H4WRD Great Reads for October '24

Our October Great Reads offers a range of articles and resources on current topics relevant to housing and homelessness in Greater Hollywood:

• LA Times, 10/24: What should L.A. do about homelessness? Renters and homeowners answer differently, poll finds
  • Summary: Poll after poll shows that just about everyone in Los Angeles believes homelessness is one of the biggest problems facing the region. But a key factor determining what Angelenos believe needs to be done about it is whether they’re renters or homeowners, according to a new USC survey. For instance, 71% of renters in the survey said they would back affordable or public housing construction on their block compared with 53% of homeowners. Opinions between the two groups were closer when the survey asked about general support for the policies.

• NY Times, 10/20: Under an L.A. Freeway, a Psychiatric Rescue Mission: The crisis of homelessness is pushing American psychiatry to places it has not gone before — like sidewalk injections of antipsychotics.
  • Summary: NY Times piece on the rising practice of "street psychiatry", with a focus on Dr. Shayan Rab, medical director of LACDMH’s Homeless Outreach & Mobile Engagement program (HOME). For Dr. Rab and his team, which overlaps in Hollywood with the innovative H20 program, street psychiatry offers a radical solution: that for the most acutely mentally ill, psychiatric medication given outdoors could be a critical step toward housing.
• Politico, 10/21: Will penny-pinching voters doom LA’s latest effort to end homelessness?‍
  • Summary: Measure A faces political headwinds in a year when voters are wary of approving new spending. Residents of California’s biggest metropolis say homelessness is the issue that worries them most, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re ready to spend more to address the problem. In the balance is Los Angeles County’s Measure A, which would extend and increase a county-level tax to continue funding the local government’s homeless services as well as affordable housing development, rent relief and resources to prevent evictions. (Editor's Note: Hollywood 4WRD supports Measure A.)
• National Alliance to End Homelessness, 10/20: New Election Polling Shows Homelessness is a Bipartisan Priority Among Voters‍
  • Summary: In a continuation of national opinion polling conducted by the National Alliance to End Homelessness and Morning Consult earlier this year, a public opinion poll was commissioned in September 2024 to learn about the public’s thoughts on homelessness as it relates to the upcoming election. It’s clear from the polling that voters want to see candidates take evidence-based policy-driven approaches to ending homelessness rather than resort to punitive measures such as encampment sweeps or bans.

• RAND commentary, 10/3: A Concerning Rise in Rough Sleeping Threatens Recent Progress on Unsheltered Homelessness in Los Angeles
  • Summary: H4WRD Founding Board Member Louis Abramson offers a sobering commentary on the recent rise in rough sleeping in LA. (Rough sleeping refers to unhoused people living without the protection of a vehicle, tent, or makeshift dwelling.) An adjunct physical scientist at RAND Corp, Louis points to RAND’s recent analysis of three Los Angeles neighborhoods—Hollywood, Venice, and Skid Row— that shows rough sleeping has risen to new heights.

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