Matthew Donald Umhofer Comments on State of Emergency Around Homelessness in Los Angeles

In a recent Los Angeles Times article covering the escalating legal and political tensions surrounding the Los Angeles homelessness crisis, UMK partner Matthew Donald Umhofer voiced sharp concerns about the city's lack of tangible progress:

“Last month, the L.A. County Board of Supervisors voted to pull more than $300 million from LAHSA, the city-county agency that provides an array of services to the unhoused population.

Meanwhile, the L.A. Alliance for Human Rights, which has been battling the city in court over its response to the crisis, is pushing for a federal judge to place the city’s homelessness initiatives into a receivership.

Matthew Umhofer, an attorney for the [A]lliance, said the city has ‘very little to show’ for its emergency declaration in terms of progress on the streets.

‘It’s our view that a state of emergency around homelessness is appropriate, but that the city is not engaged in conduct that reflects the seriousness of the crisis — and is not doing what it needs to do in order to solve the crisis,’ he said.”