What is The Homeless Industrial Complex?
We hear the catch phrase often but what does it mean?
The Homeless Industrial Complex is an actual industry politicians and non-profits have created by making homelessness “for profit”. The more money we spend on homelessness the worse it gets, I often use the quote “the more you spend on something, the more you get of it”.
How can we task anyone with solving a problem their job and livelihood depends on? The answer is we can’t. The job positions are abundant, the salaries staggering (see photos). LAHSA - The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority which is the leading agency that is supposed to be addressing the homeless crisis in LA can only seem to achieve a double digit increase of it year over year. This is one agency in a sea of bureaucracy and non-profits funneling hundreds of millions of dollars thru it year over year while making the problem they’re supposed to be solving worse. It’s the definition of insanity - doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result.
Billions are spent each year in Los Angeles alone and all we get is more vagrancy and crime related to it, the city is an absolute disaster. Our approach is not working, especially the “housing first” model which believes putting severely addicted and mentally ill people in housing first without treatment is the answer… it is not. All that does is create problems for people in housing who actually want help and force people who need treatment before housing back on the street for not being able to follow the rules of the shelter or housing they’re put in. It’s a vicious cycle intended to keep people on the street so the funding can continue.
If we really want to solve this issue we must invest in addiction treatment centers and mental wellness facilities, change laws so courts can once again commit people to treatment instead of prison or the current approach of sheer lawlessness. Letting addicted, mentally sick people and criminals do whatever they want with no recourse as the normal citizens of this city bare the burden of thefts, assaults and worse is dead wrong. Personal accountability must be brought back or nothing will change.
This is also why there is such a proliferation of "non-profits." They form an org and then apply for grants, and get them. And then media such as the LA Times, produce stories about the issue that are like press releases from those same orgs.
Thank you for this post. The corruption is staggering. Are you suggesting that the LA government really doesn’t want to solve this problem?
I am not sure that the ridiculous approaches we see in response to the homeless crisis are intentional. It seems that politicians and the public alike want to pacify their guilt by handing a panhandler $5 or suggesting we just “give people a house”. In order to really impact this community, you will need to get uncomfortable and involved beyond stupid utopian suggestions. Please consider my recent posts, I will look forward to learning more from your posts.