In a report that treats Los Angeles’s homelessness crisis as a symptom of racism, city and county officials this week pointed to the high number of black people experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles and the need to address the disparity in order to address the crisis.
Black people have long been overrepresented among Los Angeles County’s homeless population. In a 2017 survey, black people made up one in 10 people in the county, but were 40 percent of the homeless population, according to the report released Monday by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority’s Ad Hoc Committee on Black People Experiencing Homelessness.
The committee was formed last April to look at why such a large proportion of the homeless population is black, look into ways to make the services more racially equitable, and figure out how to better serve the unique needs of black people who are homeless.
The authors of the report put the blame for homelessness in Los Angeles on the unequal treatment black people experience in the areas of education, criminal justice, healthcare, employment and housing….