‘We have failed’: how California’s homelessness catastrophe is worsening

Gustavo Otzoy walks past a large construction site and a vendor selling used clothing in Los Angeles. Otzoy was one of the last people to be evicted from an encampment at Echo Park Lake. Photograph: Jane Hahn/The Guardian

When California shut down in March 2020, advocates for unhoused people thought the state might finally be forced to solve its homelessness crisis. To slow the spread of Covid, they hoped, officials would have to provide people living outside with stable and private shelter and housing.

But in the two years since, California’s humanitarian catastrophe has worsened: deaths of people on the streets are rising; college students are living in their cars; more elderly residents are becoming unhoused; encampment communities are growing at beaches, parks, highway underpasses, lots and sidewalks.