Homelessness

Federal officials say the United States saw an 18.1% increase in homelessness, a dramatic rise driven mostly by a lack of affordable housing as well as devastating natural disasters and a surge of migrants in several parts of the country.

Homelessness is at the top of the agenda for candidates in mayoral races across the U.S. West. But they differ on whether it’s OK to clear encampments that have spread as the crisis has deepened and how much to rely on temporary housing.

The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that city laws which punish homeless people who sleep outside are constitutional and do not violate the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

In downtown Atlanta, shipping containers have been transformed into an oasis for dozens of previously unsheltered people who now proudly call a former parking lot home. It’s just one example of micro communities that have been popping up across the U.S. In Denver, 1,500 people have been moved indoors through that city’s own micro community program.

The man charged Monday with the serial murders of three homeless men around Los Angeles, and the follow-home robbery and murder of an LA County employee in San Dimas, was the recipient of a $700,000 personal injury payment in recent months, court records and city officials confirmed.

An arrest has been made in the killing of three homeless men in the last week, the Los Angeles Police Department said in a press conference Saturday.