'Frustration all across the board.' A day with homelessness outreach workers in L.A.
Imagine going to work every day knowing that people you're trying to help might hide from you. And even when they ask for help, you're likely not able to offer the thing they most need. And no matter how hard you work, the ultimate problem you're tasked with solving keeps getting worse.
This is the challenge for hundreds of homelessness outreach workers who fan out every day across Los Angeles. As the number of unhoused people keeps going up, L.A. has hired more such workers to try and connect them with social services, and eventually permanent housing. Although there's not nearly enough of that to go around.
NPR spent time with one outreach team to see what their days are like, in a place with more people living on the street than any other in the U.S.
One RV encampment grows after another is cleared out
On a commercial strip in South L.A.,, which contracts with L.A. county's Department of Health Services. And on this September morning, there are more RVs than there were the last time this team was here. The county recently another such encampment, and it seems like some people who didn't want to give up their RVs for temporary shelter just came here instead.
