LOS ANGELES — Diana Sieker started documenting a homeless encampment located underneath the 405 freeway at Venice Boulevard and Globe Avenue in Mar Vista a few years ago, hoping she could work with city leaders and police to make it better.

The images she captured depict fires, poverty, and open drug use – images that could have been from any homeless encampment in California.

But these were Sieker's neighbors.

What You Need To Know

  • Gov. Gavin Newsom made homelessness the signature issue in his 2020 State of the State speech

  • A few weeks later, the COVID-19 pandemic hit the state

  • Project Roomkey has housed about 22,000 out of 151,000 homeless Californians

  • In Los Angeles, the crisis continues to spiral out of control with little accountability

Over the past several years, she's watched the situation steadily spiral out of control.

“I’ve been reminded what an absolute nightmare it is for our unhoused brothers and sisters. They are living in the most abject conditions. The suffering is tremendous,” Sieker said.

Gov. Gavin Newsom made homelessness the signature issue in his 2020 State of the State speech, promising emergency actions to get “the mentally ill out of tents and into treatment,” build more affordable housing, and create accountability.

A few weeks later, the global pandemic put a pin in any plans to shake up the system.

Miguel Santana, who designed the first comprehensive homeless strategy for the city of Los Angeles, said it also created an opportunity to launch Project Roomkey. The statewide plan utilized otherwise empty hotel and motel rooms to rapidly house people at risk of dying from COVID-19.

“It was done efficiently, it was done where he exercised leadership in convincing the hotels and motels to actually participate,” Santana said.

So far, the program has housed about 22,000 people. The statewide homeless population is estimated to be around 151,000 people, according to the 2019 homeless count.

As chairman of the Committee for Greater L.A., Santana worked on a comprehensive plan called “No Going Back: Together for an Equitable and Inclusive Los Angeles.” The study found the pandemic caused the most death and suffering in the communities with the fewest protections and recommended a framework to building a more equitable future.

To address homelessness, Santana said the state needs to centralize accountability, decrease the cost and time it takes to build housing, and fix structural problems in the mental health system. 

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As for Sieker, she’s moving.

“We thought we were so lucky to be able to buy a home,” Sieker said. “Never in our wildest dreams did we imagine our dream home would become a nightmare.”

She doesn’t blame the homeless. She blames a system without a safety net.