“We marched for fair housing, and now we have homelessness…”

Today, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) begins its annual convention in Milwaukee. A couple of days ago, Reuters published an article interviewing civil rights leaders in Milwaukee. Click here to read article.

Many are quoted as saying that the civil rights struggle decades ago fought against legalized discrimination. However, today they are “held hostage by today’s crime and poverty.”

There is an interesting quote by a Milwaukee community activist named George Martin, “We marched for fair housing, and now we have homelessness…” Although fair housing laws were passed in 1968 in order to stop housing discrimination, they didn’t stop homelessness.

Clearly, more must be done.

Does Homelessness Affect Race Relations?

Within a week after being elected, Los Angeles Mayor Villaraigosa went to Jefferson High School to help soothe the nerves of students and parents. Every one was on edge after student fights occurred between blacks and Latinos that were motivated by racial tensions.

This activist Mayor is showing our city that racial harmony will be a primary value of his administration.

So now, journalists and experts are looking at the racial conflict among the nearly 4,000 student body of this high school south of downtown Los Angeles.

An interesting article in yesterday’s Los Angeles Times details the underlying issues among the student body. (Click the title to read this article.)

Interestingly, the writers mention that these students live in a neighborhood overwhelmed with crime, unemployment and homelessness. The inference… if crime, unemployment, and homelessness could be reduced, the tension between different races in the neighborhood could also be reduced.

I see this as another reason to solve homelessness in our community.

Angry Attacks On Homeless

…And I thought we (here in America) are mean to people who are homeless.

I was walking to the local Farmer’s Market last weekend, when a couple taking their morning stroll, stopped to look at a man who was homeless. The homeless man was standing in the middle of the street, and appeared drunk.

The husband of the middle-class couple shouted out to the homeless man, “You’re disgusting!” And he walked away.

Although not the norm, verbal attacks do occur against the homeless.

But check out what is happening in the Czech capital of Prague… People are pouring gasoline on the homeless and setting them afire when they are sleeping. The violent outbursts of anger reflect an angry attitude toward the homeless in the Czech Republic. (Click the title to read the article.)

It is sad when a community thinks the only response to a terrible societal problem like homelessness is violence and anger toward the people affected.

Critics Blast Denver’s Homeless Plan

Like hundreds of other cities in America, including Los Angeles, the city of Denver has been strongly encouraged to develop a ten year plan to end homelessness by the federal government.

Currently, Denver spends $70 million to help the 4,700 homeless people that sleep on their streets. That is more money than the city of Los Angeles spends on homelessness, and yet L.A. County has 90,000 people who are homeless.

The city of Denver plans to increase their funding by $8 million to $12 million each year for the next ten years. A total investment of $122 million into permanent supportive housing, a movement called “Housing First.”

Critics, however, say that their plan is basically building “government subsidized housing” for the homeless, without addressing the root causes of homelessness. (Click title to read the Denver Post article.)

The city of Los Angeles has formed its own Blue Ribbon panel to develop a ten year plan to end homelessness in L.A. (I am a member of this panel.) They call it Bring L.A. Home. Sometime this Fall, the plan will be publicly announced.

Using LIVE 8 Approach To End Homelessness

Twenty years ago, LIVE AID raised $100 million to help the poor in Africa. Like today’s LIVE 8, it was a series of concerts by famous musicians to garner financial aid for this impoverished continent. Unfortunately, twenty years later poverty and AIDS are worse in Africa. So they are doing it again.

But this time, Reuters states: “Last time they wanted to feed the world, this time they want to change it.” (Click title to read article.) That means, they are not raising money for just food, they want to pressure the world’s political leaders to change policies toward Africa (especially debt relief), and urge the richer countries to financially invest in this continent.

The fight against homelessness should be the same. Twenty years ago, the County of Los Angeles formed a task force to develop a plan to end homelessness. At that time, the plan states there were 15,000 homeless people on our streets. Today, there are 90,000 people on the streets.

Providing food and shelter is no longer the solution to homelessness. We need the political leaders to change policies and programs that contribute to homelessness, and invest more resources to actually end homelessness.