In a city which basically only votes one way, your primary constituency (liberals) and your donor base become your only constituencies. Your ability then, as a member of city council / as mayor, is your ability to allocate discretionary funds (and keep that primary / donor base happy).
The primary donor base in LA lives in Beverly Hills (which isn't city of LA but often are business owners in the city of LA), Brentwood, Pacific Palisades, & Hollywood Hills. These areas are far more controlled in terms of the homeless population. Areas where the homeless population is much higher are in the gentrifying / growing middle class areas (mind you, in LA, a middle class household income is $250k+ w/ a $1M home) like Silver Lake, Echo Park, Downtown, Central LA (where I live). These areas, the home owners / renters are more likely house poor (notice I said house poor, not actually poor), and are not the heavy donors to local politicians. Here's a fairly good document outlining some historic homeless densities in the area.
http://www.vchcorp.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/2017-Homel...
The granularity isn't great, and so it's hard to point out exactly where the problem areas are. But, as someone who walks from Beverly Hills to my house in Beverly Grove, I can tell you it's night and day when you cross the boundary in to the city of LA vs. BH.
As for the constituencies that vote in primaries, I don't have a ton of data to back up my assumptions. I'd presume that areas like south-central, east LA, and other high-urban areas are where the majority of the votes come from, which can be more heavily influenced by local endorsements / interest groups (like unions) than by specific issues like homelessness. But, as I said, no evidence to back that assumption up, just instinct from living here.
So, in summary- Your donor base is annoyed by the problem (because they have to drive past the issue) but it's not a burning issue as there aren't homeless encampments in the Palisades. Your heavy voting base is annoyed, but have other serious issues that are a higher priority, like violent crime, poverty, and education issues with LA unified.
I love LA. I really do. But we've got a lot of diverse issues that need addressing on a constant basis, just to keep our heads above water.
The primary donor base in LA lives in Beverly Hills (which isn't city of LA but often are business owners in the city of LA), Brentwood, Pacific Palisades, & Hollywood Hills. These areas are far more controlled in terms of the homeless population. Areas where the homeless population is much higher are in the gentrifying / growing middle class areas (mind you, in LA, a middle class household income is $250k+ w/ a $1M home) like Silver Lake, Echo Park, Downtown, Central LA (where I live). These areas, the home owners / renters are more likely house poor (notice I said house poor, not actually poor), and are not the heavy donors to local politicians. Here's a fairly good document outlining some historic homeless densities in the area. http://www.vchcorp.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/2017-Homel...
The granularity isn't great, and so it's hard to point out exactly where the problem areas are. But, as someone who walks from Beverly Hills to my house in Beverly Grove, I can tell you it's night and day when you cross the boundary in to the city of LA vs. BH.
As for the constituencies that vote in primaries, I don't have a ton of data to back up my assumptions. I'd presume that areas like south-central, east LA, and other high-urban areas are where the majority of the votes come from, which can be more heavily influenced by local endorsements / interest groups (like unions) than by specific issues like homelessness. But, as I said, no evidence to back that assumption up, just instinct from living here.
So, in summary- Your donor base is annoyed by the problem (because they have to drive past the issue) but it's not a burning issue as there aren't homeless encampments in the Palisades. Your heavy voting base is annoyed, but have other serious issues that are a higher priority, like violent crime, poverty, and education issues with LA unified.
I love LA. I really do. But we've got a lot of diverse issues that need addressing on a constant basis, just to keep our heads above water.