Five years ago, James Brown moved into his first apartment after more than two dozen years living on the streets of Los Angeles. Brown was housed as part of a joint effort by the federal government, local communities and nonprofit agencies to help tens of thousands of homeless veterans in the U.S. Today, Brown still lives in the same apartment — a success story in the struggle against chronic homelessness. And while the homeless rate in the U.S. has been going down overall, it's growing in LA as well as some of the nation's other costliest cities. By the latest count, there are almost 58,000 homeless people in Los Angeles County, a 23 percent increase from last year. Brown is charming with a quirky sense of humor. When he started to give a reporter a tour of his East Hollywood apartment five years ago, he stopped when he saw the microphone. "OK, wait a minute, since this is radio, no one can actually see what's going on," he observed with a smile. "And they can only go by what they're
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