The 28-Day Shuffle Is Not A New Fangled Dance
Okay, the trend in today’s homelessness theory is to build a lot of permanent supportive housing so people on the streets don’t have to linger in shelters or on the street for a long period of time. Everyone from Bush’s homeless czar, to national coalitions, to even our new “celebrity” L.A. Times columnist, Steve Lopez all advocate for this.
And yet the old paradigm of “temporary” thinking still persists. The 28-day shuffle is being highlighted in the L.A. Times today… what is this? It’s temporary housing providers who only let homeless people or people of poverty stay in their “hotels” (more like emergency shelter) for only 28-days. Why? Because if the people stay longer they would be considered long-term permanent residents who could sue the owners for wrongful eviction.
But wait a minute, isn’t that what we want? People given permanent residency so that they can permanently get off the streets?
YES. That’s why the city is going after these “hotel” owners in downtown Los Angeles.
We certainly need to break the old system of care, and create new paradigms.
posted by LA's Homeless Blog at
7:44 AM
1 Comments:
Too bad common sense isn't. It was rather horrifying to resort to asking for the governments help, which consisted of 28 days of private shelter. If one was lucky to secure employement in those 4 weeks, one has to work from the streets, unless one is lucky enough to secure a spot in a year round shelter. In order to get to the LA shelter from Long Beach, one must be at a pick up point at 3PMish, making it next to impossible to hold a job, use the shelter, save money, get off the streets.
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