I have worked with unhoused populations in L.A. for the past 7 years and have past experience managing a housing provider agency. I currently work at a housing services agency.
The idea that the communities have “substantial resources” is laughable. It seems like there’s a lot of money, but there really isn’t. My agency is one of the larger agencies in L.A. and we struggle. It’s not even “the heads take all the money in pay”. Nah, there’s just not enough money.
It’s definitely not as easy as “just build more housing”, though I wish it were. Even “housing first” doesnt work well enough and it even backfires quite often.
Newsom’s idea of moving people along doesn’t work either. That’s what was happening before housing first came along and it didn’t help shit.
I will say that substance use issues, physical and mental health need a lot more attention and treatment options that are available to all.
If anyone wants to discuss the issues, feel free to AMA. I’m open to suggestions that’ll make my job easier.
If anyone in the L.A. area wants to help, the following link has connections to jobs at a lot of services providers in L.A. county.:
Also, when it comes to money for our agency, most of our money comes from private/corporate donors, local taxes, and the Feds. The state doesn’t provide as much financial assistance to our agency.
That money also has to cover transportation (ubers/whatever) to places to obtain documentation, paying for client necessities, moving vans if needed plus the moving crew, security deposits and other move-in costs, utility setups and past due bills, damage mitigation to keep clients from being evicted…I can go on and on. There’s not enough money.