Homelessness

Local officials counted on the state’s Homekey program to convert hotel rooms. But now a major developer has defaulted on loans and the state housing department is investigating.

The L.A. nonprofit HOPICS got $140 million in public funds to house the homeless, but it failed to pay rent and some of its clients wound up back on the streets.

The number of Californians facing eviction was relatively low for years during a lengthy statewide moratorium. In the year after it ended, cases soared and still remain high in large counties.

California’s population of homeless veterans has plateaued despite billions of dollars in state spending to create housing for former military service members. Now, Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to shift the state’s resources to focus on veterans with serious mental health conditions.

Tiny homes are increasingly California cities’ shelter option of choice — but how far they go in solving homelessness is a contentious question.

Police can’t force homeless people from encampments unless the city in question has “adequate shelter” to offer the people getting forced off the street, according to courts. Now everyone involved wants to know what “adequate shelter” is.

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s big new experiment to push people with mental illness off the streets and into treatment starts this fall. Counties responsible for the rollout say it may end up being more modest than advertised.

California’s experimental new program targets methamphetamine addiction by rewarding patients with gift cards for negative drug tests.

Los Angeles’ new homelessness solution is meant to quickly get people out of encampments and into housing – as the city grapples with the state’s largest population of unhoused residents. But the program is struggling to house people and connect them with social services.

Gov. Gavin Newsom poured ‘unprecedented’ money into homelessness, but providers say his use of one-time grants does not allow for long-term solutions to the state’s biggest crisis.