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Union Rescue Mission
Andy Bales is chief executive officer of the Union Rescue Mission, which provides emergency shelter and a range of other services to homeless people in Los Angeles.
PROFILE
Andy Bales
Guest
FROM Andy Bales
Press Play with Madeleine Brand
Skid Row activist: LA homelessness should be treated like an urgent disaster Homelessness in LA County dropped 3 percent from last year. Sounds like good news for Mayor Eric Garcetti, who wants to end homelessness by year 2028. But there are still 53,000 people in the county without permanent housing, and more people are falling into homelessness for the first time. The Skid Row bathrooms that Garcetti unveiled last December have shut down.
KCRW Features
Homelessness on the rise KCRW’s Chery Glaser talks with Andy Bales, CEO of Los Angeles’ Union Rescue Mission, about the city’s homelessness epidemic.
Press Play with Madeleine Brand
Making L.A.: Housing the Homeless Los Angeles is having its worst homeless crisis in years. More than 44,000 people live on streets, in cars and in shelters. That’s 12 percent more than two years ago. Encampments are up 85 percent as well. Mayor Eric Garcetti promised to end chronic homelessness by the end of next year, and to end veteran homelessness this year. But that’s proving to be difficult. Last week, Garcetti moved the deadline to next summer.
Press Play with Madeleine Brand
L.A. Tries a New Tactic for Homeless Encampments Homeless encampments in L.A. have almost doubled in the past two years, according to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority. And yesterday, the city council took a step to address the issue. Councilmembers approved measures that would make it easier to break up encampments. Under the new rules, homeless people would have 24 hours notice to move their belongings from sidewalks and parks, instead of 72. City crews would also be allowed to confiscate anything bigger than a 60-gallon trash can without notice. Are these necessary measures to keep our streets orderly, or do they amount to criminalizing homelessness?
Press Play with Madeleine Brand
How to Help the Skid Row Homeless Protesters gathered this morning on Skid Row to express their anger at the police shooting of a homeless man known as Africa. The LA Times identified his real name as Charley Robinet. He was killed after scuffling with several police officers on Sunday. The shooting has once again brought the spotlight on Skid Row and the plight of the homeless in Los Angeles. We take a look at what the city’s doing to help the mentally ill and move the chronically homeless off Skid Row and whether there’s any new hope in an approach known as “housing first.”
Press Play with Madeleine Brand
A New Approach to Skid Row For decades, city and county officials have tried to clean up the 50-block neighborhood in downtown. But Skid Row still has the country’s highest concentration of homeless people. Most of them struggle with substance abuse or mental illness, or both. That has made policing the area, and getting people into housing, very difficult over the years. But now the city is teaming up with the county on a new approach.
Press Play with Madeleine Brand
Downtown Cleanup A Los Angeles budget official this week proposed a nearly $4,000,000 cleanup of skid row. The proposal outlines plans for more 24-hour bathrooms, trash cans and storage space for the belongings of the homeless. But critics of the plan say it doesn't go far enough.
Which Way, L.A.?
Cold Snap Drives Families into Shelters It's cold in Southern California, and it's going to get wet -- with big storms predicted starting tonight and lasting into next week. That's bad news for people with no place to live. Winter shelters opened December 1, and a couple of nights ago occupancy doubled. Andy Bales is CEO of the Union Rescue Mission.
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