Los Angeles Homelessness Rising Faster Than National Rate
Though the problem is daunting to officials in the County of Los Angeles, a homelessness task force is aiming to creating solutions for 48,000 people living on LA streets.
“We believe that with the release of this plan, we now have a blueprint to end chronic homelessness and veteran homelessness,” said Christine Marge, director of housing for the United Way of Greater Los Angeles in the New York Times.
Says Nan Roman, president of the National Alliance to End Homelessness, in the New York Times, “If we want to end homelessness in this country, we have to do something about L.A.; it is the biggest nut...It has more homeless people than anyplace else.”
After years of decline, nationally, there had been a slight increase in the number of homeless because of the state of the economy. Los Angeles is leading that rise with the number of homeless increasing faster than the national rate.
The task force, created by the Chamber of Commerce and the United Way of Greater Los Angeles, have developed a program called Home for Good, a plan aimed to end homelessness in five years.
The idea includes housing for "12,000 of the chronically unemployed and provide food, maintenance and other services at a cost of $235 million a year," reports the New York Times.
The proposal was based on task force research of other cities, like Denver, Boston and New York, who have had success implementing similar strategies.