SANTA MONICA, California — The average one-bedroom apartment in this beach town will cost you more than $3,700 a month, according to one recent study. The median home price here was $1.1 million in 2017, according to census data, and 90% of the homes here cost more than $500,000.

It’s one of America’s most expensive places to live in. That’s one reason that there’s a massive homelessness problem here and in the broader Los Angeles County. “The number of homeless people counted across Los Angeles County jumped 12% over the past year,” the Associated Press reported last year, “to a total of 58,936.”