Homeless Numbers Continue to Rise in and Around Los Angeles

Over the next decade, Los Angeles plans to spend 1.2 billion dollars on affordable housing, that help can't come soon enough to support a growing number of people without homes in L.A. "The number of homeless people has risen a startling 20% in the city of Los Angeles and 23% in the county, according to the results of the 2017 countywide street and shelter count of homeless people over three nights in January," writes Carla Hall for the Los Angeles Times.

Working class wages have not kept pace with rising housing costs in the area."There’s a 50% increase in people living in their cars," Hall writes. Additional funding and more affordable housing helps, "But we also need to ask how well the city and county are spending the money that they have already allocated for homelessness," Hall argues.