KPCC Highlights PATH’s Homeless Street Outreach Program

On Thursday July 28th, KPCC’s “Past Sunset” radio program featured “The Homeless in Los Angeles County.” They highlighted PATH’s project director for street outreach teams, Sam Colquitt, and a PATH graduate. You can listen to the segment here.

Both talked about the realities of street life in Los Angeles. There are now 91,000 homeless people in Los Angeles. Colquitt, and his street outreach team, travel throughout Los Angeles, Hollywood, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, and Inglewood working with the homeless living in the parks, hills, alleys, and freeway overpasses. It is the “Real World” in the eyes of homeless street workers.

Phoenix Death Toll: 30; “Most Are Homeless”

KVOA Channel 4 in Tucson, Arizona reports that the death toll caused by heat in Phoenix has reached 30. “Most are homeless.” The heat wave has tormented Phoenix since July 16. Read article here.

State Will Track Who Benefits From Affordable Housing Bond

In response to last week’s Sacramento Bee article on Proposition 46, the $2.1 billion affordable housing bond, the Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) will track where the funding is going. Reported today in the Sacramento Bee, a department spokesperson said, “More information is always better.” Read here.

More than half of the bond money has already been spent on affordable housing for students, firefighters, battered women, seniors, and the homeless.

“The numbers will tell the truth,” states a spokesperson from Housing California, a statewide coalition of housing advocates, developers, and nonprofit groups. (PATH is a member of this group.)

Although it took nearly a week for the HCD to respond to the Sacramento Bee, it is good that they will make sure that funds will be appropriately spent for housing the poor and homeless. (Although, it seems to me that auditing public funds—especially $2.1 billion—should be a standard practice; not a response to a newspaper article.)

New L.A. Hotline Will Help The Homeless

Just like 911 and 411, the new “211” will connect people to help. With this new number, if you are in need of help—employment, food, shelter, etc.—all you have to do is dial 211 and the operator will connect you to services. Click here to read more.

This program operates 24/7, and started July 1st. Operators can connect people to more than 4,000 human service agencies throughout Los Angeles County.

The previous hotline system was operated by Infoline, a non-profit group that operated an 800 hotline for services. The new 211 phone number is easier to remember.

Last year, the Infoline hotline recorded 45,651 calls to find emergency shelter.

Pasadena Only The Second City in California To Adopt 10-Year Plan

The Pasadena Star News reports today that the City of Pasadena has adopted a 10-Year Plan to end chronic homelessness in their city. Click here to read article. All cities/counties are mandated by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to develop a 10-Year plan if they want to receive federal funds for homeless projects.

Interestingly, Pasadena is only the second city in the State of California to meet this HUD requirement. San Francisco adopted their plan a year ago, and has already announced that chronic homelessness in that city has been reduced by 28 percent.

The city and county of Los Angeles started their planning process two years ago, and called it Bring LA Home. A Blue Ribbon Panel was formed (I am part of this.)

The goal is to have a portion of this 10-Year Plan to be announced sometime this Fall.

Pasadena’s plan is aimed at shifting “away from a model that calls for clothing, sheltering and feeding the homeless to one that emphasizes strategies aimed at returning the homeless to mainstream society.” The Pasadena City Council approved an $11 million package linked to this plan.

Terminal Homelessness: Living at LAX For 20 Years

The Daily Breeze reports today on a 48-year-old homeless man who has been living at LAX for 20 years. Click here to read article. This isn’t the fictional story of Tom Hanks living in an International Terminal for weeks. It’s a real life tale of a man who lives in LAX’s Central Terminal Area, living off of food found in the garbage, and picking up cans to be recycled.

The police and other airport officials all know about him. But they say he is not on drugs and is not mentally ill. He just likes to live at the airport.

He says he has two grown sons. He even claims he is the cousin of councilmember Bernard Parks. (Although the councilmember doubts that claim.)

So the big question is this… why would our society allow such a person to be homeless? Why do we allow him to live off of trash like a squatter in a Calcutta trash dump, and scramble for recycled cans for twenty years? It doesn’t make sense.

Perhaps the new Airport Commissioners, appointed by Mayor Villaraigosa yesterday, could also tackle this simple LAX issue—helping a homeless man at LAX break a 20 year cycle of homelessness.

Sacramento Bee Reports Housing Bond “Doesn’t Deliver”

A few years ago, we, Californians, voted to approve a $2.1 billion housing fund called Proposition 46. This money was to build affordable housing for battered women, seniors, police, veterans and others. There was also a promise for 30,000 new shelter beds for the homeless.

With more than half of the money spent, the Sacramento Bee states that these promises have not been kept. Click here for article (you need a free password). The Bee states:

• The bond measure never set aside money for specific needy groups.
• The number of “units” credited to Prop 46, goes way beyond the actual construction of units.
• Bond’s buying power has been eaten away by runaway housing costs, and by raids by the Legislature.
• State projections of new units are inaccurate.

Those of us advocating for more housing for the homeless were quite excited about Prop 46. I hope more groups examine the effectiveness of this proposition.. for the sake of the hurting people in our state.

Update: Homeless Phoenix

The homeless in Phoenix still struggle over the oppressive heat pounding the western part of America. Here is another article. More and more media (television and print) are catching on to the fact that people are dying in this desert city—including those struggling on the streets.

The L.A.'s Downtown Central City East blogger has an interesting comment over this.. “It is an irony that the homeless come south to run away from bad weather like cold, but the heat got a hold of them this summer.” Click here to read blog. In other words, the homeless escape the cold in the winter, only to die in the heat in the summer. Sad…