Garcetti keeps lying and while the homeless keep dying

By Alexandra D. Datig, September 4, 2019

For the past six years, homelessness in Los Angeles has increased by more than 75%. This has caused an alarming, rapid decline in the quality of life in our city, because the Mayor of Los Angeles, Eric Garcetti, has failed to address hands-on mobilization, assisting people experiencing homelessness. He has failed to provide shelter space, adequate medical care and sanitation for many of the City’s 36,165 homeless people. He lied using exaggerated numbers by stating he housed 21,000 people last year, when in fact the Los Angeles City Controller’s audit of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) showed these were exaggerated County and not City numbers. The Controller’s audit also showed, gross mismanagement of software administration, generating duplicate entries for people falling in and out of homelessness in the same year, and the inclusion of numbers from third-party agencies not affiliated with LAHSA, as well as the Veterans Administration’s numbers.

These grand scale failures have caused a serious state of emergency in the City of Los Angeles, a threat to public health and the environment. Conditions created by homelessness in Los Angeles have impacted the local economy causing businesses to flee and relocate. With violent crime on the rise in densely populated homeless encampments like skid row, there is an increasing risk to the public safety.

In November 2016, both the County and City of Los Angeles voters approved, Proposition H, adding a ¼ cent sales tax for wrap-around services, funding $355 million for services for the homeless. City voters also approved Proposition HHH, funding $1,200,000,000 in bond funds to build 10,000 supportive housing units over a 10-year period, and provide wrap-around services.

Concurrently, Mayor Garcetti was running for re-election for his second term in of March 2017.

The Proposition HHH ballot text stated the City of Los Angeles had 26,000 people experiencing homelessness in 2016. The June 2019, “Point in Time Homeless Count” showed the City of Los Angeles had more than 36,000 people experiencing homelessness, a more than 10,000 person increase as of November 2016.

To date, not one property using HHH subsidy funds is complete, and according to the latest reports, $100 million is remaining in HHH bond funds. The average cost per unit using HHH subsidy funds is $520,000, with the cost per unit as much as $700,000 per unit. The latest reports state less than 7,000 units would be built, because funds are dispersed too slowly, driving up construction costs. This alone is a looting of tax payer dollars! In the meantime, for every 130 being housed, another 155 become homeless.

The Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office reported a 76% increase in homeless deaths between the year 2014 and 2018, where 3,612 people experiencing homelessness have died on the streets of Los Angeles.

UPDATE: The Los Angeles Times reported today 666 homeless people have died at the end of August 2019.

The Mayor of Los Angeles, Eric Garcetti claims he is making progress on homelessness. The facts state this is not the case. For these reasons and many more, it is time to recall the Mayor of Los Angeles Eric Garcetti. Please visit www.RecallTheLAMayor.com for more information and please donate to the recall effort.

Committee to Recall Mayor Eric Garcetti, ID 1419545

ICYMI: The Los Angeles Times: Even if California spends millions more on homelessness, here’s why few will notice

Photo Credit: Alex Datig

By BENJAMIN ORESKES, MAY 24, 2019

'...Some state-funded projects and programs have been slow to show results by the standards of a frustrated public. And housing in California has become so expensive that it has been hard to feel the impact of the spending because, in many places, people are falling into homelessness as fast as people on the streets can be housed.

In Los Angeles, a recent county report found that 27,000 homeless people had been placed into permanent housing in 18 months. But a renter needs to make $47.52 per hour, which is more than triple the minimum wage, to pay the median monthly rent of $2,471, according to another report by the California Housing Partnership.

In Alameda County, where Newsom launched his task force, the most recent point-in-time count revealed a 43% jump in homelessness since 2017. EveryOne Home, the organization that conducted the count, says that every year, about 1,500 people enter permanent housing in the county, while nearly 3,000 people also become homeless for the first time.

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The Los Angeles Times: $339,000 for a restroom? L.A. politicians balk at the cost of toilets for homeless people

Photo Credit: Alex Datig

By EMILY ALPERT REYES, JUN 10, 2019

It seems like an obvious fix to the squalor and stench as homelessness surges on Los Angeles streets: more restrooms.

But L.A. has estimated that staffing and operating a mobile bathroom can cost more than $300,000 annually — a price tag that has galled some politicians. During budget talks this spring, city officials estimated that providing toilets and showers for every homeless encampment in need would cost more than $57 million a year.

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The Los Angeles Times: 16,000 people in L.A. now live in cars, vans and RVs. But safe parking remains elusive

Photo Credit: Alex Datig

By SONJA SHARP, JUN 10, 2019

Two years ago, Los Angeles began testing an alternative to homeless shelters called safe parking, giving people living in their cars a secure spot to sleep at night.

The first site was quickly deemed a success, so the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority agreed to fund nine more lots in the pilot program, with promises to expand.

Earlier this year, before the release of new data showing more than 16,500 people living in their vehicles, the authority put out a request to providers across the county to help them make good on that promise.

But the details of the request left some groups frustrated, saying the rules were too burdensome and the budget too tight.

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The Los Angeles Times: Steve Lopez: Welcome to Garcetti’s L.A.: heaps of trash, hordes of rats and very little leadership

Photo Credit: Alex Datig

By STEVE LOPEZ, JUN 08, 2019

Whewww, what a week.

I could give you a hundred breakdowns of what happened and what it all means, but it comes down to this:

We’re in troubled waters on a ship without a captain, and though there might be a few pretenders on the bridge, nobody trusts them.

We found out on Tuesday that although the city and county spent $600 million last year to chip away at the number of homeless people, the total increased by 16% to nearly 60,000.

That same day, voters said absolutely, positively no way to a parcel tax that would have raised money for struggling L.A. Unified schools, and the vote reflected a resounding lack of faith in school administrators to spend the money wisely. A shame, in my opinion. Whatever the sins of the past, shorting 600,000 mostly poor kids at a time when poverty has spilled onto our streets is not the smartest plan.

But this comes back to the leadership problem. Judging by my reader responses, it did not help that one of the parcel tax advocates was L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti. That would be the guy who has presided over the astounding spread of homeless encampments and trash-strewn streets after persuading voters to reverse the trends by taxing themselves.

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NBC4 L.A. Streets Of Shame Series: LA Mayor Blames Businesses, Not Homeless, For Rat-Infested Trash on Streets, Says He Owns Homeless Problem

The Los Angeles Times: L.A. is swamped with 311 complaints over homeless camps. But are the cleanups pointless?

Photo Credit: Alex Datig

By EMILY ALPERT REYES, BENJAMIN ORESKES and DOUG SMITH
JUN 07, 2019

...Los Angeles has been deluged with requests to clean up homeless encampments in recent years. Between 2016 and 2018, such requests shot up 167%, according to a Times analysis of 311 data. The trend has continued this year, with requests up 37% in the first few months compared with the same period a year earlier.

The surge in cleanup requests has happened as L.A. and other cities have seen hefty increases in the number of people without permanent shelter. The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority announced Tuesday that the homeless population had jumped by 16% in the city and 12% across the county. Most — 75% — were living outdoors, including in vehicles.

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The Los Angeles Times: Homelessness jumps 12% in L.A. County and 16% in the city; officials ‘stunned’

By Benjamin Oreskes and Doug Smith

Jun 04, 2019

In a hard reality check for Los Angeles County’s multibillion-dollar hope of ending homelessness, officials reported Tuesday that the number of people living on the streets, in vehicles and in shelters increased by about 12% over last year.

The annual point-in-time count, delivered to the Board of Supervisors, put the number of homeless people just shy of 59,000 countywide. Within the city of Los Angeles, the number soared to more than 36,000, a 16% increase.

And as in past years, most — about 75% — were living outside, fueling speculation of a growing public health crisis of rats and trash near homeless encampments downtown.

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