A Complex Homelessness Crisis Requires a Complex Response

L.A. Needs Coordination and Cooperation—Plus More Resources—to Solve Its Most Urgent Problem

Homelessness is the biggest crisis Los Angeles faces today—one that’s only expanded in urgency with the COVID-19 pandemic.

In search of solutions to the problem and its root causes, Zócalo, United Way, and the Committee for Greater Los Angeles convened policy makers, advocates, and experts to ask “What Will It Take to End Homelessness in L.A.?”

The evening’s moderator, KCRW housing and homelessness reporter Anna Scott, began the conversation by asking panelist Shawn Pleasants to share his own journey experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles.

“It’s a complex narrative, but so is life,” said …

by Jackie Mansky | June 16, 2021

Los Angeles Is Failing California

The County's Pandemic Failures Point to L.A.'s Long-Term Problems, and the Statewide—And National—Urgency of Fixing Them

by Joe Mathews | March 30, 2021

California has a huge problem that it can’t remove with a recall election.

The problem’s name is Los Angeles.

We Californians love to blame our woes on San Francisco, an easy target …

How Two California Lakeside Communities Are Ending Chronic Homelessness—at Jet-Ski Speed

In the Pandemic, South Lake Tahoe and Lake Elsinore Are Showing Other Cities Ways to Support All Their Unhoused Neighbors

by Joe Mathews | March 9, 2021

Have you given up hope that California will ever get its 150,000-person homeless population off the streets? Are you dubious that your hometown could ever reduce its homelessness to zero? …

Law Enforcement Isn’t Going Away—That Doesn’t Mean It Can’t Be Reimagined

'De-Tasking' Non-Crime Police Work Could Go a Long Way Toward Building a Safer Society

by Joe Mathews | December 11, 2020

If our communities had fewer police officers doing fewer tasks, they could become less dangerous places for everyone, said panelists during at the debut event of a new Zócalo/University of …

Now Is the Time for California to Think Big, Again

Will the State Use This Moment to Be Ambitious—Or Shrink Back Into Its Old Habit of Budget Cuts?

by Joe Mathews | April 21, 2020

Coronavirus is forcing Californians to isolate themselves. But it has brought us together in one big way: by fusing all of our biggest problems into one colossal crisis.

That crisis could …

Auto Draft | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

An Architect of L.A. Government Looks Forward and Back

Zev Yaroslavsky on How Politics Have Changed in Los Angeles in the Last 40 Years

by Jackie Mansky | February 12, 2020

Los Angeles has changed, declared Zev Yaroslavsky, a man who has played a major role in shaping the city’s politics in the last 40 years, during a Zócalo Public Square …

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