A tropical disease common in developing countries has spread through a Berkeley homeless encampment while courts blocked cleanup for 16 months—a sign of how legal battles over homeless policy are now producing concrete public health crises. Meanwhile, investigations are exposing staggering dysfunction across the state: a $20 million Los Angeles housing project sits empty at $625,000 per unit, BART admitted it knew about an encampment before it burned and shut down the Transbay Tube for 12 hours, and San Francisco data shows drug arrests collapsing to near-zero as overdose deaths tripled to 810 per year. The emerging picture is of a system that has failed on every front—enforcement, treatment, and housing—with a rising death toll to show for it.
Leptospirosis, common in underdeveloped countries, spread through Berkeley's Harrison encampment—and courts continued to prevent cleanup efforts.
Los Angeles emptied a building that was already housing people. Four years and $625,000 per unit later, it still houses nobody.
BART knew about the encampment, had legal authority to clear it, and asked Oakland nicely. Then it burned.
Drug arrests collapsed to zero. Overdose deaths tripled to 810 per year. The data is in, and so is the body count.
162 people have died of overdoses in their buildings since 2020. Their solution? Help the residents use drugs.
San Francisco's two most 'progressive' supervisors were the only no votes on Mayor Lurie's shelter for drug users. The body count speaks for itself.
A Seattle frontline worker exposes what we all see in the encampments—and why California banned the cure.
$30 billion stolen in unemployment fraud alone. California's gubernatorial candidate says fix it before raising taxes.
San Jose's mayor has cut homelessness 25% while Sacramento lets good policies die in bureaucracy. He's running for governor.
Dean Preston championed Providence Foundation as a model partnership. Now two employees face fraud charges.