A Panorama City homeless encampment reappeared after a city clear-out last month. An activist with Hope The Mission says there are four or five times more homeless people than available beds in the San Fernando Valley.
City workers dismantled a homeless encampment along a railway line in the Panorama City area last month. About a dozen tents have already sprung back up in the same location, according to , an activist who works daily in the San Fernando Valley.
Covarrubias, who works for Hope The Mission, said he could not find housing for everyone displaced by the clear-out.
"Unfortunately, there are not enough beds, not enough shelters," Covarrubias said. "In my area, the number of homeless people is four or five times bigger than the beds."
The Panorama City encampment is part of a citywide crisis that has drawn renewed scrutiny as Los Angeles prepares to host eight World Cup matches this summer and the 2028 Summer Olympics.
Democratic Mayor Karen Bass has made homelessness her signature issue since taking office three years ago. Her flagship program uses a combination of tiny homes and contracted hotel rooms to move people off the streets.
The city has spent $300 million on the initiative. By the end of 2025, the program had placed 5,800 people into some form of accommodation, according to figures cited by AFP.
But 40 percent of those people eventually returned to the streets.
"They're just doing it for tourists," said Michael Reyes, a 59-year-old maintenance worker who now lives in a tiny home after spending a year sleeping in his car. "Oh, let's clean up Hollywood. But it's never going to change."
Michael Gilpin, 44, moved into a 65-square-foot prefabricated unit months ago after living on the streets. He shares the space with another man.
"It's better than the streets, hands down," Gilpin told AFP. "I don't have to deal with cockroaches."
He also described the unit as having the air of a "jail cell."
The latest city homeless census, released in 2025, showed a 17.5 percent drop in the number of people living on the streets over a two-year period. That was the most sustained decline since the city began counting its homeless population two decades ago.
Yet Los Angeles County still has an official tally of 72,000 unhoused people, with 47,000 sleeping on the street.
In the encampment that reappeared in Panorama City, a woman who goes by Maggie said she has been on the street for 10 years and is now on a waiting list for shelter.
"I've been waiting three months for them to help me," Maggie said.
She is in her 40s and declined to give her full name.
Shelter facilities impose rules that some residents find difficult. Many ban visitors, a restriction that can isolate people from family and support networks.
Experts say the root cause is a shortage of affordable housing across California. A studio apartment in Los Angeles averages $1,800 per month in rent, according to AFP.
Reyes, the maintenance worker, became homeless after a workplace accident reduced his monthly benefits below what he needed to cover rent and living expenses.
"Our cost of living is going up, but not our income," Reyes said. "There's something wrong there."
As the World Cup draws international visitors to Los Angeles this summer, the visibility of homelessness in neighborhoods like Panorama City is only increasing. Covarrubias continues his daily rounds in the Valley, distributing water, snacks, and instant soup to people who have nowhere else to go.
This article was generated with AI assistance.