Los Angeles Goes to War With Itself Over Homelessness

Tents of the unhoused in front of Snapchat’s former headquarters in Venice, Calif. Credit... Glenna Gordon for The New York Times

The mobile unit has been tricked out to Dr. Coley King’s exact specifications. From the back of the van, his team — a nurse, caseworkers and often a volunteer — draws blood, checks vitals, conducts psychiatric evaluations. King is especially proud of the extra step and handle he installed, which helps patients climb into the vehicle when he visits the various homeless encampments around Venice, Calif. These include the one on Third Avenue, another on Hampton Drive, another on the boardwalk, one that used to be along Penmar — typically, clusters of tents, plywood structures, tarps strung up overhead. He also sees patients at a shelter and keeps hours a couple of nights a week at the Venice Family Clinic.

When King, who is 52, started practicing street medicine 14 years ago, he quickly became a local fixture, recognizable for his handlebar mustache and shoulder-length hair. He lives in Venice himself, surfing at the beach and biking in the Santa Monica Mountains, about 10 miles up the coast. “I’m immersed in this neighborhood,” he told me during one of his morning rounds in early April. “I live within blocks of encampments and the clinic. When I go to the grocery store, I see my patients. When I go to the beach to surf, I see my friends that I surf with and my patients.” As soon as he makes a stop on his rounds, patients emerge from cars and tents to ask about housing, about treatments, about the local gossip.

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