LOS ANGELES (AP) — Prosecutors charged a man Monday with four counts of murder in the fatal shootings of three homeless men in Los Angeles and a suburban resident last month.

Jerrid Joseph Powell was also charged with one count of residential robbery and one count of being a felon with a firearm, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said in a statement. He also faces special circumstances of committing multiple murders, murder in the course of a robbery, as well as personal use of a firearm allegations, the statement said.

Powell, 33, was scheduled to appear in court for arraignment later in the day. Efforts during the weekend to determine if he had a lawyer were unsuccessful.

Powell was initially arrested last week as a suspect in a deadly shooting during a robbery at a home in the community of San Dimas east of Los Angeles. The Los Angeles resident was then identified as a suspect in the killings of the three homeless men when a firearm found in his car was linked to those shootings, authorities said.

The motive for the killings of the homeless victims was not known, Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore said during a weekend press conference announcing the arrest.

Jose Bolanos, 37, was found dead with a gunshot wound around 3 a.m. on Nov. 26 in an alley in South Los Angeles, police said. The following day, Mark Diggs, 62, was shot and killed while pushing a shopping cart around 5 a.m. near downtown, according to officials.

The third shooting occurred Nov. 29 about 2:30 a.m. in the Lincoln Heights area, where the body of a 52-year-old man was found. Police did not immediately identify him pending notification of family.

Meanwhile, Nicholas Simbolon, 42, was shot dead at his home in San Dimas on the evening of Nov. 28. Authorities obtained surveillance images of a suspect vehicle, and the following night a license plate reader in Beverly Hills alerted police who made a traffic stop, resulting in Powell’s arrest.

“I want to extend my deepest appreciation to the incredible men and women of law enforcement who worked tirelessly to bring justice to our community and arrest this individual,” District Attorney George Gascón said in Monday’s statement. “The swift actions of law enforcement undoubtedly saved lives this week.”

If convicted on all charges, Powell faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Los Angeles County is the nation’s most populous, with about 10 million people, and was home to more than one in five of the nation’s homeless people, according to a 2022 federal tally. As of January, the last official count, more than 75,000 people were homeless across the county on any given night.

Advocates for homeless people say those living on the streets are much more likely to be the victims of violence than the perpetrators.

Five homeless people were shot in Las Vegas on Friday, one of them fatally, and police were searching for a lone suspect, authorities said.

In Orange County, California, a man was charged with killing four homeless men in a series of stabbings from late 2011 to early 2012. Itzcoatl Ocampo, a former Marine, was charged with four counts of murder with special allegations of multiple murders, lying in wait and use of a deadly weapon in the killings. Ocampo died awaiting trial after reportedly eating cleanser he had collected slowly while in custody.

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Democratic Mayor Karen Bass, who was elected in November after promising to take on the city’s out-of-control homeless crisis, announced Monday she would recommend spending what she called a record $1.3 billion next year to get unhoused people into shelter and treatment programs.

The funding to be included in the mayor’s upcoming budget could be used in part to buy hotels or motels that would be converted to housing, while the city combs through its inventory of properties for those that could be used for sheltering homeless people. The former congresswoman’s remarks, in an annual address to City Council on the state of the city, came roughly four months into her first term.

Bass added that the budget also would include funds for substance abuse treatment beds for the unhoused, but she did not specify how many. And her signature program, dubbed Inside Safe that offers homeless people motel rooms and a path to permanent housing with services, has over 1,000 enrollees so far, she said.

Meanwhile, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has promised to deliver 500 units of temporary housing to the city, while the Biden administration has sent the city and county more than $200 million for homeless programs, she added.

“After years of frustration … we can see a clearer path to a new Los Angeles,” Bass said, speaking inside the ornate City Council chambers. And “we have finally dispelled the myth that people do not want to come inside. They do.”

However, Bass added that much work needed to be done. “I cannot declare that the state of our city is where it needs to be,” she said.

Bass’ overall optimism would be expected for a mayor in the early months of a first term, but it also belies looming challenges that could reshape her time in office.

The city has expanded spending on homeless programs for years — then-Mayor Eric Garcetti signed a budget in 2021 with nearly $1 billion in homeless spending — but the unhoused population has continued to increase. Bass’ challenge is in plain sight in just about any neighborhood: homeless people living in trash-strewn encampments or rusty RVs along streets, below underpasses and clustered around freeway exits.

About half the homeless population — totaling over 40,000 citywide — struggles with drug or alcohol addiction, and about a third have serious mental illnesses. Homeless deaths average five a day.

Some economists see a recession coming that could slash city tax revenue at a time when Bass is expanding homeless spending, though opinions are divided on the direction of the economy. A recent report from city Controller Kenneth Mejia outlined a series of other concerns, including the need to investment more in repairing crumbling streets and sidewalks and higher pension costs for retirees that “already consume fully 15% of the city’s general fund budget.” Meanwhile, crime rates have been climbing, including for car thefts and shootings, while the police department has seen its staffing levels drop. Bass warned the number of police officers could drop below 9,000 – a tally not seen since 2002.

Bass said her budget for the year that begins July 1 recommends hiring hundreds of officers, along with a recruitment campaign and incentives for new hires. It also funnels new dollars into a team of social workers and clinical psychologists who could respond to emergency calls when a police officer is not required.

“We know safety goes far beyond lights and sirens,” she said.

Bass, the first Black woman to serve as LA’s mayor who was on President Joe Biden’s short list for vice president, defeated billionaire businessman Rick Caruso in the November election. She anchored her campaign to getting homeless people off the streets and into shelters, reversing spiking crime rates and developing housing that working-class families can afford.

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — The new mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, said Sunday her administration will start moving homeless people from tent encampments into hotels and motels through a new program that launches Tuesday.

Bass told NBC’s “Meet the Press” host, Chuck Todd, that her plan to move homeless people into rooms immediately will not “address everybody, but it is going to address, hopefully, a significant number.” She said people will not be forced to move, but that sanitation crews will stand by to clean up areas after people have left.

“But this is not coercing people. This is not ticketing people or incarcerating people. This is moving people from tents to hotels or motels,” she said.

On her first day as mayor of Los Angeles, Bass declared a state of emergency on homelessness. She vowed to get people housed and more housing built so that residents can see a real difference, which hasn’t been visible despite billions spent on programs to curb homelessness, including $1.2 billion in the current city budget.

Bass, a Democrat and former congresswoman, has said she intends to get over 17,000 homeless people into housing in her first year through a mix of interim and permanent facilities.

An estimated 40,000 people are homeless in Los Angeles, a city of nearly 4 million. Homelessness is hugely visible throughout California with people living in tents and cars and sleeping outdoors on sidewalks and under highway overpasses.

Bass said outreach workers will try to coax people indoors. People are homeless for a variety of reasons, including mental illness, addiction and job loss.

The mayor’s office did not provide on Sunday details of the housing program, including what it would cost and where the money would come from.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom first launched the idea of placing homeless people in motel and hotel rooms at the start of the pandemic in 2020. He has since encouraged cities and counties to convert motels and other buildings into housing for homeless people.

Advocates for the homeless have welcomed the use of motel rooms, where people can have their own bathroom far away from the clutter of congregated shelters. But they have criticized what they call “sweeps” of encampments that force people to move and separate them from their belongings in the absence of a firm motel room offer.

Todd asked Bass how to judge her success on eliminating homelessness.

“Encampments should be significantly down if not eliminated, and there should be housing being built, underway, at a much more rapid pace,” she said. “And there should not be 40,000 people who are unhoused, that’s for sure.”

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Dan Zukowski | Smartcitiesdive.com

California could see its second high-speed rail project begin construction next year, according to news reports. Brightline West looks to build an $8 billion passenger rail corridor connecting Southern California and Las Vegas, mainly within the median of the Interstate 15 freeway. It would operate 180-mph electric trains. 

Unlike the publicly funded high-speed rail project from San Francisco to Los Angeles, Brightline West would be privately owned and operated. Brightline West and Brightline are owned by Fortress Investment Group, a global investment firm focusing on transportation, infrastructure and other investments.

In Florida, Brightline currently operates passenger train service from Miami to Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach and is building an extension to Orlando, with plans to reach Tampa.  Both Brightline projects have or will make use of state-issued private activity bonds. These tax-exempt bonds are frequently used for transportation projects, significantly lowering the cost of capital for the private-sector company.

The user repays the bonds. A total of $1 billion in private activity bonds has been approved by the U.S. Department of Transportation for Brightline West, with the actual borrowing to be done by the states of California and Nevada. Brightline West may soon ask California to issue $200 million in private activity bonds, Bloomberg News reported this week. Brightline acquired a station site along Las Vegas Boulevard and reached an agreement with authorities in California to purchase a 5-acre site at the Rancho Cucamonga Station.

The station is adjacent to a Metrolink commuter rail station and bus lines. Brightline expects that travel time from Rancho Cucamonga to Las Vegas would be two and a quarter hours. Planning began as early as 2009 for high-speed rail connecting Southern California with Las Vegas when the Federal Railroad Administration completed a draft environmental plan for a project then known as DesertXpress.

Brightline acquired the project in 2018. An environmental review is now underway for the additional 49 miles to Rancho Cucamonga. According to Brightline, the high-speed rail line would eliminate 3 million cars annually from the travel corridor and create 1,000 permanent jobs.

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