Los Angeles Seeking to Shed Reputation for Homelessness
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LOS ANGELES -- It was just past dusk in the upscale enclave of Brentwood as a homeless man, wrapped in a tattered gray blanket, stepped into a doorway to escape a light rain, watching the flow of people on their way to the high-end restaurants that lined the street.
Across town in Hollywood the next morning, homeless people were wandering up and down Sunset Boulevard, pushing shopping carts and slumped at bus stops. More homeless men and women could be found shuffling along the boardwalks of Venice and Santa Monica, while a few others were spotted near the heart of Beverly Hills, the very symbol of Los Angeles wealth.
And, as always, San Julian Street, the infamous center of Skid Row on the south edge of downtown Los Angeles, was teeming: a small city of people were making the street their home in a warm December sun, waiting for one of the many missions there to serve a meal.
At a time when cities across the country have made significant progress over the past decade in reducing the number of homeless, in no small part by building permanent housing, the problem seems intractable in the County of Los Angeles.
It has become a subject of acute embarrassment to some civic leaders, upset over the county's faltering efforts, the glaring contrast of street poverty and mansion wealth, and any perception of a hardhearted Los Angeles unmoved by a problem that has motivated action in so many other cities.
For national organizations trying to eradicate homelessness, Los Angeles -- with its 48,000 people living on the streets, including 6,000 veterans, according to one count -- stands as a stubborn anomaly, an outlier at a time when there has been progress, albeit modest and at times fitful, in so many cities.
Its designation as the homeless capital of America, a title that people here dislike but do not contest, seems increasingly indisputable.
"If we want to end homelessness in this country, we have to do something about L.A.; it is the biggest nut," said Nan Roman, the president of the National Alliance to End Homelessness. "It has more homeless people than anyplace else."
Neil J. Donovan, the executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless, said he believed that, after years of decline, there had been a slight rise in the number of homeless nationally this year because of the economic downturn, and that Los Angeles had led the way.
First Published December 12, 2010 11:50 pm
