Homelessness in LA was up BEFORE Covid-19. It Will Get WORSE Until it Gets Better.

Covid-19 and The Homeless

Here’s what you may not know today…

This year’s homeless numbers just came out, and it represents a double-digit increase (13%) for the second consecutive year. They estimate the homeless number to grow another 20% in California according to recent analyses. Between Measure H and Proposition HHH, the county and city of Los Angeles are surpassing $2 billion in spending for housing and other services for the homeless in the last several years. The trend is not encouraging as the facts do not support the mayor’s plan and promise to eliminate homelessness in LA. Here are the relevant background facts:

1. Taxpayers approved Prop HHH in 2016 for $1.2 billion and since then one (1) building for permanent supportive and affordable housing has been completed this year for a total of 60 units. They estimate that each building will take 3–5 years to complete.
2. The goal of Mayor Garcetti in 2016 was 10,000 units in 10 years. He has approved only 118 buildings for funding so far. Currently, 20 buildings are under construction.
3. They assessed the estimated median cost per unit in 2016 to be around $350k. The average median cost is now around $540k per unit.
4. Measure H was approved in 2017 for LA County and it estimated $355…