Hollywood homeless crisis escalates: grim new video shows fentanyl zombies, tent cities and filthy streets

As rampant homelessness continues to plague the streets and neighborhoods of Los Angeles, a new video sheds light on the issue and its impact on LA’s iconic Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The video, taken earlier this summer, shows dozens and dozens of homeless people collapsed and stretched out on the streets of Hollywood, reclining on public benches and lining the streets with makeshift tents.

“Hidden between glitz and glamour, homelessness has cast a shadow over the streets,” says the video’s narrator, walking through the neighborhood.

He points out that mental health issues are a persistent problem within the city’s homeless population, which, if left untreated, push individuals further into a cycle of homelessness and poverty.

“Prejudice and misunderstanding often cast a dark cloud over the homeless community,” the story continues, “the city of dreams struggles with its own reality.”

Los Angeles’ homeless crisis has exploded in recent years, reaching more than 46,000 people living on the streets in total, a problem Mayor Karen Bass promised herself to address once she took office last year.

The number of homeless people in LA has more than doubled in the past decade.

There was a 9 percent increase in homelessness in Los Angeles County between 2022 and 2023, with the homeless population now totaling 75,518 people, according to the latest data from the LAHSA.

The City of Los Angeles saw an estimated 10 percent increase to a total of 46,260 residents.

LA Mayor Karen Bass was recently met with hisses and boos at a rally about housing the city’s homeless, as seen in videos posted on social media.

Councilor Katy Yaroslavsky, who represents District 5 on LA’s powerful City Council, proposed an interim housing project in LA’s Westside, drawing an angry response from residents who attended the meeting.

The proposal is to set up the project on a ‘the city’s underused parking lot at the intersection of Pico Blvd. and Midvale Ave.’

“It will add much-needed temporary beds to the supply of homeless housing in the Fifth Council District,” Yaroslavsky said.

Yaroslavsky said more than 70 percent of these individuals and families sleep in tents, parks, cars or on sidewalks due to a lack of temporary and permanent housing.

“Anyone who has walked or driven on the Westside can tell you that the increase in the number of people living in tents is alarming,” Yaroslavsky said.

‘We can’t keep waiting for the problem to solve itself; we need real solutions that we know work, and we need them fast.

“While thousands of permanent homes are being built across the city, there are no interim units in the pipeline in Council District 5. We need interim solutions now that we know they will work.’

After praise Yaroslavsky, Bass got a boo from the audience.

A The existing facility that houses the homeless in North Hollywood has been widely criticized by local residents after crime in the area skyrocketed, including a stabbing nearby.

“I understand that safety is the main concern, and safety is my concern,” Bass replied.

“But this problem is that people are on the street, so we have to think about how to get them off the street today.”

In June, Bass announced the lofty goal of ending street homelessness in LA by 2026.

“My goal would actually be to end street homelessness,” she said. “There will still be people in shelters and temporary housing, but at least not to let people die on the streets,” she said in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper.

According to the County of Los Angeles Homeless Initiative’s 2023-2024 Financial Year Budget, four weeks after homelessness was declared a “local emergency,” the Board of Trustees unanimously approved a $609.7 million budget for the Los Angeles County Homeless Initiative.

The budget will go to: reducing encampments to bring in unprotected people, increasing temporary and permanent housing, and ramping up mental health and substance abuse services for people who are homeless.

The $609.7 million represents an additional $61.8 million over last year’s allocation of $547.8 million, an 11 percent increase.

The proposed budget includes 30 percent or $182.2 million for temporary housing and 44.3 percent or $270.22 million for permanent housing.

The remaining money will go to: administration, local jurisdictions, stabilization success, coordination, targeted prevention to prevent a return to homelessness and connectivity to enable people to wake up.

Bass is the 43rd mayor of Los Angeles, the first woman and second African American to be elected CEO of the city.

She began her tenure with an emphasis on housing people immediately and hoped to increase safety and opportunity in every part of LA.

That same month, Bass housed 14,381 people—of which 8,726 through LAHSA admissions, 1,323 through the mayor’s Inside Safe initiative, 1,591 using emergency vouchers, 1,397 using other tenant-based voucher programs, and 1,344 people who were housed in new permanent housing units.

But tens of thousands still remain on the streets, many succumbing to rampant drug use.

Mobile teams with oxygen cylinders have been sent there Skid row to prevent overdoses during the opioid crisis.

Employees of the nonprofit organization Homeless Health Care Los Angeles also carry naloxone, a drug commonly known as Narcan that can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose.