President Trump has the response to homelessness.
Force the streets forcibly.
Thursday, he signed a executive decree To approach the “endemic vagrancy” and put an end to “crime and disorders in our streets”. He called for the use of “civil commitments” to obtain those who suffer from mental illness or dependence on “human treatment”.
Steve Lopez
Steve Lopez is from California who has been a columnist for Los Angeles Times since 2001. He has won more than a dozen national journalism awards and is a quadruple finalist in Pulitzer.
It comes after last year Decision of the United States Supreme Court Get legal for cities to punish people to be homeless, even if they have nowhere to go.
There is real in what he says, and the California record on housing and homelessness is ripe for criticism. I watched too many people suffer fRoma dependence and mental illness and asked why help is so slow to arrive. But I also know that there are no simple answers for one or the other crisis, and bluster does not replace the desperately necessary resources.
Like many of what Trump does, it is another case of size. In the meantime, the Washington Post reported Thursday that “the Trump administration has reduced more than a billion dollars in the COVID era administered by the substance administration of drug addiction and mental health services and is Propose Hundreds of millions of others in agency subsidies. »»
Jaimmy Ray Clark, who has been homeless for two months, eats his food given in his fortune shelter on the sidewalk at Skid Row.
(All J. Schaben / Los Angeles)
In this case, I was in the middle of a column last The number of homeless people in Los Angeles When the news of Trump decree broke out. I had just spent time with two homeless women to hear about their prediments, and nothing that Trump offers is about to meet their needs, which are tragically common.
Namely, they live in poverty and cannot afford a place to live.
In his decree, Trump said that “almost two-thirds of the homeless declare that they have consumed hard drugs … during their lifetime. An equally important part of homeless has reported mental health problems. ”
I do not know where he obtained these figures, but the truth and the precision are not the characteristics of this administration.
Without a doubt, drug addiction and mental illness are important factors and intervention is necessary.
But it is more complicated than it thinks, especially given the practical and legal problems surrounding coercive treatment – and that will not solve the problem.
When the last count of the homeless in Los Angeles was published, a slight drop in a year ago was considered by many as a positive sign. But when Eli Veitzer Jewish family service Digked in the figures, he found something at once without surprise and deeply disturbing.
The number of homeless 65 and over had not dropped. He had increased, both in the city and in the County of Los Angeles.
“I don’t consider myself a victim. I am a survivor. I pay my bills. My credit scoring is 798. The only thing I don’t have is a house. ”
– Jane Jefferies, without living accommodation in Santa Monica
Jane Jefferies organizes her devices and supplies that she keeps in the back of her car in Santa Monica.
“This is not new this year. This is a trend in the past two years,” said Veitzer, whose non -profit organization provides meals, housing assistance and various other customer services. “It’s significant, and it’s real, and these people are the risk of mortality while they are on the street.”
The figures for the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority showed a 3.4% drop in the total population of homeless in the city, but an increase of 17.6% among these 65 and over. The number of counties has shown a global decrease of 3.99%, but an increase of 8.59% in group 65 and older.
In the city, the two -year increase increased from 3,427 in 2023 to 4,680 this year, up 37%.
Reliable research has shown that in the elderly who become homeless, the main reason is the combination of poverty and high costs of housing, rather than mental illness or dependence.
March 2025 Photo of a homeless woman who passes in front of a row of tents in Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles.
“They or their spouse have lost their jobs, they or their spouse fell ill, their marriage broke or their spouse or their parent died,” said several hours before the executive order of Trump of UC San Francisco.
His team Historical study, released two years ago (and Covered by my colleague Anita Chabria)noted that almost half of the state homeless were 50 years and more and that the study participants declared a median monthly income of $ 960.
“The results … confirm that far too many Californians experience roaming because they cannot afford housing,” Kushel said at the time.
Among the older population, said Veitzer, the roaming is against the context of the federal and local budget cuts which will make the search for the trend more difficult. And more difficult for non -profit organizations, which are based in part on public funding, to continue to provide group meals, home meals, transport, social services and housing support.
“Each supplier I have spoken in the city of the meal programs in the city of the cup,” said Veitzer. “We will have to close two of our 13 meal sites, and last year, we closed three. We were 16 years old, and now we are at 11 years old. ”
Jane Jefferies rests in her car and raises her feet to reduce swelling in her legs to Santa Monica. Jefferies has been homeless in his car since February of this year.
Wednesday, I went to one of the sites that is still operational on Santa Monica Boulevard, just west of 405, and I met Jane Jefferies, 69 years old. She told me that she has been camped in her vehicle since February, when living with her brother has become impossible for various reasons. She now arrives in a Sure parking Lot every night to go to bed.
Jefferies said that it collects about $ 1,400 per month in social security, which is not enough to bring it into an apartment. In the senior center, she uses her own equipment to make buttons that she sells on the Venice Promenade, where she can win up to $ 200 a good weekend.
But it is still not enough to cover the cost of the accommodation, she told me, and she has given up the aid of the government.
“All of the funding has been reduced, and I don’t know if it is because a large part of the city and state financing is subsidized by the federal government. We all know that Trump hates California,” she said.
As Veitzer said: “There is now enough accommodation for elderly people at low income in the county. “And then they close.”
Varcie Davis gives her dog, her heart, a kiss.
His agency offers a daily meal in Vancie Davis, 73, who lives in a Penmar Park van in Venice. His neighbor is his son, Thomas Williamson, 51, who lives in his car.
Davis was in the front seat of the van on my arrival, hugging her dog, his heart. Her left leg was amputated under the knee two years ago because of an infection, she told me.
Davis said that she and another son lived in an Oregon trailer, but the owner closed public services and changed the locks. She said that she had contacted Williamson, who said to her: “I have a van for you, so you will have a place to live, but it’s going to be tough. And this is the case. It’s very, very rough. “
I have heard so many variations in stories like these over the years, I have lost the account.
The extent that exists in the richest nation in history is a shame, and a sad commentary on an economic system and a public policy which served to expand, rather than narrow, the gap of inequality.
Varcie Davis talks with her son, Tom Williamson, where they both live from the homeless in cars parked from each other in Venice.
Thursday, Trump’s executive order on homelessness made the headlines, but will do nothing for Jane Jefferies or Varcie Davis and for thousands like them. We know the interventions that can work, said Kushel, but with deep cuts in progress, we move in the wrong direction.
Davis’ son Thomas told Times in Times Genaro Molina about another person who lives in a vehicle and was one of their neighbors in the parking lot.
She was not there Wednesday, but we will come back.
She is a 91 -year -old woman.
Steve.lopez@latimes.com
