Does New York Have The Answers To LA’s Homeless Problem? LA Has The Answers In Our Own Backyard

Some LA community leaders think NY has the answers. A delegation of political and community leaders spent a couple of days last week looking at New York City’s homeless programs in search of answers. (LA Times article)

New York has around 35,000 homeless people compared to Los Angeles County’s 90,000. New York says that they have reduced the number of people on the streets where as Los Angeles’ number continues to soar.

Are their programs better than LA’s?

Consider this… New York spends more than $650 million in homeless services each year. L.A.’s budget is one tenth of that number--$65 million.

The answer lies in which community is willing to invest enough money and resources to deal with the problem appropriately.

Los Angeles has the answers. We just need the investment to really deal with homelessness.

Allow me to list just a few LA-based homeless programs that are national models:


LAMP, OPCC, Shelter Partnership – The Community Model, a comprehensive/holistic program for mentally ill homeless.

Beyond Shelter – Housing First for Homeless Families. They are national leaders in this model.

PATH – PATH Mall, “One Stop” service centers for homeless. Cities around the country are studying this model. Project YIMBY (Yes! In My Backyard), a local community mobilization model.

Chrysalis – Employment training and development for homeless persons.

Public Counsel – Homeless/Community Court; alternative sentencing.

City of Santa Monica – Chronic Homeless Project, a proactive program to reach chronic homeless people on the streets.

Traveler’s Aid – Helps homeless people return to their families around the country with bus tickets.

A Community of Friends – Permanent Supportive Housing program for homeless people with disabilities

City of Pasadena – HOPE Teams (Homeless Outreach Psychiatric Evaluation)—law enforcement and Department of Mental Health workers join forces to reach out to people on the streets.

Down and Out in Beverly Hills

National Public Radio has a segment on a new trend of L.A.’s Homeless to migrate from Downtown L.A. to more affluent areas of Los Angeles—like Beverly Hills and Venice.

Here is the link: “Many L.A.’s Homeless Seek Affluent Areas”

PATH’s street outreach teams have worked with the homeless in Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, and Hollywood for years.

I don’t know if I would call it a trend. We know there are homeless people throughout L.A.’s rich areas. And we know that many people who are homeless choose not to stay in dangerous areas like Skid Row. I don’t think it is a new phenomenon.

Interestingly, NPR highlights a couple who “chose” to be homeless because they like the “freedom of living under the stars.” “Choosing to be homeless” is just not the case for the majority of those who end up on the streets.

Response To LAT’s Article On Hollywood: Since When Is Permanent Housing A Homeless Drop-In Center?

Looks like the NIMBYs (Not In My Back Yard) got to an LA Times reporter. Today’s article talks about a proposed CRA project in Hollywood (that I blogged about last November.)

The article states that there are too many runaway homeless youth programs in the area—Hollywood Blvd. and Gower Street. And that these programs are just attracting more homeless people to an area that is being redeveloped.

The quotes in the article are from NIMBY groups who are fighting the new proposed project.

What is the project? Let’s dispel the rumors… The project is a permanent affordable housing apartment building for formerly homeless adults, with support services on site. It is not a drop-in center and it is not a shelter.

In order for the County and City of Los Angeles to reduce and hopefully end homelessness, every area of the County needs to build more permanent supportive housing—including Hollywood.

If we don’t… the problem will only grow in downtown Los Angeles and other hotspots.

There is another fact… the original developer of that property (the one who wanted to buy it from the owner—First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood) wanted to put a nightclub there.

Let’s see… what’s better? Build a nightclub on a church’s former parking lot, right next door to the sanctuary? Or build affordable housing for people who are formerly homeless?

What would God do?

Housing California Urges State Legislators To Fund Affordable Housing

The fight is on to convince state leaders that the funding of affordable housing should be included in the ground-breaking infrastructure bond being considered.

Housing California, a state-wide advocacy coalition in support of housing for all Californians, is leading the charge. They were in Sacramento pitching their cause.

Here is what they have to say:
__________

(Sacramento, CA) — On Wednesday, Jan 25, Julie Snyder, policy director for Housing California, testified before the Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee on the need to fund affordable homes in the infrastructure bonds under debate by the legislature. Snyder argued that housing, like streets and sidewalks, is essential infrastructure and requires state investment.

Snyder gave three reasons for funding homes like we fund schools and streets:

1. Homes affect every aspect of Californians’ lives. School performance, family time and economic security are all improved with a safe, affordable home.

2. Home construction impacts spending on other infrastructure: Where homes are built helps dictate Californian’s transportation demands in particular.

3. Housing infrastructure, or the lack thereof, impacts our business climate. To attract a talented workforce, businesses need affordable apartments and for-sale homes.

“The state should invest in affordable homes like it invests in schools, streets and water systems,” Snyder said. “Homes are a key piece of our state’s infrastructure that create opportunities for better lives, improve our business climate and stretch transportation dollars.”

Download Snyder's full testimony from their website.

LA Housing Department Manager Calls On Another Audit of LAHSA

The L.A. Times reports today that LA Housing Department General Manager, Mercedes Marquez, sent a letter last Tuesday to Mayor Villaraigosa requesting a management audit of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA). Here's the article.

LAHSA oversees government funding of homeless services for both the City and County of L.A.

LAHSA was audited by City Controller Laura Chick last summer, when her office discovered that LAHSA owed $5 million of back payments to homeless service providers, and didn’t have the money to cover the accounts payables. Since then, the city and the county have stepped in to supposedly remedy the situation.

Marquez has been the Mayor’s point person for LAHSA since last summer’s audit. She claims that LAHSA didn’t know they had $1.54 million of funds that could be used for homeless services.

The article quotes her letter, “Unfortunately, LAHSA's report of unexpected balances is not reliable, because for the last two program years, they have not adequately tracked expenditures by funding source.”

Times Columnist Highlights Homeless Service Cuts In Mayor’s Budget

Steve Lopez, the LA Times columnist who wrote a feature on Skid Row, doesn’t mince words. (See today’s column.) Some agency programs providing shelter for L.A.’s Homeless are being cut out of this year’s city budget. (PATH is one of the agencies—referred to as the “Hollywood shelter” in Lopez’s article.)

These funds are from the federal government’s CDBG (Community Development Block Grant). They are being cut by $364 million nationwide. Groups around the country are trying to fight these cuts. Los Angeles is losing $15 million. Less money, means less services to help the poor and homeless.

Councilmember Eric Garcetti wrote an op-ed piece about this back in February 2005.

Mayor Villaraigosa was off to Washington, D.C. to fight for L.A.’s funding.

Interestingly, Lopez states that one reason why the mayor’s office is not refunding these cuts from other city dollars is because they wanted to send a message to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA), the agency that manages government homeless funds for Los Angeles City and County.

Here’s what Lopez said:
__________

But his (the mayor’s) staff said his proposed cuts were intended to send a message that the homeless services agency (LAHSA) needs to do a better job with what it's got and work more closely with the city on solutions to homelessness. Last year, the city controller took a look at the books and said: "This place is a mess."

Combining a Homeless Persons Shelter With A Homeless Pets Shelter…

You see many people who are homeless on the streets carting with them their only prized relationship—their dog. These pets provide companionship, and for many, a sense of security for people trying to find a safe and secure place to sleep. (If I were sleeping on the street, I would want a pet dog next to me—as my watch dog…)

So when service providers try to encourage people on the streets to enter a homeless program, many people won’t go in because they don’t want to leave their treasured pet.

Here in Los Angeles, we are creating a solution.

PATH (People Assisting The Homeless) and PAWS/LA (Pets Are Wonderful Support) are hoping to build a homeless pets shelter at a PATH housing program so that the people living at PATH can also bring their pets.

PAWS/LA is a nonprofit group that encourages and supports pets for owners who are low-income or living with a life-threatening disability or illness.

It’s a perfect partnership between PATH and PAWS/LA. A homeless service provider and an animal care program.

Reaching the chronically homeless person on the streets is the goal. Thinking outside of the box, to provide creative solutions is the means.

Since When Is Bashing Homeless People A “Sport”?

Since when is being “down and out” (people who are homeless) an invitation to be beaten up by those who are “up and in” homes (you know, those who are not homeless)? Some even call it a "sport"...

These homeless beatings are happening all over our country. The three Florida teens who were arrested for killing a homeless man with a baseball bat are not the first to participate in this “sport.”

It happened here in Los Angeles last summer. Advocates are saying this has happened dozens of times around the country.

The preferred weapons… baseball bats, rocks, bricks, fists and feet, pellet guns and knives.

And we call ourselves a “civilized” First World country?

First, we allow people to sleep on our streets when they are “down and out.” That, in itself, is wrong. As a First World country, we should have a “right to shelter/housing” for every American.

And then second, our youth of America are beating them up. What’s wrong with our society?

Perhaps these random beatings might be a wake-up call for our country to do something about homelessness.

And I don’t mean just stop beating them up. I mean provide housing for every American so that people who are homeless have a safe place to sleep.