One of the more shocking articles I read this week was a recent one from the LA Times posted on Feb 01,2018. The article’s main focus, the 75% surge of the last six years, on the homeless crisis baffled me because it showed the major increase in unsheltered homeless and the decrease in sheltered. Talking about the causes  of homelessness feels different discussing it in class than it is seeing it through experience. But this article was shocking because initially all the numbers popped out at me, 33,243 to 55,188.

The article then goes on to talk about the housing renovations and the policies and governments that worked and then failed to get the homeless back into the houses of LA.  The fact that LA renovated the city to make it “look better” caused the higher rent and the increase of encampments around the city, making the hygiene of the city becoming less and less suitable to live in. The graph that showed how LA was near the bottom of cities who sheltered their homeless, was also upsetting, near only 25% were sheltered, compared to New York City or Salt Lake City.

The different ways that government has tried to set up or have better opportunities were interesting to read about. I believe in the added shelter beds, the expanded winter shelter hours, and the employment opportunities. However the upkeep of the portable toilets and there being a “dumping ground for hospitals and prisons” and the “guarantee a right to sidewalks instead of a right to shelter” were not the best decisions of government just temporary solutions not long-lasting solutions to allow the homeless to move out of their positions. “L.A.’s homelessness policy had come full circle.”