{"id":42540,"date":"2025-11-07T14:20:06","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T14:20:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/42540\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T14:20:06","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T14:20:06","slug":"is-now-the-time-to-end-l-a-s-state-of-emergency-on-homelessness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/42540\/","title":{"rendered":"Is now the time to end L.A.\u2019s state of emergency on homelessness?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nov. 7, 2025 6 AM PT <\/p>\n

To the editor: I was surprised to learn about Mayor Karen Bass\u2019 withdrawal of the state of emergency related to homelessness (\u201cMayor Bass lifts state of emergency on homelessness. But \u2018the crisis remains,\u2019\u201d<\/a> Nov. 4). Significant existential threats to maintaining our progress in reductions are moments from realization.<\/p>\n

L.A. County stands to lose thousands of housing vouchers over the next two years. The funding for more than 6,000 pandemic-era emergency vouchers<\/a> will expire in 2026<\/a>. Thousands more vouchers will be lost to Department of Housing and Urban Development policy changes<\/a> that reject decades of researched best practices.<\/p>\n

Further, the county faces a $300-million shortfall<\/a> for homeless services next fiscal year stemming primarily from reduced tax revenues and the cessation of time-limited state funding. The city\u2019s budget continues to be precariously perched.<\/p>\n

The federal government is shut down and all the people who rely on SNAP to make ends meet are having a lot more trouble doing so, all while looming changes to Medicaid stand to strip thousands of Angelenos of healthcare coverage next year.<\/p>\n

Emergency or not, solving homelessness takes resources and we\u2019re losing some big ones right now. I hope to see more coverage of these threats in The Los Angeles Times, as I believe the article about the emergency declaration could have benefited from this context.<\/p>\n

Robert Morrison, Los Angeles<\/p>\n

..<\/p>\n

To the editor: The mayor is not wrong \u2014 there has been progress on homelessness, especially in Hollywood, where years of coordinated work have reduced unsheltered homelessness by half<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hollywood has certainly benefited from the mayor\u2019s Inside Safe initiative and the county\u2019s Hollywood 2.0 program<\/a>. But if we want to keep moving forward, we must understand exactly how and why this progress has happened. Our momentum can\u2019t lull us into thinking the problem is solved.<\/p>\n

The next few years must be about doing more of what works and less of what doesn\u2019t \u2014 and that requires a clear-eyed look at what\u2019s driven improvement before we act like it\u2019s all sorted.<\/p>\n

We need resources and policies that reinforce neighborhood-level collaboration, along with transparent data and progress tracking to guide strategy.<\/p>\n

The lead-up to the Olympics is a vital window to keep systems moving toward affordable housing, livability and dignity \u2014 not toward last-minute \u201cclean-ups\u201d that simply hide visible homelessness.<\/p>\n

If we stay aligned, focused and grounded in what works, we will keep moving forward, together.<\/p>\n

Brittney Weissman, Los Angeles
This writer is executive director of the Hollywood 4WRD Homelessness Coalition.<\/p>\n

..<\/p>\n

To the editor: Los Angeles is right to celebrate the two years of reported decline in homelessness. However, The Times has also reported<\/a> that Rand found L.A.\u2019s annual count is missing people who sleep without tents or vehicles. These people are the hardest to reach. If that population from Los Angeles isn\u2019t being counted, the \u201cdecline\u201d is smaller than it looks and services may be redirected.<\/p>\n

Whenever City Hall cites progress, the public should also see a second number: how many people were likely missed, and in which neighborhoods. This transparency is important and relevant because outreach teams and community organizations are the ones who need to be aware of the people they are not reaching.<\/p>\n

We can\u2019t say the emergency is over for people who never made it into the data.<\/p>\n

Kendall Lyons, Los Angeles<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nov. 7, 2025 6 AM PT To the editor: I was surprised to learn about Mayor Karen Bass\u2019…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42541,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[8222,1409,2072,3978,1743,1493,1011,8161,48,52,51,47,50,49,63,13825,592,20687,225,3293,72],"class_list":["post-42540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-decline","tag-city","tag-editor","tag-emergency","tag-hollywood","tag-homelessness","tag-housing","tag-l-a-county","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-los-angeles-times","tag-mayor-karen-bass","tag-people","tag-progress","tag-state","tag-thousand","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42540\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}