Today’s Emperor: Does He Have No Clothes?

Sometimes people are offended by such insurgent questions.

Myself, I’m an advocate of questioning societal norms. Especially when society allows social ills to continue to go unfettered—like homelessness.

So last week, knowing that I would be out of town for a week, I gave my senior staff the freedom to take over this blog. (Thanks for those who emailed me wondering if I knew what was going on—nice to have people watch my back.)

I gave my associates the freedom to write what was on their hearts. “Knock yourselves out!” And they did. They practically hijacked this blog.

Although I may not agree 100% with their assessment, I do agree with their perspective that there is a real need to approach homelessness in a new light.

- ACLU/LAPD: They are the wrong stakeholders to resolve homelessness. Cops and lawyers should not be the solution. (I think they would also agree.)

- Money: I agree that with all of the billions of dollars spent on homelessness, we should have solved it by now. It’s not just homeless agencies that are spending money. Frankly, they are a small fraction… government is spending billions and billions. And what is our “return on investment”?

- Race: We don’t even want to talk about it. But let’s not pretend that the emperor is dressed in fine clothing, when he’s not.

- Government: I agree that local communities should be the ones leading the effort to resolve homelessness—they are on the front lines. Today’s government approach to ending homelessness is like waging a war in the Middle East, while the Generals leading the effort are stationed in Florida. (We already know this doesn’t work.)

- Leadership: I agree that new leadership is needed. I don’t know if the solution is to install a new generation of young leaders, or simply provide new leaders with new ideas.

The take-over of this blog will continue. We are redesigning LA Homeless Blog so that more new voices will “take over” this dialogue. Our goal is to develop a virtual community dialogue on addressing homelessness. (Anyone else interested in joining the debate?)

As for the PATH Partners Senior Staff… I think they should have listed the authors of who wrote which article. But I can at least get back at them by listing their names (but you will have to guess who wrote what article)…

Janet Ganaway (Chief Operating Officer)
Tara Brown (Chief Administrative Officer)
Kai Stansberry (Chief Public Affairs Officer)
Maggie Willis (Managing Partner, PATH Partners Associates)
Jennifer Chang (Associate Development Director)

…as far as the threat of job loss? “Don’t fire me, Joel!” Without leaders (at PATH, other homeless agencies, and government policy leaders) who are willing to ask the tough questions, and question whether the Emperor has no clothes, we will sadly continue to battle homelessness for another two decades. We need leaders who are willing to stand up against the norm.

So let the creative, professional, passionate, blunt leadership continue…