In an effort to cope with a surge in homelessness in Los Angeles, city officials said Tuesday they would declare a “state of emergency” and funnel as much as $100 million into tackling the mounting problem. City Council members and Mayor Eric Garcetti made the announcement, which coincided with a directive Monday that would see the city release an additional $13 million toward helping people living on the streets find housing. Garcetti offered few details about where the $100 million would come from or how it would be spent, but said the plan’s “main pillars” would be the expansion of a system to track homeless people, new centers for people on the streets to store their belongings, and anti-poverty measures to prevent people from losing their homes in the first place. L.A.’s homeless population has increased 12 percent since 2013, the Los Angeles Times reports.
