Los Angeles political leaders are facing fresh pressure after new figures released Friday showed homelessness rising again from last year, while the Trump administration’s top federal prosecutor in the city blamed what he described as reckless spending tied to drug policy.
The latest count found 45,194 people experiencing homelessness in the City of Los Angeles, up 3.4% from a year earlier, even as officials spend nearly $3 billion annually on shelters, housing initiatives and homelessness programs.
The increase was sharper among people living without shelter. The number of Angelenos sleeping on streets, sidewalks, in parks and inside vehicles rose 7.9%, ending two consecutive years of declines.
Bill Essayli, the First Assistant US Attorney for the Central District of California, took to social media Saturday and made clear where he believes responsibility lies.
“Based on what we’re seeing on the ground, the millions Los Angeles City and County are spending on ‘harm reduction’ (aka handing out Narcan and clean needles) are only fueling the crisis,” he wrote.
“The money needs to go to building shelters and residential treatment beds,” he added.
As The Post previously reported, the city has shifted about $250,000 toward needle distribution and safer-smoking kits in the MacArthur Park area.
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Since 2020, Los Angeles County has spent more than $25 million on harm reduction efforts aimed at preventing overdose deaths, though critics argue those programs can enable addiction rather than reduce it.
Essayli himself has seen the drug addiction firsthand. His office has been making it a priority to conduct drug busts at MacArthur Park and other areas, which Esssayli has described as an “open-air drug market.”
Many critics say drug addiction, alongside mental health problems, are the real reason why many stay on the streets.
Mayor Karen Bass has decided to blame President Donald Trump for the increase in homelessness in her city.
“The Trump Administration has driven up the cost of gas, groceries, and rent — pushing more families to the edge — and slashed critical safety net funding,” Bass’s office said in a statement.
The new figures have also sparked a political clash between Bass and her election challenger Councilmember Nithya Raman. Both are Democrats vying for the mayoral seat.
“That is a moral outrage. And it is a failure of leadership,” Raman wrote on how the rise in homelessness portrays Bass.
The mayor fired back: “I’m the Mayor for all of LA — just like Nithya Raman has been the Homeless Committee Chair for all of LA — and no Angeleno should be completely satisfied with our City’s response to this crisis.”
