Los Angeles, CA. Report Media Release – LA CD11 CARE

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For Immediate Release. January 20th, 2026

Very Large Expenditure, Very Little Care:
Los Angeles’s “CARE+” Homeless Services Program in Council District 11

Contacts:
Peggy Lee Kennedy / Sam Lutzker / Chris Tilly
cd11forhumanrights@gmail.com

What:
The City of Los Angeles states that the “primary mission” of the Comprehensive Cleaning and Rapid Engagement (CARE+) program is to “deliver services to the individuals experiencing homelessness within their service areas.” While CARE+ costs taxpayers tens of millions of dollars each year (not including law enforcement), the report asks: what does this budget translate into on the ground?

Co-published by the CD11 Coalition for Human Rights, Venice Justice Committee, and the UCLA Luskin Institute on Inequality & Democracy, the report seeks to answer this question as it applies to LACity Council District 11’s operations in Venice over summer/fall 2025. The report presents findings and policy recommendations from observation of 13 days of CARE+ operations across four months, a follow-up survey of 51 unhoused persons about displacement and outreach, and a review of Councilmember Traci Park’s newsletter and social media communications about CARE+ and encampments.

The report may be downloaded and read at https://challengeinequality.luskin.ucla.edu/2026/01/20/cd11sweepsreport/

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Details:
The report finds that CARE+ employs a large number of City staff and equipment to displace and dispossess unhoused people, with little to no outreach for shelter or housing:

We observed an average of 15 City staff and 10 City vehicles across 13 CARE+ operation days, displacing a total of 44 unhoused persons with homeless services outreach to only 9.
Our survey supports this finding, with only 5 of 51 unhoused persons offered help accessing shelter/housing in the days before/after they’d last been displaced.

The survey also found that displacement was chronic, with the majority of respondents having been forced to move four or more times over the prior 30 days
When asked about their most recent forced move, 63% of our survey respondents said LAPD had asked them to move.

The report demonstrates that this focus on displacement over assistance is reflected in CD11 Councilmember Traci Park’s communications, which mentioned encampment removal 48 times over four months, with only 3 mentions of services or housing assistance. The report provides policy recommendations to accomplish neighborhood cleaning while still supporting unhoused people. According to report co-author and UCLA professor of Urban Planning, Chris Tilly, “CARE+ isn’t about care, and that’s a policy choice.”

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We are a coalition of organizations and individuals in LACity Council District 11 that supports the human and civil rights of unhoused people, advocates for safe, decent and affordable housing, and supports tenants’ rights. https://www.cd11coalition.com