Doug Smith

1 month ago | sacbee.com | Doug Smith

LOS ANGELES -- When the unknown number popped up on her phone, Jocelyn Escanuela was in the checkout line at Walmart. She still can't explain why she picked up and then listened to a cold-caller's pitch that sounded a lot like a scam. She had been selected to receive a grant of $6,000, the caller told her. And she would have a personal assistant to help her get her through her "crisis."How did they even know she was in a crisis? It turned out the caller was legitimate.

1 month ago | latimes.com | Doug Smith

Jocelyn Escanuela, 26, shown at her Pomona apartment, took part in a random trial to test the effectiveness of cash payments in helping prevent homelessness. When the unknown number popped up on her phone, Jocelyn Escanuela was in the checkout line at Walmart. She still can’t explain why she picked up and then listened to a cold-caller’s pitch that sounded a lot like a scam. She had been selected to receive a grant of $6,000, the caller told her.

1 month ago | latimes.com | Doug Smith

The authors of the Measure A half-cent homelessness sales tax that went into effect April 1 infused it with broad goals such as reducing the number of people who become homeless each year and increasing the number leaving encampments. To give the public tools to measure its success — or failure — they included a process to add concrete targets and time lines after county voters approved the measure in November.

1 month ago | latimes.com | Doug Smith

After nearly a decade of unprecedented taxpayer spending on homelessness with little to show in improvement on the streets, the giant nonprofits behind the measures that secured that funding asked voters to double down. To assuage concerns that past funds may have been dispensed rashly, leading to waste and abuse, the authors of two new tax measures wove into them a complex system of oversight to increase transparency and accountability.

2 months ago | latimes.com | Doug Smith

U.S. District Judge David O. Carter talks with attorneys at Veterans Barrington Park during a tour of the West L.A. VA campus in August. A federal appeals panel appeared sympathetic toward a claim that the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has failed in its duty to veterans but also raised concerns that a trial judge may have overstepped his authority in a broad order requiring the agency to build more housing on its West Los Angeles campus.