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As skyrocketing property prices have led to an explosion of economic inequality, California has been struggling with a burgeoning homelessness crisis as the rate of newly-minted homeless has doubled since the financial crisis. And while not every homeless person lives in an encampment on Skid Row, the growing scourge of these encampments led the city of LA late last year to double its appropriations for services to meet the needs of the homeless population, as the rate of crimes and public nuisances like discarded syringes and human feces has stoked a quality of life crisis in rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods like Venice Beach.