Los Angeles County has a large homeless population and, despite spending $6.5 billion on social programs to address the issue over the past ten years, their problem is only getting worse. The situation is so bad that the general public and local businesses struggle to cope with all the trash, human waste/feces, drug use, harassment, and other criminal conduct emanating from the homeless encampments (e.g. tent cities). The situation has deteriorated so much that Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva, a Democrat, is now calling out local "woke" Democrats for their failed policies. Sheriff Villanueva called out Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, the Los Angeles City Council, and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors as “architects of failure” for allowing things to become so bad. To deal with the crisis, Sheriff Villanueva is now having to use his deputies to clear out some of the homeless encampments that have plagued the area.
As they saying goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. By permitting and supporting long-term homeless encampments, the elected officials in Los Angeles County have caused even bigger problems for themselves, the general public, and local businesses.
As we all know, Houston also has a large homeless population. Now that Democrats hold most of the City of Houston and Harris County elected offices, it is important that we avoid the mistakes made by Los Angeles County. To that end, Mayor Sylvester Turner and Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo should create a joint team to send to Los Angeles County to gather applicable data. Harris County Democrats need to identify and avoid LA's policy mistakes and instead develop a realistic, viable plan to transition our homeless population off the streets and into productive, self-sustaining lives. If we don't tailor our social services, health services, housing options, and law enforcement activities to successfully address our local problems, we may eventually end up just like Los Angeles County... enacting well-intended policies that actually make things worse. Enacting local policies to "help" the homeless population that end up requiring law enforcement intervention is pretty much the definition of failure.
For more information on the Los Angeles County situation, please click on the news article below:
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