Spend less to police the unhoused

Pervasive poverty lies at the heart of many of our city’s challenges. Policies that criminalize and penalize poverty only exacerbate it at the root.

Last year, for example, the L.A. City Council passed Ordinance 41.18 making it illegal to “sit, lie or sleep in or upon any street, sidewalk or other public way.” This year the ordinance was expanded with so many stipulations that unhoused people have been left with nearly no reasonable place to sleep, outside of county and municipal jails.

There are over 69,000 unhoused individuals in our county and we are 10,000 beds short of providing them a temporary dignified place to sleep each night, let alone a permanent one. Funds allocated to police the unhoused population under this ordinance and others would be better used increasing affordable housing, improving supportive service delivery, and addressing the root causes of becoming houseless.

L.A. County has about 600,000 low-income renters living one paycheck away from eviction. That’s not sustainable. As the cost

of living in our city continues to rise, our newly elected leaders need to take an intentional role in ensuring that every Angeleno has the opportunity to reasonably meet those costs. We have to invest in the alleviation of poverty’s root causes, keep people who are struggling to make ends meet from losing their homes, and use our civic resources to bring more opportunity to Angelenos.

Isaac Bryan represents Culver City and parts of West and South L.A. in the California Assembly.