Los Angeles Times, June 10, 2019: Homelessness is a crisis in California. Why are 2020 candidates mostly ignoring it?
When new figures released last night showed a jarring rise in homelessness around Los Angeles, the response throughout Southern California was shock and indignation.
The reaction from the crowded field of Democratic presidential candidates: silence.
While White House hopefuls crisscross the country, making big promises on issues such as college debt relief, climate change and boosting the working and middle classes, they have largely ignored an issue — the soaring number of unsheltered Americans — that has reached a crisis point in communities on the West Coast and elsewhere.
The reason, said Sam Tsemberis, is simple.
“It doesn’t have a constituency or an advocacy group that has enough money,” said Tsemberis, who leads Pathways Housing First, a Los Angeles nonprofit that works to end homelessness.
