Los Angeles has committed large sums to homelessness, yet residents continue to see people living on sidewalks and under overpasses. The distance between the public effort and what remains visible on the street has become difficult to ignore.
The total amount spent tells only part of the story. A second question is what happens once those resources enter the system and whether the approach being funded is built to move people toward the outcome residents expect.
Kenneth Schrupp, an investigative reporter at City Journal, interviewed more than 200 homeless people across Los Angeles and entered the Skid Row Care Campus. Zach Southall, director and founder of Charity on Wheels, has spent 15 years working directly with people on the street in Orange County. They join California Insider to explain what they have seen on the ground—and what a workable approach to helping people leave the street would actually require.
