Declaring that Los Angeles can effectively end homelessness within 10 years was an audacious move by Mayor Eric Garcetti. “Foolhardy” might be just as apt a description.
After all, Garcetti has a track record of setting goals and not achieving them. Spurred by the Obama administration’s nationwide challenge, the mayor vowed in 2014 to end homelessness among veterans by the end of 2015, but failed to do so — even after extending his own deadline to 2016. (The number went from 2,733 in 2015 down to 1,617 in 2016, then back up to 2,518 last year.) Before that, when he was running for mayor in 2013, he vowed to end chronic homelessness. That population is the most entrenched and most vulnerable. Obviously, that didn’t happen.