Lost Angeles: City of Homelessness
Introduction
Homelessness in Los Angeles has remained a persistent and complex issue for decades, shaped by rising housing costs, economic inequality, and gaps in mental health and addiction support. By 2021, the crisis had reached a point where tens of thousands of people were living without stable housing across the city and surrounding county, making it one of the largest unhoused populations in the United States.
This documentary explores the underlying causes behind that reality, combining insight from experts with the experiences of those living through it firsthand. Through these perspectives, the film looks at how the situation developed over time and what challenges stand in the way of meaningful, long-term solutions.
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Quotes
“The homeless count is an imperfect science, and it gives us kind of a baseline to work off of. I believe there probably are more individuals that are on our streets that are invisible because they don’t want to be seen.”
“It’s mushroomed into an epidemic and it has reached crisis levels because now the homeless encampments are encroaching and destroying the business community, the tourism industry, impacting the quality of life of our residential areas, contributing to the rise in violent crime and just overall misery, while the homeless are dying in record numbers.”
“Homelessness in Los Angeles dates back to the late 19th century when migrant workers arrived in droves on the southern pacific railroad … Skid Row becomes the Skid Row that we know of it in the 1940s and 1950s when that population begins to stay … so the 1970s you see this explosion of all of these services in these communities and communities responded by saying we don’t want these services in our communities, we want them somewhere else, and that somewhere else became Skid Row.”
“These are all real people that had lives, that have had jobs, that have had marriages that have had divorces, they’ve had hard times. They’re not there because that was their first choice, this is their last choice, but they become used to it and it’s a life that they can deal with and maybe it’s too painful to confront their families or their past problems.”
“59% of newly homeless in L.A. County cite economic hardship as their main reason for ending up on the street. 32.4% of L.A. County’s homeless population is female. Of those, 49% report a history of domestic violence.” (Source: 2020 LAHSA Homeless Count)
“1 in 4 of California’s former foster youth report having experienced homelessness in the two years after aging out of the system.” (Source: California Youth Transitions to Adulthood Study: Conditions of Youth at Age 23 [PDF])
“I ran away from home when I was 14 and I was homeless for the next 23 years. After that, I spent most of the 90s in and out of jails.”
“Our mission [Hope of the Valley Rescue Mission] is to both prevent and end people’s homelessness. This is a place where people can come, they can get off the streets, they can get stable and then we can assist them in ending their homelessness and moving into permanent supportive housing. All of our shelters operate very similarly. We have three meals a day delivered on site. On top of that we have hygiene facilities, laundry facilities, case management and housing navigation, which is the critical piece because it’s so hard to get an apartment in Los Angeles.”
“Project Room Key is a program that was established out of the coronavirus pandemic. It was the governor’s way of helping the unhoused get shelter during the most uncertain time; provided shelter to the unhoused. It took unused hotel rooms or hotel rooms that now were going to be converted into this program to give the unhoused a place to stay.”
“There’s nothing wrong with HHH as an initiative. What complicated it and what was driven up those costs is how it was implemented. The ones that were supposed to cost $375,000 a unit, they’re now averaging $600,000 a unit, some $700,000.”
“I think it’s important to realize that homelessness is a traumatic event, that even if you weren’t a drug addict before, becoming homeless can change you and it changes you physiologically. The psychosis on the street is due to primarily three things: bipolar disorder, schizophrenias of various type, and methamphetamine, and methamphetamine bleeds over to the other two as well.”
“1963 – President John F. Kennedy signs the Community Mental Health Act into law; 1967 – California Governor Ronald Reagan signs the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act into law.”
“The worst thing we can do is to criminalize poverty, to criminalize homelessness, to criminalize mental illness, and we also know that it’s not a solution to just say get off the sidewalk, we have to find a right balance so that we can help as many people as we possibly can.”
“What you saw at the VA shows that if there’s a political will, things can get done. You can cut through the red tape if you’ve got the right people saying this needs to stop. It’s the same thing that we saw happen in Venice along the Venice boardwalk when people in power, in leadership, want to get something done, they can.”
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Brenda H.
BA Psych, Grad. Cert. Addictions & Mental Health
Driven by a deep personal connection to these topics, I created AMH Resources to bridge the gap between academic knowledge and everyday support. I watch, read, and summarize a wide range of free resources to help you navigate the overwhelming amount of information available and find what resonates with your journey.