across the city the tents stretch
everywhere from hollywood
to venice beach scenes from what could
be a disaster movie
now a seemingly permanent fixture on the
streets of los angeles
if you're not shocked by what you see
then i don't know what you would be
shocked by when covid first hit
the city stopped large-scale cleanups at
most encampments to keep the virus from
spreading
that's when residents say things changed
people shooting up urinating out in the
open
vomiting officials here last counted
more than 66 thousand experiencing
homelessness in january twenty twenty
but that was before the pandemic struck
and hundreds of thousands of angelenos
lost their jobs
since then our partners on nbcla's
investigative team have captured these
images
showing a situation spiraling out of
control
trash spilling into traffic tents taking
over
intersections stretches of the iconic
venice boardwalk
now resembling a refugee camp it's a
reality
no one is comfortable with this is my
home
chanel grace has been homeless for three
years
this city has a lot of cleaning up to do
but doing it so wrong
they're making it harder for us to want
to even do any better for ourselves
a few blocks away restaurant owner janet
zuccherini
also feels betrayed it's a problem for
people living
under these conditions and it's a
problem for people living in this area
visiting in this area and people that
have small businesses
both the housed and unhoused say
politicians have turned their backs on
them
we were able to get 100. we met mayor
eric garcitti at a transitional tiny
home shelter the city just opened
three months ago these 39 homes
64 square feet each costing taxpayers
5.4 million dollars this parcel though
cost
five million dollars parcel was free we
owned it but yeah to build everything up
it was
about 5 million but think about it 39
units
correct but that's something that can be
recycled year after year after year
everybody can point to the cost of
building things i point to the cost of
not building things tapping into state
and federal money
garcetti has proposed nearly a billion
dollars to combat the crisis
the largest ever in the city's budget
the mayor wants to utilize funds from
proposition
triple h a bond program overwhelmingly
approved by voters in 2016
to create up to 10 000 permanent housing
units
over a decade but with only 700
completed
garcetti's plan has come under fire a
2020 audit criticized the program for
long delays
and rising costs finding the average
unit cost
558 000 to develop
are you getting behind though in your
goals no we're not we're actually
exceeding
the goals and what we've set out to
build but that doesn't mean that
homelessness necessarily goes down in
america
it's like being in the boat and getting
bigger and bigger
you know containers to bail the water
out but critics say
local leaders still aren't acting fast
enough
fed up a federal judge ordered the city
and county to provide
housing for every unsheltered person on
skid row
by mid-october both have appealed
dealing with homelessness is not for the
faint of heart it's not a place to get
credit and it's not a place that there's
easy solutions
if i had a dollar for every time
somebody said i know how to solve
homelessness i'd be a millionaire
suzette shaw says receiving permanent
housing
with supportive services was a game
changer for her
if you were to see a picture of me five
to six years ago you would not even know
me
homeless on skid row for four years shaw
says
any plan must include long-term mental
health treatment
i remember my first doctor saying to me
that you know how long did it take you
to get in this situation
well then it's going to take you at
least that long or more to get out of it
while change here may not come overnight
all can agree
the urgency and desperation are mounting
i just can't understand how
a country would allow people to live
like this as more tents go up
every day
not just an l a crisis but a national
crisis and one we will continue to cover
on this broadcast
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