12-15-2022 1:26pm

A Study Analysis Indicates Los Angeles ‘Street Sweeps’ Are Not Aiding Homeless People

Anita Johnson-Brown Editor

LOS ANGELES—According to an updated report via the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, Cleaning sweeps are not as effective as, assumed. The polemic Cleaning sweeps, otherwise documented as “sanitation cleanings” are planned to keep Los Angeles uncluttered and push unsheltered people, into temp, to permanent housing.

Information and statistics from the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority show that not many people in homeless encampments have been moved "indoors", as stipulated in the outreach program.

For the past 1095, days over 30,000 unhoused citizens residing in Los Angeles, enrolled in the cleaning and Rapid Engagement program (CARE), and just ten percent of the people were moved into a provisional lodging facility, and less than one percent have transitioned to permanent housing.

Data from the LAHSA indicates that people are being forced out and pushed from one neighborhood to another, continually relinquishing personal belongings such as loss of medications and medical supplies, as one study reported by LATaco, findings show that loss of personal property impacts a person’s mental and physical health.

The CARE program started in 2019 intending to be a “services-led” strategy to lessen the homelessness crisis, in lieu of the prior reactive system that concentrated on public protests and Law Enforcement of vagrancy laws.

According to LAHSA’s most current calculations, homelessness has increased by 15 percent amid the pandemic.

Data reveals that more than $150 million was paid by taxpayers for the CARE program, ‘as reported by LATaco, questioning the success rate of the policy changes being put in position.

LASAN officials remarked that part of the program “is to provide sanitation and hygiene services,” and that, “Our partners at LAHSA provide housing services. It is our responsibility to ensure that the public right of way is safe and clean for all—for pedestrians, residents, customers, business owners, and those experiencing homelessness”.

In the initial process 90 percent of homeless people interacting in the CARE outreach program return to homelessness, who have no contact information, as stated in the report.

According to LATaco officials, Enrollment in CARE + programs has increased by almost 50 percent in 2022.

Written by Anita Johnson-Brown

Photo: Homeless family