Addressing Homelessness in the City of Los Angeles

In June of 2019, governor Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders agreed to dedicate about 1 billion dollars to combatting California’s growing homeless problem. Mayor Garcetti of Los Angeles has a homelessness initiative which is expected to produce $100 million for affordable housing. Leaders are noticing that homelessness is a problem, and given that there are over 50,000 homeless people in Los Angeles alone, they have reason to call for action. But there needs to be a systematic approach. Data analytics and statistics is being increasingly used in social justice efforts and it should be used to address homelessness. Thus, my research question is: How can methods of data analysis be used to make connections and propose solutions for the prevalent issue of homelessness in the city of Los Angeles? I will analyze a massive amount of data on homelessness. From there, I plan on creating graphs that explain the growth of homelessness throughout the years, charts that compare attributes of homelessness and contributing factors, maps that demonstrate the location of available shelters, and other types of representation of data. By drawing conclusions from these representations of data, I plan on providing useful advice to help with alleviating this crisis