A Contract To End Dumping:Will It Work?

Last week, the Los Angeles City Council asked the city’s Chief Legislative Analyst to draw up a formal contract with hospitals, police agencies and other institutions to commit to stop the “dumping” of homeless people into downtown Los Angeles.

For the past year, there has been documented proof that the practice of “dumping” has occurred. Video tapes and law enforcement testimony are now real evidence.

The question is this… is this a non-binding, symbolic agreement? Or will these outlying entities really sign a formal contract? And if the agreement is broken, what would be the consequences?

This is similar to the State “Housing Element” laws where local cities are mandated to include affordable housing in their long-term housing plans. There are no consequences to non-compliance, so many local cities just don’t include plans for affordable housing. So the result… A majority of people in Los Angeles County cannot afford to buy a home. Another result… the increase of homelessness.

Back to “Anti-Dumping”… let’s say a suburban law enforcement agency is caught “dumping” a person into downtown Los Angeles. Who would penalize the agency? And what would be the penalty?

So what is the solution to “homeless dumping”? Remember the County’s $100 Million Homeless Prevention Initiative? $7 Million of this plan was for Regional Homeless Centers. The idea is for the outlying areas to have a place to send their homeless people for help, other than downtown Los Angeles.

A regional system of care for the homeless is a positive solution.

It is documented that outlying cities also have a homeless problem. So providing Regional Homeless Centers addresses both the need for suburban cities to have a place to send their homeless people, as well as the need for downtown Los Angeles to stop the flow of people coming into “Skid Row.”

It’s a WIN-WIN…