Latest news with #InsideSafe
Los Angeles Times
3 days ago
- Health
- Los Angeles Times
Criminalization or support? President Trump's executive order on homelessness gets mixed reaction
An executive order signed by President Trump purporting to protect Americans from 'endemic vagrancy, disorderly behavior, sudden confrontations, and violent attacks' attributed to homelessness has left local officials and homeless advocates outraged over its harsh tone while also grasping for a hopeful message in its fine print. The order Trump signed Thursday would require federal agencies to reverse precedents or consent decrees that impede U.S. policy 'encouraging civil commitment of individuals with mental illness who pose risks to themselves or the public or are living on the streets and cannot care for themselves.' It ordered those agencies to 'ensure the availability of funds to support encampment removal efforts.' Depending on how that edict is carried out, it could extend a lifeline for Mayor Karen Bass' Inside Safe program, which has eliminated dozens of the city's most notable encampments but faces budget challenges to maintain the hotel and motel beds that allow people to move indoors. Responding to the order Friday, Bass said she was troubled that it called for ending street homelessness and moving people into rehabilitation facilities at the same time as the administration's cuts to Medicaid have affected funding 'streams for facilities for people to stay in, especially people who are disabled.' 'Of course I'm concerned about any punitive measures,' Bass said. 'But first and foremost, if you want to end street homelessness, then you have got to have housing and services for people who are on the street.' Kevin Murray, president and chief executive of the Weingart Center homeless services and housing agency, saw ambiguity in the language. 'I couldn't tell whether he is offering money for people who want to do it his way or taking money away from people who don't do it his way,' Murray said. Others took their cue from the order's provocative tone set in a preamble declaring that the overwhelming majority of the 274,224 people reported living on the street in 2024 'are addicted to drugs, have a mental health condition, or both.' The order contradicted a growing body of research finding that substance use and mental illness, while significant, are not overriding factors in homelessness. 'Nearly two-thirds of homeless individuals report having regularly used hard drugs like methamphetamines, cocaine, or opioids in their lifetimes. An equally large share of homeless individuals reported suffering from mental health conditions.' A February study by the Benioff Homeless and Housing Initiative at UC San Francisco found that only about 37% of more than 3,000 homeless people surveyed in California were using illicit drugs regularly, but just over 65% reported having regularly used at some point in their lives. More than a third said their drug use had decreased after they became homeless and one in five interviewed in depth said they were seeking treatment but couldn't get it. 'As with most executive orders, it doesn't have much effect on its own,' said Steve Berg, chief policy officer for the National Alliance to End Homelessness. 'It tells the federal agencies to do different things. Depending on how the federal agencies do those things, that's what will have the impact.' In concrete terms, the order seeks to divert funding from two pillars of mainstream homelessness practice, 'housing first,' the prioritization of permanent housing over temporary shelter, and 'harm reduction,' the rejection of abstinence as a condition of receiving services and housing. According to the order, grants issued under the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration should 'not fund programs that fail to achieve adequate outcomes, including so-called 'harm reduction' or 'safe consumption' efforts that only facilitate illegal drug use and its attendant harm.' And the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development should, to the extent permitted by law, end support for 'housing first' policies that 'deprioritize accountability and fail to promote treatment, recovery, and self-sufficiency.' To some extent, those themes reflect shifts that have been underway in the state and local response to homelessness. Under pressure from Gov. Gavin Newsom, the California legislature established rules allowing relatives and service providers to refer people to court for treatment and expanded the definition of gravely disabled to include substance use. Locally, Bass' Inside Safe program and the county's counterpart, Pathway Home, have prioritized expanding interim housing to get people off the streets immediately. Trump's order goes farther, though, wading into the controversial issue of how much coercion is justified in eliminating encampments. The Attorney General and the other federal agencies, it said, should take steps to ensure that grants go to states and cities that enforce prohibitions on open illicit drug use, urban camping and loitering and squatting. Homeless advocacy organizations saw those edicts as a push for criminalization of homelessness and mental illness. 'We'll be back to the days of 'One Flew Over the Cuckcoo's Nest,' 'Berg said, referring to the 1962 novel and subsequent movie dramatizing oppressive conditions in mental health institutions. Defending Housing First as a proven strategy that is the most cost-effective way to get people off the street, Berg said the order encourages agencies to use the money in less cost-effective ways. 'What we want to do is reduce homelessness,' he said. 'I'm not sure that is the goal of the Trump administration.' The National Homelessness Law Center said in a statement saying, 'This Executive Order is rooted in outdated, racist myths about homelessness and will undoubtedly make homelessness worse.... Trump's actions will force more people into homelessness, divert taxpayer money away from people in need, and make it harder for local communities to solve homelessness.' Murray, who describes himself as not a fan of Housing First, noted that key policies pressed in the order—civil commitment, encampment removal and substance use treatment—are already gaining prominence in the state and local response to homelessness. 'We all think if it came from Trump it is horrible,' Murray said. 'It is certainly overbearing. It certainly misses some nuances of what real people with mental illness and substance use are like. But we've started down the path of most of this stuff.' His main concern was that the order might be interpreted to apply to Section 8, the primary federal financial tool for getting homeless people into housing. What would happen, he asked, if someone with a voucher refused treatment? 'It might encourage more people to stay on the streets,' he said. 'Getting people into treatment isn't easy.'
CBS News
7 days ago
- Politics
- CBS News
LA homeless services CEO to officially step down on Friday
The chief executive officer of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority will officially step down on Friday after submitting her resignation in April. The resignation of Va Lecia Adams Kellum came days after the L.A. County Board of Supervisors voted to strip LAHSA of more than $300 million and create a new county department of homelessness. In a letter to the LAHSA Commission, Adams Kellum wrote it was the "right time" for her to step down after serving as head of the department since March 2023. "I am incredibly proud of LAHSA's talented and dedicated staff and deeply grateful for their tireless work. I thank them and the Commission for the opportunity to serve as CEO and for our partnership in reducing homelessness in our region," Adams Kellum wrote in her resignation letter. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass credited Adams Kellum as the architect of Inside Safe, a program intended to address street encampments and bring people into temporary housing. Under her leadership, the annual point-in-time homeless count showed there was a 4% decrease in homeless people across the county, while in the city of Los Angeles, there was a 3.4% drop. The 2025 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count showed that unsheltered homelessness in the county declined by 9.5% in 2025 compared to the prior year, and it has dropped by 14% over the last two years. While the count showed a decline in homeless numbers, the board of supervisors felt more could be done. Supervisor Lindsey Horvath said the new Department of Homeless Services and Housing is expected to "streamline services, break through bureaucracy, and deliver results across all 88 cities and unincorporated communities." The LAHSA agency had come under fire when a recent federal court review faulted it for losing track of billions in taxpayer funds while failing to address the region's homelessness crisis. An audit revealed that LAHSA could not account for tens of millions of dollars. The board of supervisors voted in April to essentially defund the joint city-county LAHSA and instead form its own department. In early July, Sarah Mahin was appointed as director of the new Department of Homeless Services and Housing. She served as the Director of Policy and Systems at LAHSA and coordinated services across a range of organizations and multiple county and city departments.
San Francisco Chronicle
17-07-2025
- General
- San Francisco Chronicle
Hearst Foundations award $2.95 million in grants to California organizations
The Hearst Foundations announced $2.95 million in grants were awarded to 17 different California organizations and universities to support various education, research and outreach programs on Thursday. The foundations, including the William Randolph Hearst Foundation and the Hearst Foundation, are independent private philanthropies that operate separately from the Hearst Corp., which owns The San Francisco Chronicle. The foundations began in the 1940s and have since awarded more than 20,000 grants. The foundations awarded $200,000 each to the USS Hornet Sea, Air & Space Museum in Alameda and the Berkeley Repertory Theatre to support education and outreach programs. UC Davis also received $250,000 to support the California Autism Professional Training and Information Network. The foundations also gave $250,000 to the Rady Children's Hospital in San Diego to support an initiative to enhance access to psychiatry in pediatric primary care offices. Another $150,000 went to provide Trail scholarships to student-athletes on the Rodeo Team at the California Polytechnic State University. A $200,000 grant was awarded to the Bay Area Discovery Museum in Sausalito to support the renovation of the entry pavilion. The philanthropies also gave the City of Hope in Duarte $200,000 to support the development of a guided care model for older adults with cancer and $200,000 to The People Concern in Los Angeles to provide mental health services to homeless individuals participating in the Inside Safe program. A grant of $125,000 went to the Ocean Discovery Institute in San Diego to support the Out-of-School program, which provides place-based science and conservation education for kindergarten to eighth grade students.
Los Angeles Times
17-07-2025
- Health
- Los Angeles Times
L.A. homeless population drops again. And yes, there's reason for hope
For nearly two decades, an official count confirmed what all of us could see: more and more people living on sidewalks, streets and other marginal spaces all over Los Angeles County. So it felt like only good news this week when the county's homeless agency announced a 4% decline in the homeless population and a 10% decline in those living in the street. To go a bit deeper than the numbers, I got hold of my colleague, Doug Smith. A deep thinker who's covered every big story in L.A., Doug has become The Times' foremost expert on homelessness. Here's what the essential Doug Smith had to say: What did you make of the latest figures? I expected it. I drive around a lot, as does [City Hall reporter] Dave Zahniser. We both have seen the difference made by [the city's] Inside Safe and [the county's] Pathway Home programs. Many of the largest encampments have been eliminated. Should we be hopeful that L.A. is finally tackling this problem? The [city and county] programs are very expensive and are barely two years old. The big question is how much more they will be able to expand, or even maintain the number of hotel and motel beds they now have. Does Mayor Karen Bass, or any other individual or group, deserve credit for this decline? She does, but she's not the only one. One of the most important initiatives is Housing for Health, a program created by L.A. County Department of Health Services when Mitch Katz was running it. It targets frequent users of the public health system. Judge Carter has forced the county to create 3,000 new mental health beds (still in the works). [California Community Foundation Chief Executive] Miguel Santana is now on the newly-created housing board that will be Proposition HHH on steroids. Janey Rountree at the California Policy Lab at UCLA has done more than anyone else to make usable information out of the oozing mash of data coming out of homeless services agencies and the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority. What are a few things that will be needed to keep moving people off the street? We are finally, mercifully, moving beyond the ideology of 'Housing First' as the one and only solution. The system has improved, but is still stuck in the binary thinking of interim vs. permanent housing. When you visit encampments, you quickly identify people for whom neither of those is the right first step. Some need detox and drug treatment, some long-term mental health treatment and some jail. The first two are woefully scarce, so they tend to all end up in jail. There are several valiant private enterprises out there trying to figure out a conventional financing model to build affordable housing. I hope they figure it out. Is there anything the average Angeleno can do? They can pat themselves on the back already for doubling the sales tax. Even if the recent trend continues, it's going to be a long way to 'Problem solved!' Try to be equally empathetic with the people living on the street and the people whose houses and businesses they live in front of. Finally, don't be too harsh in judging those in positions of responsibility who have made only incremental progress. Yes, they're imperfect. But all they have is local levers to budge a problem that has macro social and economic causes. The 2025 Emmy nominations have been announced. The best comedy category is stacked, with fan favorites including 'Abbott Elementary' and 'The Bear.' Who should win? Email us at essentialcalifornia@ and your response might appear in the newsletter this week. On July 17, 1969, the Apollo 11 crew continued their historic journey to the moon, which launched from NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. the day before. On July 20, two of its astronauts became the first people to step on the surface of the moon. For the 50th anniversary of the moon landing, The Times measured the mission by heartbeat. Jim Rainey, staff writerDiamy Wang, homepage internIzzy Nunes, audience internKevinisha Walker, multiplatform editorAndrew Campa, Sunday writerKarim Doumar, head of newsletters How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to essentialcalifornia@ Check our top stories, topics and the latest articles on
CBS News
14-07-2025
- General
- CBS News
Los Angeles' 2025 homelessness count shows decrease for second consecutive year
The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority released findings from its 2025 count, reporting a 4% decrease in people experiencing homelessness across the county. This is the second year the number of unhoused people has dropped in the region. The number of people living on the streets in the county decreased by 10%, according to the 2025 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count, and it has dropped 14% over the last two years. This year's count took place from February 18 to 20, one month later than normal, as it was delayed due to the wildfires. Over three nights in February, hundreds of volunteers went out into the streets of L.A. for the count, which is required for federal funding. While countywide there was a 4% decrease in unhoused people, the city of Los Angeles reported a 3.4% drop. LAHSA has credited encampment resolution efforts, such as L.A. Mayor Karen Bass' Inside Safe program and the county's Pathway Home for the decline in homelessness, as well as other policies and programs in place. "Homelessness has gone down two years in a row because we chose to act with urgency and reject the broken status quo of leaving people on the street until housing was built," Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement. According to the 2025 Homeless Count, data continued to show a disproportionate number of Black people experiencing homelessness, while Latinos remain the largest ethnic group experiencing homelessness in the region. In 2019, homelessness in the county stood at 58,936 people, with the city of Los Angeles accounting for a majority of that figure, with 35,550 people. In the following years, homelessness grew across the L.A. region as a result of several factors, such as a lack of affordable housing and the coronavirus pandemic, among other issues. The crisis reached its highest point in 2023 when LAHSA recorded 75,518 homeless people in the county, with 46,260 of them in the city. In 2024, the annual homeless count showed the first slight decline in homelessness, with 75,312 homeless people in the county, 45,252 of them in the city of Los Angeles. In 2025, those figures dropped to 72,308 homeless people in the county, with about 43,669 of them in the city. In April, the LA County Board of Supervisors voted to defund he joint city-county LA County Homeless Services Authority and instead form its own department. The newly formed Los Angeles County Department for Homeless Services and Housing is expected to consolidate and streamline services while also adding greater accountability. LAHSA was faulted in a federal court review for losing track of billions in taxpayer funds while failing to address the region's homelessness crisis.
