Some of Los Angeles’ nicest neighborhoods have become the landing spot for dangerous homeless housing developments.
The units, sometimes entire apartment buildings, have generated hundreds, and in some cases more than 1,200, police calls, The California Post can reveal.
Records reviewed by The Post show repeated LAPD responses to nearly 50 publicly funded homeless housing developments across the city over a two-year period.
Many of the developments were financed through Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Homekey program, Los Angeles’ Proposition HHH bond measure, or both, which account for over $2 billion of taxpayers’ cash.
Police records reveal repeated responses for assaults, domestic violence, batteries, attempted suicides, mental health crises, narcotics activity, robberies, criminal threats and reports of shots fired.
One of the most striking examples is 5050 Pico Boulevard, a modern apartment building just minutes from Beverly Hills and The Grove.
Originally marketed as luxury apartments with quartz countertops, gated parking and upscale finishes, the development was instead purchased through Newsom’s Homekey program for roughly $35 million, or about $1.2 million per apartment, and converted into permanent supportive housing.
Police records show officers were dispatched to the property more than 1,200 times over roughly two years, responding to assaults, batteries, domestic violence, mental health crises, welfare checks, trespassing, suspicious persons and ambulance calls.
When The Post visited the property, a memorial with candles sat outside the entrance.
Neighbors said a woman died after falling from the roof while allegedly under the influence of drugs. Authorities have not publicly confirmed the circumstances surrounding her death.
Homeowner Raphael Swann said he purchased his townhouse in 2019 just a few doors down after reviewing plans for what he believed would be a luxury apartment development.
Instead, during the pandemic, the project was converted into homeless housing before it ever opened.
“I was expecting all this new construction with the Metro opening was going to be a positive thing,” Swann said. “Not this.”
“It’s incredibly demoralizing,” Swann said. “The city does absolutely nothing.” He said neighbors were never consulted before the conversion and have never been invited to meetings to address ongoing concerns.
Since 2020, Newsom’s Homekey program has committed roughly $1.3 billion to help local governments purchase hotels, motels and apartment buildings for conversion into homeless housing.
Los Angeles city and county agencies have committed roughly another $1.3 billion to renovate, complete and operate many of those same projects, bringing the regional public investment tied to Homekey developments to about $2.6 billion.
Many Homekey developments also received HHH funding, meaning some projects were financed with both state and local taxpayer dollars.
“What exactly are we getting from our taxes?” said Scott Meyers a Republican running for election to the U.S. House to represent California’s 30th Congressional District, which includes large parts of Los Angeles County.
“We defer to future generations the cost of any road maintenance, and we squeeze funding away from basic city services, yet we grant hundreds of $600,000 apartment units to vagrants which become crime scenes that can’t be addressed by our police and fire departments because they’ve suffered cutbacks of funding that was shell-gamed away to build those same apartment units.
And it’s not just “no oversight”, it all goes completely unmentioned by the Democrats in City Hall, all the way up to our United States Congressional representatives,” said Meyers.
Another high-profile example is The Iris on Barry Avenue in West Los Angeles near Sawtelle.
Originally planned as a luxury apartment building, the project later received nearly $7 million in Proposition HHH funding to convert part of the property into permanent supportive housing.
The development includes 61 apartments, including 34 supportive housing units for formerly homeless residents. Police records reviewed by The Post document repeated responses for assaults, batteries, domestic violence, attempted suicides, burglaries and mental health emergencies.
The property also became the focus of one of the neighborhood’s most disturbing crimes.
Prosecutors alleged Ishmail Bangura, whom police identified as living at The Iris, ran naked from the building on Feb. 27, 2025, before allegedly breaking into a nearby apartment, attacking a 3-year-old child and attempting to sexually assault a 63-year-old woman.
Bangura had been arrested twice in the days before the attack.
He later pleaded no contest to assault with intent to rape, first-degree burglary and felony child abuse, while admitting he committed the crimes while released on another pending case.
Units in unfavorable neighbors are also a hotspot for police calls, taking up significant police resources.
601 San Pedro Street generated roughly 750 police calls, while nearby 566 San Pedro Street logged about 840 responses involving fights, cutting injuries, reports of people armed with guns and knives, shots fired and narcotics activity.
Other developments also generated significant police activity. Officers responded about 390 times to 517 San Julian Street for trespassing, attempted suicide and criminal threats.
Neighboring properties at 527 and 543 Crocker Street generated more than 420 combined calls involving domestic violence, batteries, trespassing and reports of armed groups.
The California Post requested comment from Gov. Gavin Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass.
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