(Editor’s note: This story “At L.A.’s Homeless Housing Sites, 911 Calls Reflect a Crisis Within a Crisis” first appeared in Westside Current on April 11. It is reprinted with permission. Even as more money is targeted for the homeless, this story demonstrates the current path is not working.)
This building at 5050 Pico is meant as a place to homeless and is part of Project Homekey.
By JAMIE PAIGE
As state-funded homeless housing sites expand across Los Angeles, a review of 911 calls, internal records, and community accounts reveals rising violence, untreated mental health crises, and a system struggling to deliver on its promises.
The elevator doors at 5050 West Pico Boulevard open onto a hallway scrawled with graffiti. Down the corridor, someone shouts incoherently. A man stumbles past, barefoot and muttering. Moments earlier, a resident had offered a warning: after dark, this place turns into a drug den.
This isn’t an alley in Skid Row. It is a Project Homekey site — part of California’s flagship response to homelessness.
Once the scene of a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles lawmakers, the Mid-Wilshire property is now a symbol of the disconnect between promise and reality. Purchased by the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA) for $36.5 million, the building still advertises “luxury” apartments with “modern elegance” and “sweeping views of L.A.” Yet, at the time of sale, it carried 18 active mechanics’ liens totaling more than $2.1 million.
Over the past three months, The Westside Current visited Project Homekey properties in Los Angeles and reviewed public records and 911 call data spanning two years across more than a dozen that are currently open. The findings are stark: repeated calls for disturbances, violence, domestic conflict and mental health emergencies. At some locations, emergency dispatches averaged one per day. We spoke with residents, neighbors and staff, and reviewed additional documents detailing conditions at the sites.
At 740 South Alvarado Street, a building near MacArthur Park purchased for $30 million, officers responded to 33 emergency calls in the first three months after it opened. The calls included reports of battery, suicide attempts, and domestic violence — sometimes all within the same week. Luis Mendoza, who sells merchandise on the corner, said the activity is constant. “Sirens, arguments, fights break out,” he said.
At 14949 Roscoe Boulevard in Panorama City, acquired for $25.2 million, calls ranged from group fights to shots fired. Eileen Kim, who runs a family-owned shop nearby, said her storefront was vandalized twice in the last year. “We used to know all our customers by name,” she said. “Now we worry about staying open after dark.”
At 7639 Van Nuys Boulevard and 19325 Londelius Street, LAPD responded to near-daily reports of mental health emergencies, trespassing and violent disturbances.
At 5050 Pico, LAPD records show an average of 3.5 calls a month — most involving domestic violence, verbal threats or behavioral health crises.
At 12835 Encinitas Avenue, LAPD has responded to 124 calls for service since the site opened. The data reveals a high concentration of mental health crises and domestic violence incidents, along with recurring reports of trespassing, disturbances, and physical altercations.
At 11135 Burbank Boulevard, weekly calls included overdoses, assaults and group fights. At several locations, security guards reported calling LAPD only to see the problem vanish before help arrived. One contractor recalled a morning when someone screamed naked in the lobby. “We’d call LAPD, but by the time they got there, the person was gone.”
Residents, too, said they were reluctant to speak up out of fear. One woman at the Pico site said, “We don’t complain. We’re scared we’ll lose our housing. It gets loud. You don’t want to be in the hallway. Women don’t feel safe here.”
A crisis foretold
The issues surrounding Project Homekey echo failures documented years earlier with similar housing programs. In 2020, The Venice Current — now part of The Westside Current — investigated the city’s “encampment to Home” program which relocated a group of unhoused residents from the Penmar Golf Course to motels in Mar Vista.
What followed was an immediate spike in crime, including break-ins, gunshots and property damage. LAPD and Culver City PD logs showed a dramatic rise in emergency calls — more than doubling in a matter of weeks.
Longtime resident Roberta Mailman described it as “living in a war zone.” She said there was no structure and no services — just people with histories of trauma and addiction relocated into motels with no support. “They just dumped them here with no plan. And it showed. We were the ones calling the cops.”
Neighbors said Saint Joseph Center, the nonprofit tasked with outreach, refused to answer basic questions, citing HIPAA law. Residents said they never got updates on how many people moved in, what services were available or how safety would be maintained.
The same pattern played out in Venice, where the city opened a 100-bed Bridge Home facility in 2020 under then-Councilmember Mike Bonin. Billed as a temporary shelter that would lead to permanent housing, the site quickly became a flashpoint.
During its operation under Bonin, crime in the surrounding neighborhood rose by nearly 80 percent, according to LAPD data. Neighbors said the city promised safeguards that never materialized — including 24/7 security and the city’s “Good Neighbor” policy.
Not NIMBY — just no plan
In Cheviot Hills, residents are voicing concerns over a new Homekey project that’s quietly moving forward with no community input. In April 2024, the Weingart Center — a Skid Row-based nonprofit led by former state senator Kevin Murray — purchased a 76-unit former assisted living facility on Shelby Drive for $27.3 million. The nonprofit has requested Project Homekey funding to renovate and operate the facility as permanent supportive housing.
The project was met with immediate concern — not because of who would be housed, but how the project was being handled. One long-time resident said the community isn’t opposed to helping those in need, but the city’s track record speaks for itself. “This isn’t about being NIMBY. It’s about a broken model being forced on neighborhoods without oversight.”
Residents said there were no community meetings, no outreach and no clear plan for services or security. Many pointed to what happened in Venice and Mar Vista as evidence that the model needs more structure — not less.
“If you’re not going to fund services, staff or safety, what do you expect the outcome to be?” the resident said.
Shelter without support
Project Homekey relies on a low-barrier model — housing people without requiring sobriety, mental health evaluations or background checks. Advocates say it removes barriers to entry, but critics argue it sets people up to fail when services aren’t available on-site.
A study published in Health & Social Care in the Community in found that unhoused individuals often experience heightened anxiety and trauma when placed in institutional housing environments without structure or social support.
At one South Los Angeles Homekey site, a woman who had recently fled abuse said she rarely leaves her room. “There are fights. People yell in the halls. I don’t go out at night,” she said. “I waited a long time for housing. I didn’t think I’d still feel this scared.”
The 911 records reviewed by The Westside Current don’t capture every moment of trauma or survival. But they provide a window into the strain now placed on a system designed to heal residents left without support, neighborhoods overwhelmed and a city still struggling to match shelter with safety.
“Shelter isn’t good when you have to call 911 to feel safe,” said the South LA tenant.