The Los Angeles officials are having a tough time with the increase in the homeless people. As the homelessness crisis is at its peak, so are the arrests of the homeless people in Los Angeles. The arrests have been made for minor cases. The most common case being the failure to appear in the court for any unpaid citation.
A total of 14,000 homeless people were arrested in LA in 2016. This is an increase of 31% over the 2011 figure. Two-thirds of the homeless people arrested were either Blacks or Latinos. The main reasons for these arrests were nonviolent offenses or minor offenses.
There are plenty of restrictions in the Los Angeles law when it comes to living in a car or sleeping on the sidewalk or possession of low-level drugs. The people caught in these acts are handed over a citation by the police. The ticket charges start as low as $100 and sometimes reach $200 or $300 after the court fees are added. As homeless people do not have a source to pay for their tickets, they finally end up in jail.
The tickets are a cause of concern for the homeless people as they will fall into more debt. The arrests will result in disqualifying them for housing loans and jobs. This way their homelessness agony will prolong.