Counting the Symptoms While Ignoring the Infection

Why Black Homelessness Persists in Los Angeles — and Who Benefits From It

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By Dr. Gloria Zuurveen
Editor-in-Chief, PACE NEWS | The Southern Truth

LOS ANGELES — Once again, Los Angeles has launched its annual Homeless Count. Once again, officials gathered behind podiums, spoke of data, deployment, and digital mapping, and assured the public that this year’s count would bring clarity and progress. But counting without confronting the racial and structural realities of homelessness is like applying a fresh bandage to a festering wound — a wound that has turned into pus. And until it is lanced, the infection will worsen.

Black Los Angeles Is Still Being Counted — But Not Heard

Los Angeles County’s 2025 Homeless Count recorded more than 72,000 unhoused residents, with over 47,000 living unsheltered — the largest such population in the nation. Officials point to slight statistical dips as progress. But the deeper truth remains unchanged.

Black residents make up 7–9% of the county’s population, yet consistently account for more than 30% of the homeless — year after year, count after count.

This is not coincidence.
This is not cultural failure.
This is not personal irresponsibility.

This is policy.

Gentrification, Corporate Housing, and the Business of Displacement

Homelessness in Los Angeles is not accidental. It is engineered.

It is the result of:

• Aggressive gentrification

• Corporate housing consolidation

• The erosion of rent protections

• The removal of working-class Black families from historic neighborhoods

• The monetization of housing instability

While luxury developments rise, longtime residents are pushed out. While billions flow through homelessness programs, little is invested in preventing displacement before it happens. And while the City counts tents, corporate interests count profits.

The Pus No One Wants to Lance

The word pus is not used lightly.

Pus forms when infection is ignored.
Pus builds when pressure has nowhere to go.
Pus signals a wound covered over — not healed.

That is what homelessness has become in Los Angeles.

Rather than lancing the wound, officials hold press conferences.
Rather than confronting the cause, they manage symptoms.
Rather than stopping the bleeding, they count bodies.

And then they blame politics.
They blame budgets.
They blame presidents.

But they never interrogate the local systems that benefit from the crisis continuing.

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Then Came the Soofer Case — and the Truth Became Impossible to Ignore

Last week, federal prosecutors charged Alexander Soofer, head of the nonprofit Abundant Blessings, with stealing millions of dollars meant for homeless services. According to federal authorities and reporting by Los Angeles Magazine, Soofer allegedly used taxpayer money to fund:

• A $7 million mansion in Westwood

• A $125,000 Range Rover

• A vacation home in Greece

• First-class travel, luxury entertainment, and personal expenses

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All while the money was intended for:

• Emergency housing

• Youth homelessness programs

• Bridge housing

• Food and shelter for the unhoused

Prosecutors allege that Soofer used fraudulent invoices and shell arrangements to divert funds — money that passed through LAHSA contracts meant to serve the most vulnerable. Let that sink in.

Money meant to keep people alive
…used to buy property overseas.

And at the Same Time — A Black Man Lay Dead

While millions were allegedly being spent on luxury living, a former NFL player — a graduate of Westchester High School — was found stabbed to death in a homeless encampment in the Willowbrook area.

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A man who once stood on professional football fields.
A man who once represented strength, discipline, and achievement.
A Black man who died homeless.

Two realities colliding at once:

• One man allegedly living high off public money

• Another man dying in a tent on a public street

And the city calls this a sanctuary.

Make that make sense.

Mayor Bass Responds

Following the arrest, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass issued a statement that underscored the gravity of the moment:

“My administration has zero tolerance for fraud — period. Today, we learned that an individual has been arrested on a federal criminal complaint charging him with fraudulently funneling $23 million in public money, preying on the most vulnerable in our city. It’s despicable that Mr. Soofer lied to the City and LAHSA for his personal gain and took advantage of taxpayer funds meant to help unhoused Angelenos across South Los Angeles.”

Her words are strong — and necessary. But they also raise the question the public cannot ignore:

• How did this happen in the first place?
• How did millions move through the system without detection?
• And how many others are still operating the same way?

The Unasked Question

How does someone allegedly steal tens of millions meant for the homeless — without detection?

How does a system approve contracts, process invoices, and release funds while Black men and senior citizens sleep in tents?

And why does accountability only arrive after the damage is done?

These are not abstract questions.

They go to the heart of whether this system is designed to help — or merely to manage.

Sanctuary Without Equity Is Not Sanctuary

California calls itself a sanctuary state.

But sanctuary without equity becomes exclusion.

What we see instead is:

• Systems easier to navigate for some than others

• Black residents trapped in endless assessment loops

• Longtime Angelenos displaced while funding flows elsewhere

• Cultural disconnects that turn people into paperwork

And the result is devastating.

When Policy Creates a Permanent Underclass

Homelessness has become institutionalized.

There is funding for:

• Studies

• Consultants

• Administrators

• Compliance reviews

But little incentive to solve the problem.

Because a solved crisis does not generate contracts.

So the system counts.
And counts again.
And counts some more.

Meanwhile, Black communities remain overrepresented, underprotected, and unheard.

“Take Up Thy Bed and Walk”

The biblical command was never to observe suffering.

It was to act.

“Take up thy bed and walk.”

That means:

• Ending policies that displace Black families

• Redirecting funds toward permanent housing and ownership

• Ending the exploitation of crisis

• Refusing to normalize homelessness as inevitable

Until that happens, the wound will remain open.

And until it is lanced, the puss will spread.

The Southern Truth

And here is what must finally be said — plainly and without apology.

This crisis is not just about housing.
It is about how this system refuses to invest in people.

The answer has never been endless programs or temporary employment.
The answer has always been opportunity.

Not handouts — hand-ups.
Not dependency — deployment.

There are men and women on these streets who can build, teach, cook, mentor, fix, create, and lead. There are Black men with trades in their hands, Black women with wisdom in their voices, Black youth with brilliance waiting to be cultivated. But instead of funding what people are gifted and called to do, the system funds what keeps them stuck.

Instead of investing in ownership, it invests in oversight.
Instead of building capacity, it builds contracts.
Instead of teaching people how to stand, it keeps them seated in lines.

And the money that could be used to train, equip, and empower — the money meant to stay in our communities — is diverted, misused, or shipped far away, while people here suffer.

This is California — one of the wealthiest places on earth, the fourth-largest economy in the world.
And yet Black men, Black women, Black boys, and Black girls suffer at rates that should shame a nation this wealthy.

And it happens every time the count is called.

Every time.

Because this is how it has always been.

When resources come, Black communities are last in line.
When cuts come, Black communities feel them first.
When programs are designed, Black voices are missing.
And when failure is tallied, Black people are blamed.

That is the pattern.
That is the sickness.
That is the puss that keeps rising because no one wants to lance it.

Homelessness is not inevitable.
Poverty is not destiny.
Displacement is not accidental.

It is designed.

And until that design is confronted — until funds are used to restore dignity, build skill, and allow people to stand on their own feet — the cycle will continue.

This is not just a housing issue.
It is a moral issue.
A justice issue.
A human issue.

And it will not be solved by counting bodies.

It will be solved when people are given the tools to live, work, create, and thrive — right where they are.

Until then, the wound will stay open.
The puss will keep flowing.
And the system will keep pretending not to see what is plainly in front of us.

Because silence is not neutrality.

It is complicity.

— The Southern Truth