L.A. homelessness – As Los Angeles voters watch the mayoral race sharpen around homelessness, one writer argues that the real test is whether candidates understand the links between addiction, mental illness, and public-space harm—along with the limits of what city government can
Ron, a West L.A. resident, said he knows why former reality TV star and political newcomer Spencer Pratt won so much support in his run for mayor. People are “frustrated, frightened and angry about homelessness ‘and the crime associated with it,’” Ron wrote in an email.
Ron said he voted for Mayor Karen Bass, but “almost everything Pratt said about the homeless resonated with me. … The homeless run wild here, without consequence.”
Kathy, who said she was deeply dissatisfied with the direction of Los Angeles, didn’t argue that Pratt is perfect. “Many of us support him not because we think he’s perfect. ” she wrote. “but because we are deeply dissatisfied with the direction of Los Angeles and feel that traditional politicians have not delivered the results we were promised.”.
Bob, a left-leaning Palisades resident, focused his skepticism elsewhere. He said the issue isn’t Pratt’s lack of credentials. but “the failures of incumbents.” He also asked a pointed question about the writer of a prior column: “There was a columnist … who documented in depth the situation at MacArthur Park. ” Bob wrote. “in reference to me. “What was his name and what happened to him?. Did he change his tune?”.
If Pratt holds one of the top two spots and reaches the Nov. 3 general election—or if he’s overtaken by late-charging Councilmember Nithya Raman—homelessness will dominate the months ahead.
That’s true whether voters end up with a Bass-Raman contest or a Bass-Pratt showdown. And in responding to Bob’s question about whether his thinking has shifted, the writer said, “Not in the least.”
The writer said the situation in MacArthur Park—targeted Thursday in a crackdown that involved multiple arrests—has long been a disgrace. and that the same has been true of other places he has written about for the past quarter of a century. He described visiting a Hollywood neighborhood last month. where a frustrated resident hired her housekeeper to document chronic problems related to homelessness. illegal dumping and criminal activity.
He said residents have reason to ask why they haven’t seen better results despite responding to politicians’ pleas for more money over the years.
The piece argues that Bass’s political vulnerability is part of the story. It says Bass had high unfavorability ratings and that. despite leading in the primary vote count. she will “fall far short of the 50% needed to avoid a second election phase.” The writer also said he can’t believe that. when he first asked Bass about MacArthur Park. she told him she was fully aware because she “often drove through the area on her way to work.”.
That leaves a hard question hanging: if Bass knew, why didn’t she lead the effort to address the problems and return the park to the community?
Pratt’s criticism. the writer says. is warranted—especially with the idea that it shouldn’t take months. let alone years. to take back control of public spaces. But his main issue is not hypocrisy in Pratt’s rhetoric. including his claim that “God wants him to be mayor. ” his description of opponents as demonic entities. and his villainizing of homeless people he intends to shoo away to Seattle.
Instead, the writer argues that Pratt’s “fixes” show a “lack of understanding.” He makes a personal confession: he says he has been writing for a couple of decades about the intersection of homelessness, mental illness and addiction, yet he believes he still has more to learn.
He adds, “On a personal note,” that he lost his son to a drug overdose. He said his son had a job and wasn’t homeless. but like many people struggling with depression and other demons. he was resistant to help and even to the idea that he needed it. The writer says there are “a lot more substance users like him. living out of public view. than there are on the street. ” and that what people notice often depends on who can’t afford housing as prices rise.
So when Pratt says Los Angeles doesn’t have a homelessness problem but a drug problem, the writer says Pratt is missing a critical component: the city has “tens of thousands of unsheltered people.”
The piece then turns to what Pratt says he would do. It says Pratt. on his website. described a “treatment first” approach that would direct resources into mental health and drug treatment care. The writer argues that this sounds good but runs into jurisdiction. He says those responsibilities are primarily under county control, not city control.
The writer also says Pratt and others have attacked harm reduction practices, such as distribution of needles and other paraphernalia. He concedes that enabling further drug use can feel counterintuitive.
But he describes harm reduction as designed to prevent death and to engage clients so that a relationship might lead to transformative care. He points to county figures: in 2024, he says fentanyl-related deaths decreased by 37% and meth-related deaths by 20%.
Addiction specialist Rick Rawson is quoted describing the limits of harm reduction when someone is severely incapacitated. Rawson told him that when “someone becomes so incapacitated that they can’t stand up. ” it is not enough “to say that you’re just going to provide them with harm reduction and hope they don’t die.” Rawson said it “falls short of the responsibility we have to each other and to the sickest people.”.
The writer says he believes L.A. should intervene more aggressively with people who are gravely ill or are a threat to themselves or others. He says he recently profiled two San Diegans advocating for use of an existing law to allow for deeper evaluations and longer-term treatment plans for people with chronic drug and mental health issues.
He also says drug and alcohol rehab is seldom quick or surefire. On mental illness, he says it took him one year—working with trained professionals—to convince his friend Nathaniel to seek help after decades on the street following a diagnosis of schizophrenia.
The article returns to what the writer sees as a core misunderstanding: many people living in tents and cars and alleys and parks. he says. are “damaged in numerous ways.” He said he is less inclined to judge people from a distance after meeting a man on Skid Row who told him he fell apart after his young daughter drowned. He says he has met women who were victims of domestic abuse or sexual assault.
People in the grip of killer drugs like meth or fentanyl, the writer says, don’t think as clearly as many would like them to—and they repeatedly sabotage their own self-interest.
He describes the fear residents feel when people take over public spaces. openly sell or use drugs. and lash out at others. But he argues that claiming people choose to live on the street. as Pratt has. misses what he calls the point—excusing society’s complicity. overlooking historic policy failures. and choosing contempt over compassion.
He emphasizes that homelessness can cause mental illness, and mental illness can cause addiction, and vice versa—adding that dealing with intertwined problems is harder.
He also recounts checking in with a man he wrote about who had been addicted and homeless in Koreatown. The man told him recovery took more than half a year. The writer says the man went through residential treatment for a few months. followed by intensive outpatient treatment. and that he told the writer there are no shortcuts.
The writer says he is not defending Bass. or Raman and the rest of the City Council. which he says shares responsibility for the current state of the city. He says limited progress has been made in the last 3½ years. with a marginally lower number of homeless people. but he writes that there is still a long way to go in moving people indoors and restoring order and public safety.
He lists the needs he says remain: smarter enforcement of existing laws, faster development of low-cost interim and permanent housing, better coordination of outreach and follow-up services, and more people willing to do the work.
The piece ends with a plea for what he calls an honest conversation in the months ahead—one that weighs what is working, what isn’t, and how to do better.
Los Angeles homelessness Spencer Pratt Karen Bass Nithya Raman harm reduction fentanyl deaths meth deaths MacArthur Park crackdown treatment first mental illness addiction