Staff Writer 
Mayor Karen Bass visits PoliticsNation over the weekend to talk to Al Sharpton about homelessness/Photo credit: MSNBC
The Supreme Court is expected to rule this week on whether or not to make camping or sleeping on public property a Crime.
According to the 2023 Annual Homeless Assessment Report presented to Congress by the Housing and Urban Development Office of Community Planning and Development, over 650,000 people spent the night experiencing homelessness between 2022 and 2023.
It is hard to believe that in this country, with all of our resources, approximately 20 out of every 10,000 people in the United States during the last year, on any given night, were completely unhoused, or soon to be completely unhoused.
The report states that 60% of human beings spent the night in an emergency shelter (ES), transitional housing (TH), or a safe haven (SH) program. The remaining 40% were unhoused, meaning that they stayed the night in places not meant for human habitation.
Experiences of homelessness increased by 12% nationwide across all household types, between the years of 2022 and 2023.
- Homelessness among families with children increased by 16%.
- 50% of those experiencing homelessness were families with children.
- Senior citizens made up 20% of those experiencing homelessness on a single night in 2023, and were ages 55 years or older. Over 98,000 were between the ages of 55 and 64, and more than 39,000 were over the age of 64.
- 22 of every 10,000 veterans in the U.S. were experiencing homelessness. This number increased by 7% between 2022 and 2023. The number of unsheltered veterans increased by 14%.
- Minority populations continue to have the highest numbers of homelessness.
- Minorities, which include people who identify as African American, African or Black, Indigenous people including Native Americans and Pacific Islanders, all continue to make up the majority of the homeless population.
- Black people represent 13% of the U.S. population, however, they make up 21% of people living in poverty, and 37% of all those experiencing homelessness.
- Asian and Asian Americans had the greatest increase among all racial and ethnic groups experiencing unsheltered homelessness. Between 2022 and 2023 the Asian and Asian American population saw a 40% increase in homelessness.
- The number of unaccompanied youth experiencing homelessness increased by 15%.
- The number of people experiencing homelessness increased in 41 states and also the District of Columbia. Only 9 states saw a decrease in homelessness between 2022 and 2023.
- New York, Colorado, Massachusetts, Florida, and California saw the highest increases in homelessness in 2023.
- Unsheltered Homeless individuals are human beings who are not on a regular basis accessing shelters or transitional housing programs, but are instead most often sleeping in encampments or under underpasses.
- In 2023, California, Oregon, Hawaii, Arizona, and Nevada were the states with the highest number of Unsheltered Homeless people.
- States with the lowest Unsheltered Homeless was Vermont, New York, Maine, Massachusetts and Wisconsin in 2023.
Mayor of Los Angeles California, Karen Bass, appeared on MSNBC’s PoliticsNation with Al Sharpton on Sunday, June 23. She talked about the homeless crisis in the City of Los Angeles. Mayor Bass said that she will get the numbers this week regarding the percentages, but feels encouraged that the numbers have decreased, when it comes to the homeless population in the City of Los Angeles.
Mayor Bass said that she is concerned that the Supreme Court could rule to make camping on public property illegal, which she fears could usher in a whole new wave of mass incarceration. In her opinion, this would lead to a whole new wave of arrests, warrants convictions and jail time.
The mayor spoke about how there are a lot of stereotypes about who the homeless population are.
She stated that the fastest growing population of the homeless are senior citizens who are “disproportionately” made up of African American women. Unfortunately, most of whom have been priced out of the housing market. Mayor Bass said that homelessness is frustrating and a “difficult issue,” but is “absolutely solvable.”
The Mayor stated that in the state of California, there are programs that are reaching people where they are, in the streets. By going to encampments, putting people in motels, and giving them supportive services with “community-based organizations.” Also expediting buildings, so that the homeless population can get out of motels and into “permanent housing,” which would include “supportive services.”
On Thursday, June 20, ABC7 News reported on the grand opening of the 19-story, 278-unit affordable housing high-rise, called the “Weingart Tower.”
The Weingart Tower is located in downtown Los Angeles and is for people without shelter, who are currently living on Skid Row. Mayor Karen Bass was in attendance for the unveiling. It will be Los Angeles’s largest permanent support housing project. The building will include an entire floor of offices with case workers. The cost – 165 million dollars.
The building will be financed permanently through Proposition HHH Supportive Housing Loan Program funded by Proposition HHH. City voters by far approved Prop HHH in 2016. According to the City of Los Angeles.gov website, in November of 2016, 77% of voters in the City of Los Angeles approved Proposition HHH.
Proposition HHH authorizes the City of Los Angeles to issue up to $1.2 billion in general obligation bonds to develop or acquire supportive housing.
Prop HHH has not been without its share of criticisms and problems. Former City of Los Angeles Controller Ron Galperin, sent a letter to former City of Los Angeles Mayor, Eric Garcetti in 2022, stating that Prop HHH “is still unable to meet the demands of the homelessness crisis. The cost of each unit continues to rise and the pace of development remains sluggish.” This was further complicated by the Pandemic.
However, Mayor Karen Bass campaigned on getting results. And the grand opening of the Weingart Tower is at least signaling that she says what she means and means what she says.
Demanyé 
Alex Tisdale 
