USA Today - 26.08.2019

$2.00 z THE NATION'S NEWS MONDAY

zLos Angelesvoters passed a

$1.2 billionbond measure in 2016

with the hope of seeing up to

10,000 permanent housing units.

zThe measurewould be enough

to make a significant dent in the

27,221people deemed living

“unsheltered” in the most recent

homeless count.

zAt the current rateonly

somewhat more than 7,000 units

will be constructed, according to

Controller Ron Galperin. “This kind

of cost is utterly unacceptable.

I believe we need a fundamental

course correction,” he said.

LOS ANGELES – As this city tries

to cope with thousands of people

living on the streets, a few home-

less and low-income senior citizens

will be luckier than most next year.

They will receive keys to one of

72 new apartments, complete with

a fitness center, in the heart of tren-

dy Koreatown, built at a projected

cost of $690,692for each unit, ac-

cording to the city controller’s of-

fice. Two additional projects in the

pre-approval phase are expected to

top $700,000 a unit in total costs.

“This kind of cost is utterly unac-

ceptable,” Controller Ron Galperin

said. “I believe we need a funda-

mental course correction.”

Despite a booming national econ-

omy, homeless people have set up

tents in makeshift encampments in

major cities on the West Coast amid

a housing shortage that has driven

up rents to unaffordable levels.

In Los Angeles, the tents are

spread out on sidewalks across the

city, the homeless emboldened by a

court ruling that allows them to live

outside if no shelter space is avail-

able. Making matters worse, many

live in filthy, third-world conditions

without basic necessities such as

toilets and sinks. It makes them and

those who venture near susceptible

to disease.

Cities continue to grapple over

difficult housing decisions about

how to solve the problem. Should

homeless people be entitled to the

Homeless encampments crowd a downtown Los Angeles sidewalk on Skid Row.FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

HOMELESSNESS IN LOS ANGELES

Housing SOS

Misery on the streets is spreading – and the cost of solutions is skyrocketing

Chris Woodyard

USA TODAY

See HOMELESSNESS, Page 3A

QIJFAF-01005z(N)k

©COPYRIGHT 2019

USA TODAY,

A division of

Gannett Co., Inc.

©

The 19th

Amendment

took effect

99 years ago

today, extending

universal

suffrage to U.S.

women.

SOURCE U.S. Census bureau
AMY BARNETTE, DAVID ANESTA/USA TODAY

‘80 ‘84 ‘88 ‘92 ‘96 ‘00 ‘04 ‘08 ‘12 ‘

70%

0

60

50

40

30

20

10

Women Men

The percentage of

eligible voters who

reported casting ballots:

IN NEWS

Crime in space? No one

has gone there before

Report says astronaut may have
accessed ex-spouse’s bank account

Luck’s retirement

is a gut punch

for Colts, fans

Plagued by injuries, franchise QB steps

aside at age 29 less than two weeks

before regular season. In Sports

MATT KRYGER/USA TODAY NETWORK

HOME DELIVERY
1-800-872-0001, USATODAYSERVICE.COM

STATE-BY-STATE 4B MARKETPLACE TODAY 6C PUZZLES 2D TONIGHT ON TV 4D WEATHER 6A YOUR SAY 7A

Grab a bike or kayak for amazing
adventures in the Windy City

IN LIFE

DAWN GILBERTSON/USA TODAY

Touring Chicago from

rooftops to lakefront

BIARRITZ, France – President Don-
ald Trump denied reports Sunday of
tension among leaders at the G-7 sum-
mit in southwest France, insisting that
he was having “good meetings” and
that everyone was getting along well.
“From the moment we got here,
we’ve been treated beautifully,” he
said during a meeting with Japanese
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
But behind the scenes, there were
signs of discord.
Trump aides complained to report-
ers that French President Emmanuel
Macron had arranged the agenda to fo-
cus on issues such as climate change
that would play well in his home coun-
try and make Trump look bad, given
Trump’s decision to pull the U.S. out of
an international climate accord.
At one point Sunday morning, the

Backstage

discord

rattles G-

summit

But Trump maintains

leaders getting along well

Michael Collins
USA TODAY

SeeG-7 SUMMIT, Page 3A

The Amazon is burning at an alarm-

ing rate as tens of thousands of fires

lay waste to the world’s largest tropical

rainforest.

There have been more than 74,

wildfires across Brazil this year, up

85% over the same period in 2018, and

about 40,000 of them are burning in

the Amazon, according to the coun-

try’s National Institute of Space Re-

search.

The Amazon often is called “the

lungs of the world,” absorbing green-

house gases that would otherwise

harm the planet. It also is home to a

number of indigenous people who rely

on the forest’s resources.

Why it’s on fire and why it has be-

come such a big problem:

Amazon wildfires sounding an alarm

Brush wildfires devour deforested land last week in Mato Grosso state in

west-central Brazil.CORPO DE BOMBEIROS DE MATO GROSSO VIA AP

In Brazil, preservation,

profit and politics clash

Elizabeth Lawrence

USA TODAY

See AMAZON, Page 2A

08.26.