A number of posts have dealt with homelessness.
Andrew Khouri and Doug Smith at LAT:
A 2025 poll from Politico and the UC Berkeley Citrin Center found 61% of California voters supported or somewhat agreed with arresting homeless individuals if they refused offers of shelter.
Benjamin Henwood, director of USC’s Center for Homelessness, Housing and Health Equity Research, said many in the public believe drug addiction and mental health problems to be the main causes of homelessness, because those issues are highly visible on city streets. But he said research consistently shows that while those issues play a role, the main driver is the high cost of housing.
After all, people struggle with addiction and mental health in lots of cities, but those places don’t have the high rates of homelessness seen in Los Angeles.
A recent study by the Benioff Homeless and Housing Initiative at UC San Francisco found that about 37% of homeless people were using illicit drugs regularly, and 25% said they had never used drugs. Just over 65% reported having regularly used at some point in their lives, and 27% had started after becoming homeless.
