L.A. Mayor: City Is the 'Homeless Capital'

[superconnected]

L.A. Mayor: City Is the 'Homeless Capital'

LOS ANGELES - A report released Thursday that provided new details on the region's homeless population prompted Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to call the nation's second-largest city the nation's "capital of homelessness."

The report by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority estimated that 82,291 people were homeless in Los Angeles County on any given night in 2005, with about 48,103 of the county's homeless living within Los Angeles' city limits.

The estimates mark the first attempt to gather detailed data on the homeless. The figures will provide a benchmark to evaluate the effectiveness of programs to curb homelessness, officials said.

The study also reported that California's estimated homeless population of 195,367 is the highest in the nation. Forty-six percent of the state's homeless population is located in Los Angeles County, according to researchers, who determined that one of every 110 people in the county are homeless on any given night.

more:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060113/ap_on_re_us/homeless_study

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The liberal press is agian helping a-lquada by showing them how f-up we are.

[acmejack]

1. Damn, that is a lot of people.

I am totally amazed and ashamed.

[superconnected]

2. You'd think america would want it's funds helping it's own poeple.

Instead we had to go destroy iraq, which we have no real plans to fix, only divert funds.

[KamaAina]

3. And those are only the ones who got *counted*.

:scared:

[Barkley]

4. A lot of this has to do with 'dumping' homeless people in Downtown. L.A.

Are Suburban Police Dumping The Homeless Downtown?

Los Angeles Police Department offices claim to have observered police cars from suburban police departments 'dump' homeless people in downtown Los Angeles.
http://www.planetizen.com/node/17487

[ckramer]

5. 82,291 ?

That's an army that no policemen can stop.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

6. That number sounds a lot lower than what it probably is....and growing.

[Selteri]

7. We should not have homeless when we can afford to spend...

We should not have homeless when we can afford to spend almost 1 trillion dollars on a war we don't need.

[JI7]

8. you can see homeless people in places like Beverly Hills also

it's very sad.

[ninkasi]

9. The real pity...

is that so much effort is spent in trying to drive the homeless out of neighborhoods, and trying to hide them, rather than trying to find a solution. Granted, some may be alcohol abusers, drug abusers, or simply mentally ill. Whatever the problem, they are our fellow human beings, and cannot lift themselves out of the pit of hopelessness they have fallen into.

There are whole families homeless now. Think of it...the right-wing will picket, protest, and vote, to try to make abortions illegal, but where are they when the babies who are born are born to the homeless? Do they even try to find these "innocent babies" shelter, or food? This country is burdening our children with DEBT in order to give millionaires tax cuts. We cannot, however, seem to find the compassion or money to lift society's most vulnerable out of their misery.

St. Ronnie was the start of the United States becoming a completely dysfunctional country. Bush is escalating Reagan's worst policies, and making Nixon's mental problems seem positively benign. Our efforts right now must be spent on getting our Democratic Senators to filibuster Alito, then on retaking one, if not both, houses of Congress in 2006.

We can regain our democracy, or we can watch it slip from our grasp, as it will surely do unless we stand up to the current fascist administration. I do not want to die knowing that my grandchildren will not live in a free and democratic society. I do not want Bush to be the one who determines what course our country takes. I was born in a free country, I hope I die in one.

[Orsino]

10. Uh-uh. Washington DC is the homeless capital.

LA just has more homeless.