When Los Angeles rolled out its ambitious and highly publicized strategy to fight homelessness under former Mayor Eric Garcetti, plans centered on quickly putting up temporary shelters, and building both interim and permanent housing.
Not unpredictably, none of it happened fast — and the reception among some in the city fell short of a warm embrace.
Besides criticism about cost overruns and bureaucracy related to the housing effort, there was also a fair amount of pushback from folks opposed to shelters coming to their neighborhoods, along with frustration over burgeoning sidewalk encampments.
The public became increasingly skeptical about solving the homeless crisis.
Despite that skepticism, however, Los Angeles as well as LA County and other cities across the region, have continued building places for those who are homeless to live, from congregate shelters to tiny homes, from transitional housing to permanent residences.
Today, the crisis remains, as does the urgency to find solutions — including, of course, by increasing the housing stock.
Yet, in some ways, Los Angeles County is in a new phase, at least politically.
Los Angeles city has a new leader in Mayor Karen Bass. In the county’s second-most populous city, Long Beach, Mayor Rex Richardson has also begun his first term. And last week, the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority – which operates countywide, except in Long Beach, Pasadena and Glendale – installed a new CEO, Va Lecia Adams Kellum.
(Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo, while not exactly new, was still elected in 2020, as Garcetti’s tenure neared its end.)
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