Can technology help solve Los Angeles’ homeless crisis? Finding shelter could one day be a click away

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Billions of dollars have been spent trying to get California's homeless off the streets, but outdated computer systems with error-ridden data are too often unable to provide even basic information, such as where a shelter bed is available on a given night. These inefficiencies can have serious consequences.

The problem is particularly acute in Los Angeles, where more than 45,000 people-many of them suffering from serious mental illness, drug addiction, or both-live in trash-strewn encampments that have spread to virtually every neighborhood, with rows of rusting RVs stretching for entire blocks.

Even in the state that ...