Creating A Tent City To Advocate For Action

That’s what happened in downtown Los Angeles recently. In fact, it worried the Mayor’s office so much that the Mayor wrote an op-ed piece in the Los Angeles Times to defend his record on addressing homelessness.

Clearly, no public official would want a “city” of homeless tents camped out on the front lawn of City Hall.

So the advocates of the LA Coalition To End Hunger and Homelessness, indeed, made their point clear.

"Exactly a year ago, our leaders came to Skid Row and pledged to end homelessness in 10 years," said Bob Erlenbush of the Coalition to End Hunger and Homelessness. "But, once the television cameras left, we heard nothing. All we got was lip service and rhetoric and no action."

Sure enough, in the past couple of years, public officials and community leaders have been very vocal about their support to end homelessness in Los Angeles County. But words are useless without action—and, frankly, additional funding.

Without significant funding and new ways to address homelessness, this issue will just go away. Having tents camped out on the City Hall lawn was a way to literally shove this issue in the faces of public officials.

Will it work? We will find out…

(Pic from www.enmassefilms.org)