Article from Reason by Christian Britschgi.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, while decrying Trump’s comments as “cheap shots”, has also said he supports having the federal government “intercede”—at least financially—in addressing the city’s homelessness problem.

On Monday, Garcetti said he would be leading coalition of mayors to lobby Congress to pass the Ending Homelessness Act—introduced in March by Rep. Maxine Waters (D–Calif.)—which would spend an additional $13 billion over five years on new and existing federal homelessness and housing programs. To build support for the legislation, Garcetti has said he will lead a rally in Washington D.C., testify before Congress, and get more co-sponsors on board.

Were federal funding increased further, it’s still an open question as to how much that extra money would help people without shelter get into more permanent housing. In places like Los Angeles, there’s been a major increase in state and local spending on homelessness alongside a growing number of people living on city streets.

In 2016, Los Angeles voters passed Proposition HHH, a $1.2 billion bond measure city officials said would help construct 10,000 new units of housing, of which 7,000 would be “supportive units” reserved for the formerly homeless, within a decade.

Read the entire article from Reason.