By Alicia Victoria Lozano -
NBC News
LOS ANGELES — The city of Los Angeles has agreed to spend up to $3 billion over the next five years to house some of its 41,000 homeless residents, according to a proposed settlement announced Friday.
The city has also agreed to create enough shelters to house 60% of the homeless in each of the 15 City Council districts.
People who are permanently homeless or chronically ill would remain the responsibility of the county.
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The settlement stems from a complaint filed in 2020 by a group of business owners, residents and community leaders who accused city and county officials of failing to address the desperate circumstances facing homeless people, such as hunger, crime, misery and the coronavirus pandemic.
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Litigation between the county and the group, the LA Alliance for Human Rights, is ongoing.
Under the deal, which must be approved by the council, the city would spend $2.4 billion to $3 billion over the next five years to provide 14,000 to 16,000 beds.
"We have families who live in tents, women who flee sexist violence who sleep in parks, people who suffer from mental illness who walk alone through our streets at night," recalled the president of the Municipal Council, Nury Martínez, in a statement.
He added that the county must do its part by providing mental health care, substance abuse treatment and outpatient rehab beds.
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Last year, District Judge David Carter ordered the city and county of Los Angeles to find a shelter for all homeless residents on Skid Row within 180 days and to audit their spending on homeless services. .
In a fiery 110-page order, Carter criticized officials' failure to curb the unprecedented growth of homelessness, which has led to encampments spreading to nearly every neighborhood in the region.
Bobby Rojas, 70, who has been homeless for four years, in a tent in Los Angeles, Calif., on Thursday, Sept. 23, 2021. Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times via Getty Imag
"All the rhetoric, promises, plans and budgets cannot hide the shameful reality of this crisis: that
year after year, more Angelenos are homeless, and year after year, more homeless Angelenos are dying on the streets,"
he wrote. by granting a preliminary injunction requested by the plaintiffs.
City leaders have said the drive to solve the region's homeless crisis lies with the county, while attorneys representing the county have repeatedly said the lawsuit is "without merit."
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“The county is doing more than its job and doing everything it can to address the homeless problem without stigmatizing them as committing a crime,” said Skip Miller, outside attorney for Los Angeles County, in a statement sent by email.
“Any claim that the County has failed in this obligation is totally unfounded,” he added.
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors struck a softer tone following Friday's announcement, saying in a statement that "the county will continue to use its resources to support homelessness within the Los Angeles area, which is the subject of this demand".
The back-and-forth between county and city officials has become emblematic of a crisis that continues to plague California's largest cities.
The state is pouring billions of dollars into alleviating homelessness, while experts warn thousands of people living on the streets could die before enough housing is found.
In response to the proposed settlement, Los Angeles Councilman Kevin de Leon said the city was left with "two options" as the county continued to fight the lawsuit.
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“When it became clear that our county partners weren't interested in collaborating, we were left with two options: We could ride the litigation carousel while people lived and died on our streets, or we could go our own way to help as many people as possible,” said.
“We decided to lead the way because our job as municipal leaders is not to play country club politics with anyone,” he added.