Over the past decade, $6.5 billion has been spent trying to solve Los Angeles County’s homelessness crisis. However, instead of decreasing, its homeless population has increased to nearly 70,000 from its 2011 total of 39,000, according to last year’s point-in-time count.
The worsening of the issue can be partially attributed to it being profitable for many organizations and individuals, Alex Villanueva, former Los Angeles County Sheriff, said in a recent Epoch Time’s California Insider interview.
“They’re not doing anything about it because the homeless industrial complex is alive and well,” he said.
According to Villanueva, many nonprofit organizations receive county funding to help solve the issue, but there are no clear guidelines on how such funding should be used.
“There’s no governance, there’s no oversight, there’s no accountability on the results. [The county] just keeps shoveling money at them, and the problem keeps getting worse and worse,” he said.
Villanueva said the homeless crisis, in fact, provides employment for many.
“If we get rid of the homeless, it ends a lot of careers,” he said. “The nonprofits need to be flexible enough to recognize that there’s a time when you’re done, stand down, and move on to something else.”
Villanueva also said bad policies are creating an open door to invite the homeless population from all over the country to move to Los Angeles.
“There’s a perception in the entire nation—that if you’re homeless, and you'd like to use drugs, go to L.A.,” he said.
Cheap illegal drugs, with little to no criminal consequences for using them on the street, along with the promise of free food and possible permanent housing have only made the city extra welcoming for homeless drug addicts, Villanueva said in the 30-minute episode.
“You’re enabling the dependency and normalizing the deviancy. That is a very poor predictor for the future of L.A.,” he said.
He also said the county’s “Housing First” policy—which prioritizes getting a roof over a homeless person’s head before providing substance abuse or mental health services—isn’t the solution.
He said such a model only provides more funding to the nonprofits and that the county can’t build enough homeless housing fast enough to meet demand. He also said it’s a magnet attracting people from out of state, only burdening the system.
Instead, he said mental health facilities and substance abuse treatment centers are needed, as both can help get to the root of some of the fundamental issues of why people are living on the streets.
According to a 2022 report from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, there were nearly 2,000 transient deaths recorded in the county between April 2020 and March 2021—an average of more than five deaths per day. Drug overdoses were the top cause of the deaths at 36 percent, according to the report.
“[The politicians] don’t understand that they’re killing the people they claim they’re trying to protect,” Villanueva said.
He also said he isn’t optimistic if current policies continue.
“It’s going to get worse,” Villanueva said. “It’s engulfing every corner of life in L.A. County.”
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in February authorized its largest-ever annual budget to attack the issue: $609.7 million.
Villanueva was elected as the county’s sheriff in 2018. He lost the seat to Robert Luna during the recent Nov. 8, 2022, election.
