{"id":751,"date":"2025-07-17T08:00:03","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T08:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timgaspar.com\/?p=751"},"modified":"2025-09-25T15:50:42","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T15:50:42","slug":"los-angeles-needs-leadership-not-just-better-numbers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timgaspar.com\/es\/los-angeles-needs-leadership-not-just-better-numbers\/","title":{"rendered":"Los \u00c1ngeles necesita liderazgo, no solo mejores cifras"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY THE NUMBERS – The latest homelessness count released by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) offers a glimmer of hope, but let\u2019s not kid ourselves. The fact that homelessness in the City of Los Angeles dropped by 3.4% and that street encampments have slightly declined is not a victory. It’s a marginal shift in the face of a decades-long humanitarian emergency that still leaves more than 72,000 of our neighbors without a permanent home. That\u2019s not progress\u2014it’s a warning that we must stop accepting \u201cless bad\u201d as good enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the data showing a two-year trend of slight reductions in unsheltered homelessness, we are still failing at a fundamental level. Seven people die on our streets every day. Tens of thousands remain in encampments, shelter beds, or vehicles. Billions of taxpayer dollars have been spent. And yet, the residents of Los Angeles\u2014housed and unhoused alike\u2014feel no real relief. That is unacceptable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reason is simple: the City and County of Los Angeles have been throwing enormous sums of money at this problem without a coherent, accountable, and centralized strategy. Instead of a unified, focused effort, we have a fragmented system of agencies, departments, and programs that often work in silos, duplicate efforts, and get bogged down in bureaucracy. It\u2019s time to stop tinkering around the edges and finally deliver real results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We need leadership. Not more reports, not more panels, not more feel-good headlines. We need a Homelessness Czar\u2014a single, empowered official with the authority to coordinate across jurisdictions, align resources, and cut through red tape. Someone who answers to the public, not to a dozen different committees or advisory boards. Someone who can drive urgency and accountability every single day until we turn this crisis around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some have touted the slight decreases as evidence that their approach is working. I respectfully disagree. The public deserves transparency, not spin. Yes, there was a 7.9% drop in unsheltered homelessness in the city. Yes, interim housing placements are up slightly. But let\u2019s look at the whole picture: over 43,000 people are still homeless in Los Angeles, and LAHSA itself says the region needs more than 485,000 affordable housing units to meet the demand. At this pace, as Supervisor Lindsey Horvath noted, it could take centuries to end homelessness. That\u2019s not a strategy; that\u2019s a slow-motion catastrophe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I commend the front-line service providers, case managers, and outreach workers who are doing heroic work with limited resources and under an often-confusing policy framework. But they are not the problem\u2014the system is. When LAHSA was formed, it was supposed to be a collaborative solution between the City and County. Instead, it has become a cautionary tale in how not to run regional governance. The County has already begun pulling funding and forming its department. The City appears poised to follow. But creating new bureaucracies without fixing the structural dysfunction will only waste more time\u2014and more lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s what we should do instead:<\/p>\n\n\n\n