the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
Jul 22, 2024
The 2024 homeless count in Los Angeles found that, for the first time in six years, the number of homeless people had not increased since the previous count.
City politicians immediately jumped on this announcement, bragging that mayor Karen Bass’s policy of sweeping homeless encampments and placing people in temporary housing “is working.” Bass called it a “change in trajectory,” saying that the number of the “unsheltered homeless” was down 5% in the county and 10% in the city.
But these “sheltered” homeless are still homeless, sheltered temporarily. And the overall homeless count, over 45,000 homeless in the City of L.A. and over 75,000 in L.A. County, represents an increase of 40% from 2018.
Working class people in L.A. feel the crisis in their bones. In a recent survey conducted by UCLA researchers, about 4 out of 10 renters said they had worried about becoming homeless in the last few years—a record high.
The main driving force behind L.A.’s enormous homelessness crisis is skyrocketing rent. Paying millions of dollars of taxpayer money to hotel owners and landlords for “temporary housing,” as city politicians do, will not improve the situation when, every day, new workers are joining the ranks of the homeless.
Homelessness, caused by capitalists’ profit drive, cannot be solved within the workings of a profit-based system. The thousands of tents that have been occupying L.A.’s parks, underpasses and sidewalks for years prove that.