Becerra: Homeless help a joint effort
Los Angeles: Health and Human Services secretary, mayor want to focus on drug abuse and mental health
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and Mayor Karen Bass in Los Angeles on Wednesday agreed the Biden administration and L.A. officials should together focus on the root causes that leave people on the streets.
Their focus was on the difficult task of combating homelessness while treating individuals' substance abuse and mental health disorders.
“If we can break down these silos, these walls and these silos that keep us from being able to share resources and share flexibility to do this right, well then we won't succeed. But if we can break down those barriers, we give ourselves a chance,” Becerra said after meeting local service providers at the nonprofit Asian
American Drug Abuse Program's administrative building.
He said neither the federal government nor the city of L.A. can solve the problems alone, but by working together, there is hope. Becerra said that more than 100,000 people in the U.S. died from drug overdoses in 2021.
Bass said that more than 1,000 people died on the streets of L.A. last year and the majority of those deaths involved drug overdoses.
Part of the problem, she said, is that government regulations prevent residential drug treatment facilities from housing a patient for more than 90 days. That means homeless individuals who have battled addiction for years — and can't get sober in three months — wind up homeless again after 90 days in treatment.
“If we are serious about ending homelessness, we have to understand that — front and center,” Bass said. “We have to address substance abuse and mental health.”
Becerra's visit comes two weeks after officials announced that L.A. was one of five cities, plus the state of California, selected to participate in the federal ALL INside initiative, part of a broader effort by the Biden administration to prevent and reduce homelessness nationwide by 25% by 2025.
Through ALL INside, city and White House officials will work to expedite efforts to bring unhoused people indoors; provide more regulatory flexibility and remove red tape that has delayed people from getting housed, such as requiring proof that people need housing assistance.
Becerra's visit marked the second time this year that a member of the administration has toured the Asian American Drug Abuse Program in South L.A. His visit included a tour of a residential substance abuse treatment facility before the roundtable discussion with service providers.
In February, Jeff Olivet, executive director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, also met with local service providers at the Asian American Drug Abuse Program facility.
At the time, Olivet acknowledged that the goal of reducing homelessness by 25% in such a short timeframe is “ambitious” and said L.A. would be a major player in that effort.