The Heat Is On With Downtown L.A. Homelessness

Eric, from http://blogdowntown.com/, tells us that the “Downtown Los Angeles Homeless Map” has been updated. It looks like a heat map and shows the concentration of homelessness in the downtown area from November 1, 2006 to today.

This map “takes raw data about those sleeping on the streets and transforms it into a visual tool for understanding the situation.”

Two things come to mind after seeing the migration:

1. The concentration of homelessness in a geographic area is always in a state of movement. It is quite vivid in this graphic map. In downtown’s case, it could be “blamed” on police activity, or simply part of the natural mode of homelessness.

2. It appears that homelessness in downtown is getting smaller. The question is why? Is it because the police activity is pushing people out of downtown, or because more people are accessing services and housing?

I’ve been called a couple of times by the Los Angeles Times. They are trying to get empirical data that the downtown police activities are resulting into spreading homelessness throughout the county. Perhaps this map might at least show the fact that homelessness is decreasing in downtown.