instead of being sheltered. That is a far higher rate than in other big cities like New York, where you stand a 90 percent chance of being sheltered.
If you are homeless in L.A., your chances of dying on the streets are far higher than the housed population. Your chances of dying by drug overdose, especially from opiates, have been getting worse for several years.
If you are homeless in L.A., the odds of you being a crime victim are between nine and 27 times higher than if you were housed, according to a report for the San Diego DA’s office on homelessness and crime.
If you are homeless in L.A., there is a six in 10 chance you have untreated mental illness and/or a substance abuse problem. But you stand little chance of getting help because your issues don’t fit the advocates’ narrative that homelessness is a housing problem, so most homelessness funds are steered toward expensive housing and time-consuming construction.
If you are homeless in L.A., you stand a four-in-10 chance of never being offered shelter or housing, according to surveys by RAND and McKinsey & Co.
If you are homeless in L.A. and manage to get into a shelter, you’ll find conditions that aren’t much better than those on the street. Shelter residents are subject to unsanitary bathroom facilities, poor food, and violent behavior. LAHSA, the agency that manages most shelters, doesn’t want the public to know how bad shelters are, but Calmatters.org recently won a lawsuit to force LASHA to release as many as 5,000 complaints and incident reports from shelters it manages.
If you are homeless in L.A. and are in a shelter, you stand, at best, a 50/50 chance of receiving any type of service. About one-third of shelter occupants don’t even know who their case managers are.
If you are homeless in L.A., are in a shelter, and need mental health services, there’s a mere 25 percent chance you’ll receive them. If you need substance abuse treatment, there’s a seven percent change you’ll get it.
If you are homeless in L.A. and you’re in a shelter, there’s less than a 20 percent chance you’ll be placed in permanent housing. If you are placed in permanent housing, you may not be housed long because most “permanent” placements are for time-limited subsides, and you stand a good chance of being back on the streets once the subsides run out.
If you are homeless in L.A. and you’re in a shelter, there’s a good chance this isn’t your first visit, nor will it be your last. Because LAHSA does such a poor job of tracking clients, an unknown number drop out of the system, only to reenter later, and be counted two or more times.
If you are homeless in L.A., for each day you are living on the streets, the City, County, and LAHSA spend at least $5.4 million per day on homelessness programs that will do virtually nothing to help you.
If you are homeless in L.A. and are among the lucky few who receive housing, City or County officials may use you as a prop during a photo opportunity as “proof” homelessness programs work. You will then likely be forgotten and stand a high risk of falling back into homelessness due a broken support system.
If you are homeless in L.A., you are essentially on your own. If you are among the 40 to 70 percent of the unhoused who suffer from serious mental illness or substance abuse problems, there is little chance you’ll receive the help you need. If you do not need either of those services, there’s a six in ten chance you’ll lift yourself out of homelessness before any service provider contacts you.
As you are reading this column there are at least 75,000, and as many as 139,000 people who are homeless in greater Los Angeles. They live on the street, in tents, in their vehicles, or in dark corners where no one sees them. Many are in desperate need of medical or mental services. Many fall victim to crime, while others commit crimes (usually against other unhoused people) to support drug habits or earn extra money. Many are lost in a world only they see where they are tormented by demons only they perceive.
Meanwhile, large corporate nonprofits and their well-paid executives take in millions of dollars through service contracts, (many written with the “assistance” of the nonprofits’ managers), that require little proof of performance, and whose leaders have unfettered access to elected officials, who are more than willing to trade effectiveness for political support.
To be homeless in L.A. means living on a knife’s edge between survival and death. It also means living as something less than human in the eyes of others. To advocacy groups, you are a symbol of economic injustice. To nonprofits, you are a source of income. To elected leaders, you are a slogan. To many members of the public, you don’t exist at all, or if you do, you are to be assiduously avoided, like a misplaced bench in the middle of the sidewalk. People have become so jaded by pervasive homelessness, the sight of an unconscious person lying on the sidewalk is unworthy of notice. The dehumanization of the unhoused, and the loss of empathy among the general population, are among the most tragic consequences of our leaders’ failure to effectively address homelessness.
Regardless of what your views on housing and homelessness may be, here is a final thought to take with you. If you are reading this column while sipping your morning coffee, by the time you brew another cup tomorrow, six more homeless people will have died on our streets. And six more will die the next day, and the day after that. The carnage will go on and on until we hold leaders accountable for the crisis they’ve allowed to spiral out of control.
(Tim Campbell is a resident of Westchester who spent a career in the public service and managed a municipal performance audit program. He focuses on outcomes instead of process in his iAUDIT! column for CityWatchLA.)
