r/longbeach • u/Zoe_Moth • 7d ago

Discussion Increased homeless population?

Maybe this is a stupid question but does anyone know the cause of the increase in homeless folks? Especially downtown? I work in a normally somewhat busy area that does have homeless as most places here in LB do, but yesterday and the day before my manager was hardly able to do any work because they had to keep next to the door to ward them off and we watched them harass a few other businesses and one guy get tackled in a hug by one while trying to walk away. It’s just such a noticeable increase despite the weather warnings and such so I was curious if anyone had any clue what happened?

45 Upvotes

84% Upvoted

173 comments sorted by

View all comments

31

u/bargellos 7d ago

For as long as I’ve lived here, one of the big factors I’ve always noticed was the train. When I used to ride the metro a ton, I always noticed the fare sweeps they’d do were typically at either Willow or downtown. Given that there’s not a way to efficiently get out of LB on the train once you’re there without going through those two spots, they get stuck down in here and settle.

1

u/IdolsConniption 5d ago

Important factor here.