Hollywood homeless crisis escalates: grim new video shows fentanyl zombies, tent cities and filthy streets

As widespread homelessness continues to plague the streets and neighborhoods of Los Angeles, a new video shines a light on the problem as it affects Los Angeles’ iconic Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The video, taken earlier this summer, shows dozens and dozens of homeless people slumped and prostrate on the streets of Hollywood, lying on park benches and lining the streets with makeshift tents.

“Hidden between glitz and glamour, the homeless cast a shadow over the streets,” the video’s narrator says as he strolls through the neighborhood.

He points out that mental health issues are a recurring problem among the city’s homeless population and that if left untreated, individuals are pushed further into a cycle of homelessness and poverty. .

“Prejudices and misunderstandings often cast a shadow over the homeless community,” the story continues, “the city of dreams grapples with its own realities.”

Los Angeles’ homelessness crisis has exploded in recent years, affecting a total of more than 46,000 people living on the streets, a problem Mayor Karen Bass pledged to address upon taking office last year. .

The number of homeless people in Los Angeles has more than doubled over the past decade.

There has been a 9% increase in the number of homeless people in Los Angeles County between 2022 and 2023, with the homeless population now totaling 75,518 people, according to the latest LAHSA data.

The city of Los Angeles saw its population increase by about 10 percent, to a total of 46,260 residents.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass was recently greeted with whistles and boos during a meeting about housing for the homeless in the city, as seen in videos posted on social networks.

Councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky, who represents District 5 on the powerful Los Angeles City Council, proposed an interim housing project on Los Angeles’ Westside, prompting a furious response from residents attending the meeting.

The proposal is that the project be implemented on a ‘underutilized city-owned parking lot at Pico Boulevard intersection. and Midvale Avenue.

“This will add desperately needed transitional beds to the Fifth District’s homeless housing supply,” Yaroslavsky said.

Yaroslavsky said more than 70 percent of those individuals and families are sleeping in tents, parks, cars, or on sidewalks due to lack of temporary and permanent housing.

“Anyone who has walked or driven on the Westside can tell you that the increase in the number of people living in tents is alarming,” Yaroslavsky said.

“We can’t wait for the problem to solve itself. We need real solutions that we know work, and we need them fast.”

“While thousands of permanent housing units are being built across the city, no interim units are being built in Municipal District 5. Now we need interim solutions that we know will work.”

The number of homeless people in Los Angeles has more than doubled in the past decade

According to the latest LAHSA data, Los Angeles County saw a 9% increase between 2022 and 2023, with a homeless population totaling 75,518.

The city of Los Angeles saw its population increase by 10 percent, to a total of 46,260 residents.

In June, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass announced the lofty goal of ending rough sleeping in Los Angeles by 2026.

The Los Angeles County Homelessness Initiative has unanimously approved a budget of $609.7 million to reduce the scourge.

After renting Yaroslavsky, Bass received boos from the audience.

A The existing facility that houses the homeless in North Hollywood has been widely criticized by local residents after soaring crime in the area, including a nearby stabbing.

“I understand that safety is the number one concern, and safety is also my concern,” Bass retorted.

“But the problem is that people are on the streets and so we have to think about how to get them off the streets today.”

In June, Bass announced his lofty goal: to end homelessness on the streets of Los Angeles by 2026.

“My goal would really be to end street homelessness,” she said. “There will always be people in shelters and temporary accommodation, but at least we won’t have people dying on our streets,” she said in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper.

According to the Los Angeles County Homelessness Initiative’s budget for fiscal year 2023-2024, four weeks after homelessness was declared a “local emergency,” the Board of Overseers approved at the unanimously approved a budget of $609.7 million for the Los Angeles County Homelessness Initiative.

The budget will be used to: reduce encampments to bring homeless people indoors, increase temporary and permanent housing placements, and scale up mental health and substance use disorder services for homeless people.

The $609.7 million represents an additional $61.8 million more than last year’s allocation of $547.8 million, an increase of 11 percent.

The proposed budget will include 30 percent, or $182.2 million, for interim housing and 44.3 percent, or $270.22 million, for permanent housing.

The remaining money will be spent on: administration, local jurisdictions, stabilization success, coordination, targeted prevention to avoid a return to homelessness, and connectivity to get people off the streets.

The Hollywood Walk of Fame, in its current state, is a far cry from the iconic Walk of Stars, where celebrities of the highest order have received stars over the years.

The video showed makeshift homeless encampments lining the streets just blocks from the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Bass is the 43rd mayor of Los Angeles, the first woman, and the second African American elected to the position of chief executive of the city.

She began her tenure with an immediate focus on housing people and hoped to increase safety and opportunity in every Los Angeles neighborhood.

In the same month, Bass moved 14,381 people under one roof – including 8,726 through LAHSA admissions, 1,323 through the mayor’s Inside Safe initiative, 1,591 using emergency vouchers, 1,397 using other tenant-based voucher programs and 1,344 people who were housed in new permanent housing units.

But tens of thousands of people are still on the streets, many of them succumbing to rampant drug use.

Mobile teams equipped with oxygen cylinders were sent skid line to prevent overdoses in the context of the opioid crisis.

Workers at the nonprofit Homeless Health Care Los Angeles also carry naloxone, a drug commonly known as Narcan, which can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose.