AUDIO – NOT SO POOR ANYMORE –
Oct. 14, 2025 – In Los Angeles, much of the work is carried out not just by government agencies, but largely by a vast network of nonprofits funded with public money.
Over the past decade, those organizations have seen their revenues soar. By 2023–24, those groups reported more than $121.7 million in total revenue.
And during that same time, the city’s homeless population kept climbing. In 2015, the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority estimated that 44,359 people were living without shelter across the county. By 2023, that number had surged to 75,518 — a 70 percent jump.
Voters were promised that new tax measures would help reduce homelessness. Instead, spending ballooned, nonprofit revenues skyrocketed, and the crisis only deepened.
IRS filings reveal just how dramatically the financial landscape shifted. The Weingart Center, which reported only $8,874 in revenue a decade ago, brought in more than $31.7 million in 2024 — a staggering 357,163 percent increase.
Hope the Mission went from $72,893 in 2015 to nearly $59.5 million in 2023, an 81,000 percent jump.
