Los Angeles is ground zero for a failure of policy and priorities, where tents line the streets even as billions are poured into the problem. Former President Obama called it an “atrocity” and warned that seeing encampments as simply a political liability misses the real harm. This piece argues that California’s approach rewards management over solutions and makes the case for treatment, structure and accountability instead of endless construction projects.
For years California has spent massive sums without delivering real, durable change, and that spending pattern tells a story. When $24 billion is funneled into a system that grows around the problem, you end up with an industry whose incentives favor continuation. Politicians can tout new builds while the underlying causes — addiction, trauma and untreated mental illness — stay unchecked.
Former President Obama called the situation an “atrocity” and said encampments are a “losing political strategy,” urging policies that “recognize their full humanity.” That framing highlights the moral dimension, but the solution has to be practical and rooted in accountability. Compassion without structure risks perpetuating the very suffering it intends to relieve.
Gavin Newsom has presided over a period of swelling homelessness and now points to a modest decline as proof of progress. That drop is real but small, and it comes after years of record highs under his watch. When a problem persists despite historic spending, it’s fair to question whether the money is being used to resolve the crisis or to sustain an ecosystem that manages it.
From the streets where I’ve worked, the crisis rarely looks like a simple housing shortage; it looks like people trapped by addiction, untreated PTSD, and chronic mental illness. Veterans, in particular, tell a painful story: they served courageously and now too many sleep outdoors because bureaucracy and institutional incentives failed them. There are over 35,000 homeless veterans nationwide on any given night, which demands more than housing boxes and talking points.
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The dominant policy frame for years was the “Housing First” model, which turned complex human problems into construction projects. That approach funneled money into building units while sidelining the harder work of recovery and reintegration. A roof alone does not cure fentanyl addiction, schizophrenia, or long-standing trauma, and we see the limits of treating shelter as the primary fix.
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There are signs of a shift under President Donald Trump’s administration, where HUD is acknowledging that shelter is only part of the answer. HUD Secretary Scott Turner has pointed to the need for treatment, structure and measures that restore stability, not just beds. The policy emphasis is moving toward programs that tie funding to real outcomes rather than endless project pipelines.
The corrupting dynamic is simple: when agencies, nonprofits and consultants get paid to manage a crisis, they have little incentive to solve it. Emergency appropriations balloon their budgets and, without rigorous outcome requirements, the money sustains a status quo. The solution must reorient funding so it rewards measurable reductions in homelessness, not the number of firms involved in unemployment of the homeless.
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Practical alternatives exist: cost-effective hybrid camps that combine community, structure and programs can deliver fast, scalable impact. Imagine transitional sites with cafeterias, laundry, chapels and life-skills classes, tied to jobs and accountability, where residents contribute and rebuild purpose. Treatment-focused interventions alongside enforcement of laws and outcome-based funding can produce real change at a fraction of luxury housing costs.
Veterans and other vulnerable people deserve more than pity, handouts or bureaucratic warehousing; they need roles that restore dignity and purpose. The political calculus should reward ending the crisis, not managing it for the benefit of contractors and careers. If we demand treatment, measured results and accountability, we can replace tents with transformation without sacrificing compassion for effectiveness.
