Mayor Eric Garcetti didn't create the homeless crisis in Los Angeles, but he owns it.
The two-term Democrat who not long ago flirted with a presidential run has been besieged by complaints about homeless encampments that have gotten so widespread he's facing a potential recall campaign.
The low-key mayor who in 2016 helped convince voters to borrow $1.2 billion to construct housing for the homeless has found himself in an awkward position — explaining why the problems have only gotten worse.
Figures released earlier this month showed a 16% jump in Los Angeles' homeless population over the last year, pegging it at 36,300 — the size of a small city.
That's no surprise to anyone who lives or works downtown, where tents crowd sidewalks within sight of City Hall and the stench of urine fills the air.
The homeless crisis has become "a state of emergency," said Alexandra Datig, who is leading the recall effort.
Getting a recall question before voters is something of a longshot. The threshold to reach the ballot requires over 300,000 petition signatures. The effort to do so nonetheless represents at least a symbolic statement about public unrest over the problem.
Garcetti talked at length Wednesday about the issue that is testing the limits of what the city can do. Asked about the recall effort, he said he wouldn't be distracted by "political games."
The mayor also announced new funding to boost cleanups around homeless encampments while providing mobile restrooms and showers. The city could also employ homeless people to clean up around encampments.
While housing for the homeless is expanding, the challenge has been that a flood of new people landing on the streets.
"It's a crisis unlike anything we've seen before," he told reporters. "We are spending every waking moment to confront this crisis."
Last year Garcetti was traveling the country as a potential presidential candidate, visiting Iowa and other key 2020 states and talking up Los Angeles as an ascendant city booming with jobs, development and new rail lines. He announced in January he wouldn't run, saying he wanted to stay in L.A., "where we have so much exciting work to finish."
As a possible candidate, homelessness was seen as an issue that he would have had a hard time explaining away.
In a word, it's everywhere. Freeway overpasses are lined with tents, and it's a common sight to see someone pushing a shopping cart filled with belongings through downtown streets. While once largely confined to the notorious Skid Row neighborhood, encampments have spread citywide.
Garcetti said more help was needed from the state and federal governments. A widening economic gap has left many behind as the stock market climbs. And soaring rents have shut out lower-income people.
"I feel very strongly about the mission that I'm on," the mayor said. "We are housing more homeless people than ever before and ... we are going to redouble our efforts."
"This isn't just for a mayor to solve," he added. "This requires all of us."
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Ukrainian court on Friday ordered the detention of the country’s farm minister in the latest high-profile corruption investigation, while Kyiv security officials assessed how they can recover lost battlefield momentum in the war against Russia.
Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court ruled that Agriculture Minister Oleksandr Solskyi should be held in custody for 60 days, but he was released after paying bail of 75 million hryvnias ($1.77 million), a statement said.
Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau suspects Solskyi headed an organized crime group that between 2017 and 2021 unlawfully obtained land worth 291 million hryvnias ($6.85 million) and attempted to obtain other land worth 190 million hryvnias ($4.47 million).
Ukraine is trying to root out corruption that has long dogged the country. A dragnet over the past two years has seen Ukraine’s defense minister, top prosecutor, intelligence chief and other senior officials lose their jobs.
That has caused embarrassment and unease as Ukraine receives tens of billions of dollars in foreign aid to help fight Russia’s army, and the European Union and NATO have demanded widespread anti-graft measures before Kyiv can realize its ambition of joining the blocs.
In Ukraine's capital, doctors and ambulance crews evacuated patients from a children’s hospital on Friday after a video circulated online saying Russia planned to attack it.
Parents hefting bags of clothes, toys and food carried toddlers and led young children from the Kyiv City Children’s Hospital No. 1 on the outskirts of the city. Medics helped them into a fleet of waiting ambulances to be transported to other facilities.
In the video, a security official from Russian ally Belarus alleged that military personnel were based in the hospital. Kyiv city authorities said that the claim was “a lie and provocation.”
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that civic authorities were awaiting an assessment from security services before deciding when it was safe to reopen the hospital.
“We cannot risk the lives of our children,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was due to hold online talks Friday with the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, which has been the key international organization coordinating the delivery of weapons and other aid to Ukraine.
Zelenskyy said late Thursday that the meeting would discuss how to turn around Ukraine’s fortunes on the battlefield. The Kremlin’s forces have gained an edge over Kyiv’s army in recent months as Ukraine grappled with a shortage of ammunition and troops.
Russia, despite sustaining high losses, has been taking control of small settlements as part of its effort to drive deeper into eastern Ukraine after capturing the city of Avdiivka in February, the U.K. defense ministry said Friday.
It’s been slow going for the Kremlin’s troops in eastern Ukraine and is likely to stay that way, according to the Institute for the Study of War. However, the key hilltop town of Chasiv Yar is vulnerable to the Russian onslaught, which is using glide bombs — powerful Soviet-era weapons that were originally unguided but have been retrofitted with a navigational targeting system — that obliterate targets.
“Russian forces do pose a credible threat of seizing Chasiv Yar, although they may not be able to do so rapidly,” the Washington-based think tank said late Thursday.
It added that Russian commanders are likely seeking to advance as much as possible before the arrival in the coming weeks and months of new U.S. military aid, which was held up for six months by political differences in Congress.
While that U.S. help wasn’t forthcoming, Ukraine’s European partners didn’t pick up the slack, according to German’s Kiel Institute for the World Economy, which tracks Ukraine support.
“The European aid in recent months is nowhere near enough to fill the gap left by the lack of U.S. assistance, particularly in the area of ammunition and artillery shells,” it said in a report Thursday.
Ukraine is making a broad effort to take back the initiative in the war after more than two years of fighting. It plans to manufacture more of its own weapons in the future, and is clamping down on young people avoiding conscription, though it will take time to process and train any new recruits.
Jill Lawless contributed to this report.
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Ukrainian young acting student Gleb Batonskiy plays piano in a public park in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, April 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
