The Lies Spencer Pratt Told LA About Homelessness

The LA Mayoral Candidate Built His Campaign on Misinformation about Homeless People. Here’s What Research Actually Shows

If there’s one thing that the Los Angeles mayoral primary has exposed, it’s that the American public still does not fully understand the causes and drivers of homelessness.

Spencer Pratt, a reality television personality, ran a Republican campaign that largely trafficked in misinformation about homelessness. As of this writing, Pratt was in third place with 25.8% of the vote, behind incumbent mayor Karen Bass (34.3%) and LA City Councilmember Nithya Raman (28.6%). A recent analysis by the Los Angeles Times suggests that Raman’s lead could grow as mail-in ballots continue to favor her campaign.

Pratt has claimed that homeless people are simply “drug-addicted zombies,” use their pets to test drugs, and that many people who live on the streets have homes but choose to live outside because of their substance abuse habits.

These claims don’t stand up to an ounce of scrutiny, but they do reveal something much more harmful about American politics and the media ecosystem. Harmful narratives about people who are homeless are still an engaging way to score political points. Moreover, the media is largely unwilling to call out blatantly false information about homelessness.

Pratt’s willingness to spread false information about homelessness also reveals another stark truth. America’s dominant culture has become so distant from people experiencing homelessness that people are willing to accept stereotypes as truth.

“Even if Pratt loses, the damage doesn’t stop,” Mark Horvath, Invisible People’s founder, wrote in a recent social media post. “The messaging sticks. Criminalization becomes normalized. Lies about homeless people get repeated so often that people start accepting them as truth.”

Here are some of the most damaging lies Pratt has told about homelessness since he began running for Los Angeles Mayor.

Pratt: 60% of homeless people are “brought” to LA

Fact: 90% of people who are homeless in California lost their last housing, where they had lived for at least a month, in the state.

One common misconception about homelessness in California is that homeless people from all over the country travel there because of the nice weather and available services. Pratt leaned into this misconception during an interview with ABC7 Los Angeles in May, where he claimed that a majority of people who are homeless in LA were brought to the city by nonprofits.

“These people have been bussed in by scam rehabs, scam NGOs, scam homeless nonprofits,” Pratt told local reporter Josh Haskell. “These people, when I unplug them and say we’re not taking our tax money anymore, they’re all going to Seattle where the mayor will welcome them.”

Pratt’s claim is false. A statewide study of homelessness conducted by the Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative at the University of California, San Francisco, found that 90% of people who are homeless across the state last lived in California before they became homeless.

Another 75% of the population was experiencing homelessness in the county where they last lived.

The study included 3,200 administered questionnaires and 365 in-depth interviews with adults who were homeless across eight counties.

Pratt: Homeless people test their drugs on their pets

Fact: There have been limited instances where advocates claimed to find homeless people testing drugs on pets, but the vast majority of people who are homeless do not engage in such activities.

Pratt highlighted a recent report from local news station KTLA5 where advocates claimed that people experiencing homelessness were testing drugs, primarily fentanyl, on their pets.

“There’s a reason ‘Dog’ is just ‘God’, backward; they share an unconditional love for mankind,” he wrote on X. “Both Nithya and Karen Bass ignore these poor animals being killed on Skid Row and in their city shelters. They don’t care. I will put an end to this horror. VOTE to save these animals.”

Pratt’s claim is misleading. While there have been extreme instances where some people who are homeless abuse animals, the vast majority of homeless people cherish their pets.

Research from the University of Cambridge has found that dogs owned by people experiencing homelessness are generally as healthy as other owned dogs, and in some studies healthier, with lower obesity rates and fewer behavioral problems. In fact, the study found that owned dogs had a greater propensity to develop health conditions, including allergies, atopy, and masses such as histiocytomas and lipomas, due to their sedentary lifestyle.

The same study also found that dogs in homeless households are friendlier than those that are owned. Not only did they have fewer behavioral issues, such as inappropriate barking, chewing, or other destructive behavior, but they were also less aggressive toward veterinarians conducting health exams.

The stereotype that homeless people routinely abuse their pets is not supported by the available evidence. Pets offer people who are homeless “sources of companionship and a source of a sense of responsibility, which enhances their resilience,” according to a study conducted by Purdue University.

In fact, pets were cited as a common barrier to housing among people who participated in the Benioff Center study. About 10% of participants noted that a pet “impeded them a lot” in their search for housing because of landlord policies or rules from supportive housing providers.

“These participants considered their pets to be part of their family, and would not consider housing that wouldn’t allow their pets, despite encountering barriers associated with having a pet,” the study reads in part.

There is also no evidence that homeless people as a group abuse animals at higher rates than housed people, nor is there evidence that “testing drugs on dogs” is a widespread practice on Skid Row, or anywhere else.

Pratt: People are homeless because they are drug users who “don’t want rules”

Fact: People are homeless because there are not enough affordable housing options and supportive services

Pratt has also espoused the so-called “ultimate freedom” theory of homelessness, which suggests that people become homeless because they don’t want to follow rules that prevent them from using drugs or doing other things while living in a home.

“They are choosing to be on the street because they want to do drugs, they don’t want rules, they want to have animals to abuse,” Pratt continued. “This idea that they’re forced on the street right now is a lie that our city is perpetuating.”

Pratt’s claim is false. A majority of people who are homeless do not suffer from substance misuse challenges, and drug use is one of the least common causes of homelessness.

Multiple studies have shown that homelessness is closely tied to income and affordable housing. As Gregg Colburn and Clayton Page Aldern reveal in their book “Homelessness is a Housing Problem,” individual factors like drug use fail to account for regional variation in homelessness.

Instead, housing market conditions, such as the cost and availability of rental housing, “offer a more convincing explanation,” the authors argued.

Homelessness Is a Policy Choice. So Is Ending It.

Now is not the time to be silent about homelessness in America. Poverty and homelessness are both policy choices, not personal failures. That’s why we need you to contact your officials and tell them you support legislation that:

Streamlines the development of affordable housing

Reduces barriers for people experiencing homelessness to enter permanent housing

Bolsters government response to homelessness

Together, we can end homelessness.