How the homeless live in Los Angeles and New York

Фото: Depositphotos

Los Angeles County has one of the highest homelessness rates in the country, with 58 people experiencing homelessness.

At the same time in Los Angeles there are very few shelters for such people, the city also has not developed a policy of comprehensive housing for the homeless, so the number of shelters is not growing, even if the number of homeless increases, writes LA Times.

Despite the fact that in recent years, the number of homeless people in Los Angeles has increased dramatically, officials have decided to build new permanent housing instead of additional shelters with the provision of rental subsidies.

City officials believe that shelters are ineffective in tackling homelessness. Their construction costs approximately the same amount as the construction of a new permanent housing, but at the same time they give homeless people shelter only for a short time. Therefore, the city sends the bulk of the money to build new housing, not shelters.

As a result, Los Angeles has one of the lowest rates of shelter beds in the United States in relation to the number of homeless people, one bed for every 4 homeless people (that is, only 25% of the city’s homeless are provided with a bed in a shelter).

For comparison, the national average in 402 areas where there are homeless people is 75% (three beds for four people).

Therefore, Los Angeles is one of the cities where many homeless people have to sleep right on the streets. Of the 58 thousands of homeless people, 43 thousands spend the night on the streets.

According to Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, the number of beds in shelters in Los Angeles, despite the increase in the number of homeless, has declined over the past eight years. In 2009, the city had a little more than 18 000 beds in permanent shelters.

By 2017, their number was reduced to 12 000. Only about 60% of shelters receive funding from the Homeless Office, which distributes federal and city funds, as well as state money. The rest rely on private donations or grants to specific groups of homeless people.

In June 2017, the Los Angeles County authorities decided to allocate 209 million dollars over three years to improve the region’s shelter system.

The situation is completely opposite in New York, where there is a state law called the “Right to Shelter”, which obliges the authorities to provide sleeping places for all homeless people. New York City has the largest homeless population of any U.S. city—about 70—and spends about $000 billion a year on shelters, so homeless people there rarely sleep on the streets.

If there are not enough shelters, New York authorities sometimes rent hotel rooms for homeless residents.

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