State Senator Cedillo Answers Questions On His “Homeless” Bills

The LA Downtown News recently interviewed California State Senator Gil Cedillo. Here are some of his answers in regards to his ten “homeless” bills:

Q: Whose fault is Skid Row?

A: Everyone's. This is the fifth largest economy in the world. This is the most important and richest city in the richest state in the most powerful country in the world. It's absolutely unacceptable. We went down to see immediately some of the urgent things that we could do to deal with this.

Q: What did you see?

A: A lot of drugs. Lots of drug abuse and alcoholism. I'm familiar with that. I've had my brother-in-law go through recovery Downtown. I don't think there's a family in America that is immune from the challenges of alcoholism or drug abuse regardless of their economic situation.

So from that emerged our desire to create a recovery zone - a place, a sanctuary, for people who do have the challenge of drug or alcohol dependency to seek treatment and to do so in an environment that does not tolerate drug dealers preying upon their vulnerabilities. We're not liberal about that. We wouldn't tolerate that anywhere in the city, why would we tolerate that Downtown?

[One of our bills] would create the drug free zone, and one would enhance penalties for drug dealers. Then we want to [create] a drug court that deals with people who are drug or alcohol dependent or people who suffer from mental illness and who can make those distinctions. And then not criminalize those people but make circumstances for them to make a recovery.

There's also this question of dumping. Many people in this county, many people in this region and throughout the southwest send people to Downtown Los Angeles. They do not embrace their responsibility to members of their communities to provide services. Downtown cannot bear the burden of services for 13 million people.

(Photo by Gary Leonard... thanks CCE Blogger for reminding me to give credit...)