Homelessness in California used to be much worse. Here's how L.A. turned it around
We gawk in sadness and amazement. And we tell ourselves: It's never been this bad.
But it has. At least in relative numbers, it was once even worse.
California's homeless population zoomed to 101,174 in 1933, at the height of the Great Depression — according to a census of 48 of the state's 58 counties. That meant that 1.8% of the population of 5.7 million lived with no permanent roof overhead.
Contrast that with 2022, when a federal report put the number of California homeless at 171,521, or about 0.4% of the 39 million who now live here.
That's one of many things I learned in a deep and probing investigation by The Times and reporters Mitchell Landsberg and Gale Holland into the roots of California's homeless crisis.
Their thoroughly researched and nuanced story is a far cry from how The Times used to cover homelessness. Gen. Harrison Gray Otis, the bombastic publisher of the newspaper, had this to say about the homeless in an 1882 editorial: 'Don't feed the worthless chaps. It only encourages them in their idleness and viciousness.'
The economic boom that came along with World War II, the subsequent GI Bill and low-cost veterans loans to help those returning from war move into their dream houses.
More than a half-million dwelling units were built in the L.A. metro area from 1940 to 1950, according to the U.S. census, most of them after the war. More than 850,000 more were built during the 1950s.
The city added nearly as many homes as there were Angelenos. Homelessness had all but disappeared.
Not long after that postwar boom, the city and the state put the brakes on the kind of development needed to provide enough homes for California's consistently growing population. Voters and their representatives failed to approve large apartment projects in many neighborhoods. Zoning and restrictive loan practices prohibited Black and Latino people from moving into certain neighborhoods.
When the state mental hospitals disappeared in the 1960s, Gov. Ronald Reagan and Democrats in the Legislature didn't come anywhere close to producing the community-based clinics that were supposed to care for some of our most fragile residents.
Yes. The public has shown, with the passage of new taxes, in particular a half-cent sales tax in Los Angeles County, that it's ready to pay to resolve the problem. The Legislature and governor have recently joined in, easing the rules surrounding new housing construction. L.A. County's homeless numbers began to level off in 2023 and, this spring, the agency overseeing the homeless projected that the unsheltered population had dropped by 5% to 10%.
The total of roughly 70,000 homeless in L.A. County is still far too high, and more help is needed.
Here's more on homelessness in Los Angeles, including a timeline of key events and policies that have made L.A. the homeless capital of the United States.
Skylar Blue writes: 'My favorite Beach is Centerville Beach in Ferndale, California!'
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On July 10, 2015, the movie 'Minions' — a spinoff of the wildly popular 'Despicable Me' movie series — was released in theaters. Here's what The Times thought at the time about the film, which puts the titular yellow sidekicks to history's greatest villains in the spotlight.
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