I'm Kimberly Atkins' store in for Magna Chakrabardi and this is on point.

Los Angeles is not unique in having a homelessness problem.

What is unique is the scale of its problem.

LA has the largest unhoused population in the nation.

It's estimated that more than 60,000 people live on its streets and in its parks.

Every day, more Angelenos are falling into homelessness than are finding shelter or housing.

And more than five unhoused people die on the streets of LA every day.

LA's unhoused crisis has become the topic of ferocious political debate.

The city is electing a new mayor this year, a new city council, a new county sheriff,

new officials up and down the ballot.

And survey after survey shows that homelessness more than any other issue is front of voters'

minds.

The causes of LA's unhoused crisis are complex and the solutions are not simple as we're

going to hear this hour.

But let's start by exploring what it means to be unhoused.

For more than 25 years, from the age of 12, Rachel Estrada drifted in and out of homelessness.

She's now director of peer advocacy at Haven, a provider of shared housing to people transitioning

out of homelessness.

Rachel, thank you for joining us on on point.

Hello.

Thank you so much for joining us, Rachel.

I want to start off by having you tell us a little bit about your story.

...