President Trump has the reply to homelessness.
Forcibly clear the streets.
On Thursday, he signed an government order to handle “endemic vagrancy” and finish “crime and dysfunction on our streets.” He referred to as for using “civil commitments” to get those that undergo from psychological sickness or dependancy into “humane remedy.”
Steve Lopez
Steve Lopez is a California native who has been a Los Angeles Occasions columnist since 2001. He has gained greater than a dozen nationwide journalism awards and is a four-time Pulitzer finalist.
This comes after final 12 months’s U.S. Supreme Courtroom ruling making it authorized for cities to punish folks for being homeless, even when they’ve nowhere to go.
There’s some reality in what he says, and California’s report on housing and homelessness is ripe for criticism. I’ve watched too many individuals undergo from dependancy and psychological sickness and requested why the assistance is so sluggish to reach. However I additionally know there are not any easy solutions for both disaster, and bluster is not any substitute for desperately wanted sources.
Like plenty of what Trump does, that is one other case of grandstanding. Within the meantime, the Washington Submit reported Thursday that the “Trump administration has slashed greater than $1 billion in COVID-era grants administered by the Substance Abuse and Psychological Well being Companies Administration and is proposing to slash lots of of thousands and thousands extra in company grants.”
Jaimmy Ray Clark, who has been homeless for 2 months, eats his donated meals in his makeshift shelter on the sidewalk in Skid Row.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Occasions)
Because it occurs, I used to be in the course of a column on the most recent Los Angeles homeless depend when information of Trump’s government order broke. I had simply frolicked with two homeless ladies to listen to about their predicaments, and none of what Trump is proposing comes near addressing their wants, that are tragically commonplace.
Particularly, they’re residing in poverty and may’t afford a spot to stay.
In his government order, Trump mentioned that “practically two-thirds of homeless people report having used arduous medicine … of their lifetimes. An equally massive share of homeless people reported affected by psychological well being situations.”
I don’t know the place he acquired these numbers, however reality and accuracy will not be hallmarks of this administration.
Little question, dependancy and psychological sickness are vital elements, and extra intervention is required.
However that’s extra difficult than he thinks, particularly given the sensible and authorized points surrounding coercive remedy — and it’s not going to unravel the issue.
When the most recent homeless depend in Los Angeles was launched, a slight decline from a 12 months in the past was regarded by many as a optimistic signal. However when Eli Veitzer of Jewish Household Service L.A. dug into the numbers, he discovered one thing each unsurprising and deeply disturbing.
The variety of homeless folks 65 and older hadn’t gone down. It had surged, in each town and county of Los Angeles.
“I don’t see myself as a sufferer. I’m a survivor. I pay my payments. My credit score rating is 798. The one factor I don’t have is a house.”
— Jane Jefferies, unhoused residing in Santa Monica
Jane Jefferies organizes her home equipment and provides she retains behind her automotive in Santa Monica.
“This isn’t new this 12 months. It’s a development over the past couple of years,” mentioned Veitzer, whose nonprofit supplies meals, housing help and varied different companies to shoppers. “It’s significant, and it’s actual, and these individuals are on the highest threat of mortality whereas they’re on the streets.”
The numbers from the Los Angeles Homeless Companies Authority confirmed a 3.4% lower within the whole homeless inhabitants within the metropolis, however a 17.6% enhance amongst these 65 and older. The county numbers confirmed a 3.99% lower general, however an 8.59% enhance within the 65 and older group.
Within the metropolis, the rise over two years was from 3,427 in 2023 to 4,680 this 12 months — up 37%.
Dependable analysis has proven that amongst older adults who turn into homeless, the first purpose is the mixture of poverty and excessive housing prices, reasonably than psychological sickness or dependancy.
March 2025 picture of a homeless girl strolling previous a row of tents in Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles.
“They or their partner misplaced their job, they or their partner acquired sick, their marriage broke up or their partner or dad or mum died,” Dr. Margot Kushel of UC San Francisco’s Homelessness and Housing Initiative was telling me a number of hours earlier than Trump’s government order was issued.
Her crew’s landmark examine, launched two years in the past (and lined by my colleague Anita Chabria), discovered that just about half the state’s homeless residents have been 50 and older, and that contributors within the examine reported a median month-to-month family earnings of $960.
“The outcomes … affirm that far too many Californians expertise homelessness as a result of they can’t afford housing,” Kushel mentioned on the time.
Among the many older inhabitants, Veitzer mentioned, the bounce in homelessness comes in opposition to the backdrop of federal and native price range cuts that can make it more durable to reverse the development. And more durable for nonprofits, which rely partly on public funding, to maintain offering group meals, home-delivered meals, transportation, social companies and housing help.
“Each supplier I’ve talked to within the metropolis of L.A. is chopping meal packages,” Veitzer mentioned. “We’re going to have to shut two of our 13 meal websites, and final 12 months we closed three. We used to have 16, and now we’re all the way down to 11.”
Jane Jefferies rests in her automotive and elevates her ft to cut back swelling in her legs in Santa Monica. Jefferies has been homeless in her automotive since February of this 12 months.
On Wednesday, I went to one of many websites that’s nonetheless up and working on Santa Monica Boulevard, simply west of the 405, and met Jane Jefferies, 69. She instructed me she’s been tenting in her automobile since February when residing along with her brother turned inconceivable for varied causes. She now pulls right into a Secure Parking L.A. lot every evening to mattress down.
Jefferies mentioned she collects about $1,400 a month in Social Safety, which isn’t sufficient to get her into an condominium. On the senior middle, she makes use of her personal tools to make buttons that she sells on the Venice boardwalk, the place she will be able to make as much as $200 on a superb weekend.
However that’s nonetheless not sufficient to cowl the price of housing, she instructed me, and he or she’s given up on authorities assist.
“All of the funding has been lower, and I don’t know if it’s as a result of plenty of town and state funding is sponsored by the federal authorities. Everyone knows Trump hates California,” she mentioned.
As Veitzer put it: “There’s nowhere close to sufficient low-income senior housing in L.A. County. Wait lists open up periodically,” with way more candidates than housing items. “After which they shut.”
Vancie Davis offers her canine, Coronary heart, a kiss.
His company delivers a each day meal to Vancie Davis, 73, who lives in a van at Penmar Park in Venice. Her next-door neighbor is her son, Thomas Williamson, 51, who lives in his automotive.
Davis was within the entrance seat of the van after I arrived, hugging her canine, Coronary heart. Her left leg was amputated under the knee two years in the past due to an an infection, she instructed me.
Davis mentioned she and one other son have been residing in a trailer in Oregon, however the proprietor shut off the utilities and altered the locks. She mentioned she reached out to Williamson, who instructed her, “I’ve acquired a van for you, so that you’ll have a spot to stay, but it surely’s going to be tough. And it’s. It’s very, very tough.”
I’ve heard so many variations of tales like these over time, I’ve misplaced depend.
The magnitude that exists within the wealthiest nation in historical past is a shame, and a tragic commentary on an financial system and public coverage which have served to widen, reasonably than slender, the inequity hole.
Vancie Davis talks along with her son, Tom Williamson, the place they each stay homeless in automobiles parked subsequent to one another in Venice.
On Thursday, Trump’s government order on homelessness grabbed headlines however will do nothing for Jane Jefferies or Vancie Davis and for hundreds like them. We all know the interventions that may work, Kushel mentioned, however with deep cuts within the works, we’re shifting within the unsuitable route. Taking a series noticed to the healthcare security internet, as Trump is doing, will solely add to the homeless depend.
Davis’ son Thomas instructed Occasions photographer Genaro Molina about one other one who lives in a automobile and has been a neighbor of theirs within the parking zone.
She wasn’t there Wednesday, however we’ll examine again.
It’s a 91-year-old girl.
steve.lopez@latimes.com
