What Do Unhoused People Want Most? Ask Them

Two Recent Studies Bridge the Gap Between Well-Intentioned Plans and What Those Experiencing Homelessness Actually Need

Government officials, activists, academics, homeowners, and two very competitive mayoral candidates constantly explain what the over 69,144 unhoused people living in Los Angeles County need and want. But you know whom we rarely hear from?

Homeless people.

Google all you want: You’ll find a lot of surveys about what housed people in L.A. think about unhoused people. You’ll find endless columns on what experts opine. But until recently, you’d be hard-pressed to find studies asking the people actually experiencing homelessness what they think should be done about the crisis.

Two recent surveys do …

California Housing Is Becoming More Affordable—Relatively, Anyway | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

California Housing Is Becoming More Affordable—Relatively, Anyway

You Still Get More House for Your Money in Austin or Boise Than L.A. or San Francisco, But the Difference Is Dwindling

California housing prices have soared during the pandemic. The California Association of Realtors reports that the median selling price of a single-family house here increased 11 percent, to $796,000, between …

Where Would I Sleep on the Streets of Los Angeles?

Taking Part in the Annual Survey of Unhoused Angelenos Helps Connect Me to All the People in My Adopted Home

If I were sleeping outside … where would I be? 

We’d been invited to ask ourselves this question as we walked the streets in the dead of night, canvassing for strangers. …

a moving truck on the Golden Gate Bridge

Let’s Pay Californians to Move

Relocation Subsidies Could Solve Housing Gridlock and Make This State a Better Place to Live

Are you a Californian who wants to make your state a better place?

Then move.

Any place within California will do, though it would be great if you could relocate to a …

Mayor Garcetti, Delhi Is Waiting to Transform You—And the Future of L.A. | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

Mayor Garcetti, Delhi Is Waiting to Transform You—And the Future of L.A.

If You Become Ambassador to India, Here’s What You Need to Know About My Hometown

Namaste Garcetti-ji,

The rumor that you, the mayor of my adopted hometown, Los Angeles, will be President Biden’s next ambassador to my native country, India, is picking up steam. And so …

Eduardo Porter and Cynthia Greenlee | Zócalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

How Has Racism Shaped the American Economy?

Eduardo Porter and Cynthia Greenlee Discuss Institutional Failures and a National Lack of Empathy

What is the relationship between American economics and American racism, and can it be severed? How will systemic racism, past and present, slow our emergence from the current downturn? New …