Number One Challenge For Downtown Los Angeles: Homelessness

Today, the Los Angeles Downtown News published an editorial on the “State of Downtown.” Here's the article. The editorial starts off with:

“We are optimistic. We treasure this stage of Downtown's development, we care about urban life, and we want the heart of the city to do well. Despite its problems, we think Downtown has an extraordinary future.”

It describes the strengths of downtown—its business and residents groups, the architecture, new housing, and a “pervasive appetite for urban living”.

The number one challenge, however, is homelessness. All you have to do is walk Central City East, and the sights and smells of homelessness are everywhere.

The editorial states correctly, “The billions of dollars being invested in Downtown will always have an asterisk until the homeless crisis is adequately addressed.”

“Like those who do good work every day to help people get off the streets, we're shocked by the conditions that some people live in (sometimes by choice but often by circumstance), and by the predators who target our most vulnerable citizens.”

Clearly, if we have the resolve to invest billions of dollars into redevelopment, we can solve a homeless problem in downtown.

Op-Ed: Should L.A. Be Helping LA?

I recently wrote an op-ed piece with the hopes of it being published by the Los Angeles Times. They said that there were too many pieces on Hurricane Katrina, and passed on publishing it. We are shopping this piece around to other papers, but in the meantime I thought I would post it on this blog. Here it is:
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Thousands of caring Angelinos are donating money to help the evacuees of Hurricane Katrina. Lear jets are flying these newly homeless to L.A., celebrities are doing their benefits, and the county has committed to housing 3,000 people displaced by the hurricane. We all should be feeling good about our response, right?

Maybe, but below the surface of these wonderful acts of generosity, I’ve encountered a quiet debate going on among those who have worked with Los Angeles’ homeless for decades. Homeless advocate-Ted Hayes-recently said, “If they can’t take care of these (L.A.’s) homeless people after all these years, how are they going to take care of more people?”

The county’s mental health department is setting up evacuee shelters to house up to 3,000 people. The American Red Cross is creating reception centers to link people to services. LAUSD is enrolling the children into school. Even faith groups and individual families are opening up homes for Louisiana’s homeless.

Earlier this year, however, an official L.A. County count revealed that we have a crisis of 90,000 people who are homeless. You would have thought this staggering number of our own local citizens struggling with life on the streets might have moved our community into action. But there were no star-studded benefit concerts for L.A.’s homeless and no grass-roots efforts to open up their homes.

Thankfully, the County Board of Supervisors responded by adding $24 million to the cause of ending homelessness. But there was no swell of public compassion or generosity, like this current Gulf-coast crisis.

So, should Los Angeles be helping Louisiana’s homeless? Especially when tens of thousands of our own local residents have floundered on our streets for decades? A new shelter bed or home for these new incoming homeless, means one less bed or home for our own.

Although it is hard to watch L.A.’s desperately needed resources be used for a cause other than L.A.’s homeless, my hope is that compassion will be contagious.

If you live anywhere in America in the past couple of weeks- you can no longer deny that poverty and homelessness does not exist in our great country. The millions of dollars recently donated by compassionate Americans is a sign that we are both aware of poverty, and are moved to want to help.

In the 1980’s, homelessness was the “cause of the day.” That’s when many of today’s homeless programs started. Perhaps, this current move to help hurricane evacuees will encourage people to see that homelessness is still a major crisis today.

The ability to find 3,000 additional shelter beds for evacuees shows that our community has the capacity to house more people who are homeless. My hope is that when we have finished helping Louisiana’s survivors, we can turn these newly found shelter beds into permanent services for L.A.’s homeless.

Should L.A. be helping LA? We really have no choice. They will show up in Los Angeles whether they are invited and flown by Lear jet or drive here on their own.

Santa Monica Extends Deadline For Homeless Liaison Search

Paying $200,000 per year, the city of Santa Monica thought they would get more than the two dozen applications they received for their newly created Homeless Liaison position. But since the number of applications was low, they have extended the deadline from September 9th to the end of this month. Here is an article about this.

This new Homeless Liaison (or some called it the “Homeless Czar”) position was the idea of Santa Monica Councilmember Bobby Shriver. The goal of creating this new position was to have someone “rally” the community and better coordinate a regional (Westside) response to homelessness.

Shriver has been quoted as saying he wants a “big name politician or businessman like Leon Panetta, former President Bill Clinton’s chief of staff, or former Disney CEO Michael Eisner.” Neither of them have applied so far.

Pasadena’s Homeless Database To Be First On-Line In Los Angeles

The city of Pasadena has once again led the way in Los Angeles County by having plans to start up its Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) in October. Recently the city was the first in the county to finish its Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness.

The HMIS system is a regional database that will identify and track homeless persons who are receiving services. Along with the Ten Year Plan, this new system is mandated by HUD (the Department of Housing and Urban Development.) Currently, there is no computerized system for agencies to share information.

The Pasadena Star News writes: “Anne Lansing, program coordinator for Pasadena, said the database will help implement the 10-year strategy. For instance, the database will help monitor the outcome of efforts to help the homeless, she said.” Here is the article.

The city and county of Los Angeles are still in the planning stages for its HMIS system.

Prince Adopts Homelessness As His Cause

The BBC News reports that Prince William of England is following in his mother’s foot steps by sponsoring a British homeless agency.

Here is part of the article (Click here for full article):
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Prince William has chosen a young people's homelessness charity as the first to which he will be a patron.

The 23-year-old will be following in the footsteps of his mother, who became a patron to the charity in 1992.

Clarence House said William had spent the past two days working as a volunteer at Centrepoint. He said he was "deeply concerned" for people, especially the young, "who find themselves living on the streets or without a proper home".

Prince William said he was delighted to accept the organisation's invitation.

"He is the same age as many of the young people we support and he gets on so well with them," said Anthony Lawton, of Centrepoint.

During his volunteer work he spoke with homeless people about their situation, helped them review their personal development plans and to sort out housing benefit claims and find more permanent accommodation.

"Charities like Centrepoint do such an amazing job in helping to combat homelessness and social exclusion and I just wanted to lend my support to their remarkable efforts," he said.

Centrepoint chief executive Anthony Lawton said it was "wonderful" that William had decided to support them.

"He is the same age as many of the young people we support and he gets on so well with them," said Mr Lawton. "I know that all the young people he was worked with over the last few days will think this is fantastic news."

“The Real Scandal Unveiled By Katrina”

A Chicago resident writes an op-ed piece for a New Zealand news outlet about the link between Hurricane Katrina and homelessness in Los Angeles. He basically says that Katrina has unveiled the realities of America’s homelessness. Here's the article.

He says the hurricane images he saw on television reminded him of the homeless images he saw in Los Angeles.

Here is the beginning of his article:
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“The body of a human being lying lifeless on the street is always an unsettling sight. I had seen them more than once while on human rights missions abroad. But there was something particularly disturbing about seeing a corpse stretched on the sidewalk of a downtown street in a major American city, while passers by barely paid attention.

“A scant group of men and a few women, all indigent, African American, mostly, sat or stood scattered in the surrounding area as dusk turned into darkness. Without access to heat, electricity or running water, a couple of them started a small fire next to a brick wall. As a slight wind rustled the garbage strewn on the pavement, I caught a whiff of the stench of unbathed bodies that floated on the air.

“The images emanating from New Orleans over the last few days, reminded me of that scene. I had not witnessed it in the midst of a major natural disaster, though, but on a routine day in skid row in downtown Los Angeles.”