LA City To Fight 9th Circuit Court

The Los Angeles City Council voted in closed session to appeal the 9^th Circuit Court decision that stops the city of Los Angeles from banning people from sitting, lying, or sleeping on public streets and sidewalks. The case presented to the 9^th Circuit Court was backed by the ACLU.

So, is law enforcement the answer to ending homelessness?

It’s a sensitive and emotional issue. On the one hand people who are struggling with poverty and then end up homeless on our streets should not be considered a criminal, or breaking the law for being homeless. That’s cruel.

On the other hand, sometimes people struggling with mental health issues, battling substance abuse, or simply feeling hopeless, don’t have the capacity or simply are unable to find the resources to help them get off the streets.

So also, the local “housed” community (residents and businesses) “pay the price” of poverty and homelessness engulfing their community. And feel helpless.

I’ve always proposed the “Clean Streets, Not Mean Streets” approach to integrating law enforcement and homeless services. Allow the community to “clean up” its streets, if there are enough beds and housing for the homeless.

But there is the “timing” issue… Do we wait until all the resources are available before a community can start “cleaning up”?

Why not compromise… allow the community to clean up the streets, when there are available shelter beds (usually in the morning, before noon there are available shelter beds). When the shelter beds are full for the day, allow law enforcement to stop “enforcing” the ordinances.

In the meantime, encourage our community to increase the number of beds and permanent supportive housing units, so that one day we can truly enforce these ordinances 24/7.

I also believe that there should be a stronger “triage” system… teams of social workers, mental health workers, and law enforcement doing triage on the streets. So that we can figure out who really needs help, and who are the “predators” on the streets taking advantage of the void of law and of homeless people.

The bottom line is this… we desperately need to help get these hurting people off the streets and into permanent housing. It means both sides compromising their “principles” and working together to consider this a crisis of humanity.