Santa Monica’s “New” Theory on Homelessness

Jean Sedillos, an active Santa Monica resident who is also helping Santa Monica Councilmember Bobby Shriver develop a Housing First program, wrote an op-ed piece in the Santa Monica Mirror. It is titled: “Santa Monica Homeless Theory Continues to Evolve.” Here is the article.

The premise states that the last 16 years of helping the homeless in Santa Monica has not worked, and so a new approach to helping has evolved. She writes, “The early years were definitely not the good old days.” In fact, she also writes, “Until a year ago Santa Monica was making no concerted effort to move chronic homeless people into services and housing.”

One of her solutions is: “We have now concluded that Santa Monica must insist on regional solutions to homelessness and not try to locate every facility within our 8.3 square miles.”

Her primary solution is based on a national movement, created by the National Alliance To End Homelessness, called “Housing First.” The basis is that people who are homeless should have access to permanent housing linked to supportive services immediately. They should not have to linger in emergency or transitional housing. Here is the link to NAEH.

This new theory has strongly influenced the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and local approaches around the country. Los Angeles city and county are also adopting forms of this new approach.

Will a Housing First approach to ending homelessness work? Or will it simply be another theory that goes by the wayside when a new administration comes into power?

Time will only tell. In the meantime, we still have tens of thousands of people floundering on our streets.

Evacuees Go To Top Of The List…

Jocelyn Stewart, of the LA Times, wrote an article today titled: “Hurricane Victims Go to Top of Some Public Housing Agency Lists.”

After a year of struggle to maintain Section 8 housing vouchers for our nation’s poor and homeless, the priority of housing hurricane victims will now take precedence over all other people in poverty or who are homeless.

Here are some segments of the article:
__________

“In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, public agencies that help house the poor may face a dilemma: how to help their own needy residents while assisting the victims of the hurricane.

“But local housing authorities have not yet received additional funds to help with evacuees, and HUD has not issued temporary Section 8 housing vouchers, as it did after the Northridge earthquake.

“In some cases, aid for a victim of Katrina may create a longer wait for other families, officials said. Local agencies can decide whether to give evacuees preference on waiting lists.

“Los Angeles' Housing Authority will make 60 vacant units of public housing available and will accept up to 500 Section 8 vouchers from Katrina victims. The assistance is available to those who received Section 8 help or lived in public housing in their hometowns, said authority spokesman Hugo Garcia.

“But activist Ted Hayes staged a protest Thursday morning in Los Angeles, questioning the decision to help evacuees when, he said, local officials have said for years that they lack the resources to assist the homeless.

"What about all these people who have been on the streets of Los Angeles all these years?" he asked. "Handle that disaster before you handle another one."

Katrina Evacuee Arrested For Panhandling in Atlanta

The UPI reports the following:

ATLANTA, GA, United States (UPI) -- A man who fled Louisiana with his family to escape Hurricane Katrina was arrested in Atlanta for panhandling, which is against the law in parts of the city.

James Scott says he had slept in a car for days with his brother, sister and her two young children before they decided to ask for help.

Nearly broke, the family drove to Buckhead, an affluent north Atlanta neighborhood Thursday and began asking passing motorists for help.

But, after about half an hour later he was approached by a policeman who arrested him for soliciting despite his showing of proof he was not a local homeless person but rather an evacuee down on his luck in an unfamiliar city, the Atlanta Journal Constitution said.

As he was being taken to jail, he said, another officer gave him $7.

Atlanta Police Department spokesman John Quigley said soliciting on a public sidewalk is allowed in the area, but not in traffic.

Notice From LAHSA Regarding Hurricane Katrina Evacuees

Here is an email sent to LAHSA (Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority) service providers regarding evacuees from Hurricane Katrina who are arriving in Los Angeles (It was sent yesterday):

Dear LAHSA funded service provider,

As you know, many Hurricane Katrina evacuees have already arrived in Los Angeles and many more will be arriving soon. Though you may have received calls or emails regarding beds or units that may be available in your facility to shelter or house the evacuees, this was done for informational purposes. Therefore, you should not reserve beds for the evacuees or prioritize them over homeless people on your existing waiting lists.

The City and County of Los Angeles are well aware that the homeless systems in Los Angeles can not meet the needs of our estimated 90,000 homeless people, let alone those made homeless by Hurricane Katrina. For this reason, the City and County have been working extremely hard to locate and open facilities specifically for the evacuees as well as to provide them with necessary resources. Some of these facilities may become operational as early as tomorrow. Additionally, the County 211 information line is gearing up to serve as a 24/7 matching service, i.e. collecting information about available shelter and services and matching people to these resources. Therefore, please feel free to contact or refer people to the 211 information line for the availability of targeted shelter and resources for the Hurricane evacuees.

As I receive more detailed information, I will update you accordingly. Please feel free to call me if you need additional clarification. Thank you for all your efforts on behalf of homeless people and the evacuees.

Mitchell Netburn
Executive Director, LAHSA

L.A. City and County Will Take In 2,000 Hurricane Evacuees

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and County Supervisor Gloria Molina announced a joint task force that will assist hurricane survivors, and have plans to accommodate up to 2,000 people. Here is the article from the Daily Breeze.

The County Board of Supervisors voted yesterday to identify 20 facilities that will shelter 100 people each.

An article in the Daily News quotes Supervisor Molina: “There is no doubt that this is a huge responsibility that we are choosing to take on. But given what we have witnessed, we have no choice but to do what we can to assist the survivors.” The Daily Breeze quotes her as saying that although 2,000 people might strain the region’s resources, it is a manageable number.

The task force plans to also identify homeless shelters and vacant public housing as possible places to house the survivors.

Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky thinks that the West Los Angeles Veterans Administration building could also be a potential site.

Perhaps when we have taken care of these 2,000 people, and returned them to permanent housing, we could use these sites to help 2,000 more homeless people off the streets of Los Angeles…

L.A. County Holding $24 Million Until LAHSA Finances Are In Order

The Santa Monica Daily Press reports today on the County’s promised money toward homeless services. Here's the PDF file. Their headline is: “Holding out on giving to homeless.” And their byline is: “County keeping $24M earmarked for homeless until LAHSA can crawl out from financial fiasco.”

Although it is a little melodramatic, it is true that the County is holding their money until Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority’s (LAHSA) financial house is cleaned up. It was reported in the Los Angeles Times in July that LAHSA owed $5 million in unpaid bills from service providers, but only had a fraction of this amount in the bank.

The article states: “LA city and county officials are working to restructure LASHA, which has been operating without a chief financial officer and minimal financial staff.”

Joe Bellman, the press deputy for L.A. County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky is quoted: “It’s not responsible to allocate money without having transparency. We don’t want to flush money down a dysfunctional system.”

Coexistence in Downtown Los Angeles?

The Los Angeles Business Journal published an article today on downtown Los Angeles. The first sentence is this: “A head-on collision is drawing closer on L.A.’s Skid Row.” Here's the article.

They quote Alice Callaghan, the downtown advocate for the poor and the homeless, along with Carol Schatz, the CEO of Central City Association. They use their quotes from a KPCC radio show called, “Air Talk.” KPCC had actually asked if I would also join Alice and Carol for the show. I respectfully declined, not wanting to get in the middle of this debate.

The fact of the matter is, however, that we are all involved in this debate. Do we support the construction of high-end residential units in downtown Los Angeles, or do we think this gentrification is pushing the poor out?

“When a gentrified neighborhood comes in they always want to get rid of the poor,” Callaghan is quoted.

Schatz responds on the show, “That is absolutely untrue.”

Obviously, the 1976 redevelopment plan that was referred to as a “policy of containment” has not worked. Designating one area for homeless services and housing has not stopped the problem of homelessness in downtown.

It is said there are 11,000 homeless in downtown. The estimated population of downtown is 25,000.

The article states: “Downtown’s more enlightened leaders know they have a problem—and the thing is, they haven’t really figured out what to do about it.”

The article ends by agreeing with Alice Callaghan: coexistence doesn’t work. So are we headed toward a head-on collision?

I don’t think so. Clearly, if things go the same, the problem of homelessness in downtown will remain the same. We clearly need to provide some new, creative solutions. Redevelopment, in itself, is not evil. We just have to make sure that we take care of the poor and homeless as part of this redevelopment.