Spencer Pratt has drawn attention to a controversial aspect of Los Angeles’s homelessness crisis. In recent statements as a mayoral candidate, the reality TV star claimed that around 60% of the city’s roughly 40,000 homeless individuals are not from Los Angeles or even California. According to Pratt, many have been transported in by “scam rehabs, scam NGOs, and scam homeless nonprofits” that treat vulnerable people as revenue sources.50 He argued that cutting off taxpayer funding for these operations would cause many to relocate to places like Seattle, where local policies might be more permissive.

This phenomenon ties into the documented practice of “body brokering” (or patient brokering). Recruiters target individuals struggling with addiction and mental health issues—often homeless people—offering free transport, housing, or perks to move them to high-reimbursement states like California. Providers then bill insurance, Medicaid, or government programs, sometimes paying brokers thousands of dollars per person in kickbacks. Federal indictments and investigations have confirmed such schemes in Southern California and elsewhere, where for-profit sober living homes and treatment facilities exploit the system.

Critics describe this as part of a broader “homeless industrial complex,” where billions in public funds sustain a cycle that benefits organizations more than it resolves the underlying problems. While not every out-of-state homeless person arrives via brokers—surveys show many became homeless locally after moving to LA—significant migration and exploitation have contributed to the explosion of visible homelessness. Pratt and others argue that those profiting from this system should face serious consequences, including jail time, to prioritize genuine solutions over perpetuating dependency.

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