New York City has a homelessness crisis, but most of it unfolds behind closed doors.
It's the only U.S. city with a year-round “right to shelter,” mandating that the city must find a bed for each person in need. People cannot be turned away from full shelters, and the city even rents hotel rooms to accommodate spillover.
In California, meanwhile, corporate-driven gentrification and decades of neglect have produced the perfect storm of a homelessness crisis. Unlike its East Coast counterpart, however, this epidemic isn't as hidden. Roughly 95 percent of people experiencing homelessness in New York are sheltered compared to 25 percent in Los Angeles County, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's “point in time” (PIT) counts. Some state and local leaders in Los Angeles and Sacramento have recently called for a similar right to shelter law. But New York's experience is a cautionary tale — not a happy ending.
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