OAKLAND — Officials in Oakland approved a contentious new policy that will allow encampments, but prohibit homeless people from setting up tents in parks or near homes, businesses, schools and some churches in the city that has seen a recent spike in the homeless population. The Oakland City Council unanimously...
Will NIMBYs Stop Former Smuggler’s Inn From Becoming Affordable Housing?
Fresno County, RH Community Builders, and UPholdings want to acquire and rehabilitate the Hotel Fresno (formerly the Smuggler's Inn) on Blackstone and Dakota avenues to provide assistance to homeless people. That's the short-term goal. The long-term goal is to provide affordable housing for decades into the future. The county hosted...
Amazon's Homeless Shelter Faces Seattle Crisis, Criticism
SEATTLE — A homeless shelter built on Amazon’s perfectly manicured urban Seattle campus is a major civic contribution that pushes the company to face the crisis and criticism in the hometown it has rapidly transformed. Believed to be the first homeless shelter built inside a corporate office building, Amazon’s partnership...
Video Shows Hanging Death of Homeless Black Man Was Suicide
VICTORVILLE — Video has confirmed that a Black man found hanging from a tree at a Southern California homeless encampment killed himself after breaking up with his girlfriend, it was reported Friday. Malcolm Harsch, 38, was found May 31 in a dirt field in Victorville, a desert city northeast of...
Homelessness Deepens in Los Angeles County, Jumps 13%
LOS ANGELES — The number of homeless people counted across Los Angeles County jumped 12.7% over the past year to more than 66,400 and authorities fear that figure will spike again once the full impact of the coronavirus pandemic is felt, officials said Friday. The majority of those experiencing homelessness...
San Francisco Sanctions Once-Shunned Homeless Encampments
SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco is joining other U.S. cities in authorizing homeless tent encampments in response to the coronavirus pandemic, a move officials have long resisted but are now reluctantly embracing to safeguard homeless people. About 80 tents are now neatly spaced out on a wide street near San...
Merced County Moves 98 Homeless People Into Hotel Rooms
Ninety-eight homeless residents in Merced County are now sheltering in hotel rooms in an effort to protect the vulnerable and slow COVID-19's spread, county officials have announced. The effort is part of the statewide initiative known as "Project Room Key." 7,000 California Homeless People Now Sheltered It is estimated that...
Massive Effort to Get Los Angeles Homeless Into Hotels
LOS ANGELES — To curb the coronavirus spread, Los Angeles has embarked on a massive effort to bring thousands of homeless people off the streets and into hotels to protect them and others from infection. California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced last week that money from the federal government would help...
Influencers in LA Are Taking a 'Hygiene Ice Cream Truck' to Skid Row's Homeless to Prevent Coronavirus Spread
[aggregation-styles] Insider On Sunday, a white van with the word "Cult" written on its side in pink chalk pulled up to a trash-covered embankment in Skid Row, a neighborhood in downtown Los Angeles known for its condensed population of the county's nearly 60,000 homeless individuals. Underneath the word "Cult" was...
Few Sheltered as California Aims to Help Homeless Amid Virus
SAN FRANCISCO — Homeless outreach workers are passing out hand sanitizer, checking temperatures and pleading with people not to crowd together. But a week after Gov. Gavin Newsom pledged thousands of hotel rooms to help the homeless survive the coronavirus pandemic, most of those rooms sit empty. For most of...