After patience with extensive panhandling by the homeless population runs thin, Santa Monica, CA, launches an aggressive new effort to get chronically homeless individuals off the city's streets.
"As Los Angeles grapples with what to do about skid row, city officials might look to their seaside neighbor for ideas. Long a haven for transients, Santa Monica has launched an aggressive new effort to get chronically homeless individuals off the streets. It has earmarked funds for counseling intoxicated individuals who are arrested and held at the city's jail. City officials are also considering a special court that would serve the mentally ill arrested in Santa Monica and the greater Westside, and a pilot program to help reunite homeless individuals with relatives willing to shelter and care for them.
...While Santa Monica has only a fraction of the homeless population that exists in downtown Los Angeles, it is beginning to try some of the same ideas that Los Angeles officials are weighing as they make a new push to improve conditions on skid row.
...Santa Monica [is being pushed] to embrace a "housing first" model. Such programs, which seek to provide permanent shelter and recovery services for chronically homeless individuals, have worked well in New York, Philadelphia and San Francisco. Cities generally find that this approach costs less in the long run than providing emergency hospital and police services for transients who remain on the streets."
FULL STORY: Cities Rethinking Aid for Homeless

Alabama: Trump Terminates Settlements for Black Communities Harmed By Raw Sewage
Trump deemed the landmark civil rights agreement “illegal DEI and environmental justice policy.”

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

The 120 Year Old Tiny Home Villages That Sheltered San Francisco’s Earthquake Refugees
More than a century ago, San Francisco mobilized to house thousands of residents displaced by the 1906 earthquake. Could their strategy offer a model for the present?

LA’s Tree Emergency Goes Beyond Vandalism
After a vandal destroyed dozens of downtown LA trees, Mayor Karen Bass vowed to replace them. Days later, she slashed the city’s tree budget.

Sacramento Leads Nation With Bus-Mounted Bike Lane Enforcement Cameras
The city is the first to use its bus-mounted traffic enforcement system to cite drivers who park or drive in bike lanes.

Seattle Voters Approve Social Housing Referendum
Voters approved a corporate tax to fund the city’s housing authority despite an opposition campaign funded by Amazon and Microsoft.
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