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Does California Need A Homelessness 'State Of Emergency'?

A homeless woman sleeps on a pile of belongings on the street near the Los Angeles Mission, hosting its annual Christmas meal for the homeless on December 22, 2017 in Los Angeles, California, home to one of the nation's largest homeless populations.
The Los Angeles Mission was established in 1936 as a soup kitchen and Christian outreach to homeless men on Skid Row, but the population of homeless in the nation's second largest city now include families, women and children. / AFP PHOTO / FREDERIC J. BROWN        (Photo credit should read FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images)
A homeless woman sleeps on a pile of belongings on the street near the Los Angeles Mission on December 22, 2017.
(
FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images
)

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Does California Need A Homelessness 'State Of Emergency'?

Governor Gavin Newsom's task force on homelessness met Friday in Los Angeles to discuss ideas for more quickly getting people off the streets.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, who co-chairs the task force, has recently called on California officials to declare a “state of emergency” on homelessness. He has said that could help ease environmental regulations that can hold up new shelters and housing developments, and that a state of emergency is appropriate given the scale of the problem. 

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