The Los Angeles Fire Department answers an average of 2,100 calls every day, and a growing number of those calls involve the homeless.
Now an innovative program aims at providing a solution and is proving to be a success.
Eyewitness News spent time with Fire Station 9, which serves Skid Row. The paramedics there are part of a pilot program that is using Fast Response Vehicles, or FRVs.
"I call them the special forces of the LAFD because of their multi-skillset," LAFD Chief Ralph Terrazas said.
LAFD has four of the vehicles and the fast response time is because the teams are always on the streets. In the four hours Eyewitness News was with the station, the team handled 11 calls.
In one case, when responders arrived to help a man choking, he was fine. It's an example of the program's value because of the resources that were not used.