LA City Council committee declares state of emergency on homelessness

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 22 (UPI) -- A City Council committee in Los Angeles declared Tuesday a state of emergency on homelessness and pledged to commit $100 million to work against it.

The plan will complement Mayor Eric Garcetti's plan to combat homelessness, but the source of the funds has yet to be disclosed.

Garcetti had publicized Monday a plan to devote a smaller amount of $13 million worth of leftover funds towards short-term housing efforts.

If the council's plan goes through, the Los Angeles City Council's Housing Committee would be granted the money and the responsibility of figuring it how to spend it.

Projects would include long-term housing and bigger shelters for a large chunk of the 26,000 homeless people in Los Angeles that live on the streets.

Councilman Gilbert Cedillo told the LA Times that the problem of homeless people must be fixed in order for the city to be "great," host the Olympics and otherwise show "itself off to the world."

Fredy Ceja, a spokesman for Cedillo, also added that the state of emergency declaration would allow city leaders to expedite proposed projects.

Cedillo said the source for the funds would be determined by the city's policy analysts. However, the announcement Tuesday follows City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana's April report on homelessness in the city, which said that Los Angeles spends more than $100 million a year on the problem already.