Date: June 1, 2023
Author(s): Katrina Deloso, Audrey Younsook Jang
Abstract
Like all public agencies across Los Angeles, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (“Metro”) is increasingly grappling with the effects of mass housing precarity and homelessness. The agency reports an average of 800 unhoused people sheltering on its system on any given night, most often at stops, stations, platforms and transit vehicles but also on Metro-owned property such as rights-of-way easements, parking lots, and yards or facilities. Metro has announced its commitment to addressing homelessness by funding social workers on its lines to connect people to housing and services, and by building affordable and market rate housing around its stations. At the same time, however, Metro has been increasingly taking action to harass and police unhoused riders on public transit and Metro-owned land.
The 2023 UCLA Urban Planning Community Collaborative is titled Spatial Justice in the Age of Mass Homelessness: A Lab for Liberatory Projects. As part of this Community Collaborative, the report writers participated in projects to address short-term mobility of unhoused residents, and long-term housing and community needs on Metro-owned land. These projects call for Metro to take an alternative approach to addressing the root causes of homelessness, centered on funding Permanent Supportive Housing on Metro property, preserving and supporting relationships within unhoused communities, instating a Tenant Advisory Council, and practicing an ethos of compassion and patience when engaging with unhoused communities.