Judge's Ruling Will Force L.A. to Reckon With Skid Row

"A federal judge overseeing a sprawling lawsuit about homelessness in Los Angeles ordered the city and county Tuesday to offer some form of shelter or housing to the entire homeless population of skid row by October," report Benjamin Oreskes, Emily Alpert Reyes, and Doug Smith.

"The ruling argues that L.A. city and county wrongly focused on permanent housing at the expense of more temporary shelter, 'knowing that massive development delays were likely while people died in the streets.'"

According to the article, 1,300 people experiencing homelessness died in the past year. And, "In the last homeless count in January 2020, more than 4,600 unhoused people were found to be living on skid row — about 2,500 in large shelters and 2,093 on the streets." Those numbers account for about 10 percent of the total population of people experiencing homelessness in the city.

The article also adds that it's unclear what the judge's order means for people experiencing homelessness living in other parts of the city.