Another Teen Beating of Homeless Man in Florida

I don’t know what it is with teens in Florida beating up people who are homeless. Another beating occurred in Riviera Beach, Florida, where three teenagers beat up a homeless man in front of a convenience store pay phone. Here's an article.

These are two strikes against our society… ONE, to allow people to languish on our streets homeless, and TWO, that our youth (our future generation) have the audacity and hatred to beat up people who are already down.

Officials say that they don’t know if the man was beaten because he was homeless.

The teens have not been caught yet, but they have already released the name of the “ring leader.”

L.A.’s Ten Year “Framework” Almost Finished…

As a member of L.A.’s Blue Ribbon Panel to end homelessness (called, “Bring L.A. Home"), I was at their latest panel meeting yesterday afternoon.

There were 27 members (or representatives of members) who attended the meeting out of 66 total members (I think that’s the accurate number of total members.)

Final edits of the draft document are being recommended now, with the goal of having a final draft by March 9th. Then the goal is to approve the document a couple of weeks later, and then have a press conference on March 30th.

It appears that this will not be a Ten Year “Plan”, but instead, a Ten Year “Framework.” What does that mean? It will be explained in the final document.

Stay tuned…

The Two Billion Dollar Speaker…

Yesterday, California Speaker of the Assembly Fabian Nunez proposed Assembly Bill 1783, which would provide $2 billion of funding for affordable housing, including permanent, emergency and transitional housing for the homeless.

Also at yesterday’s press conference were: Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsome, and State Senator Don Perata.

Affordable Housing advocate, Housing California, highlights this new bill on their website.

It is a win for those advocating to include affordable housing in the Governor’s proposed infrastructure bond.

Now it just needs to pass the state legislature…

An L.A. Push To Include Housing In State Infrastructure Bond

Cheers to Mayor Villaraigosa, Council President Eric Garcetti, Councilmembers Wendy Greuel and Janice Hahn, and LA Housing Department head, Mercedes Marquez for traveling to Sacramento to lobby the Governor and State Legislature on the importance of including affordable housing in the proposed $222 billion state infrastructure bond. Here's an article.

Yes, freeways, mass transit, jails, and schools are important to our state. But if people can’t afford to live in a home, then spending money on transportation and education is moot.

Furthermore, when 28% of the state’s population lives in Los Angeles County, it is important to make sure we get our fair share of state resources.

Let’s see… 28% of $222 billion is… $62.1 billion. That’s enough to tackle L.A.’s infrastructure—including addressing affordable housing and homelessness.

HUD’s Continuum of Care In Graphic Form

Interesting political cartoon by RJ Matson of the St. Louis Post Dispatch.

Although the latest “trends” in federal homeless funding is getting away from the traditional “continuum of care” model, many think that the end to homelessness should happen through more federal funding.

Is the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow really HUD (the Department of Housing and Urban Development) in disguise?

March For Underwear, Or March For Housing?

Hmm… What do you do if 200 community members are willing to volunteer their time to march for an important cause, like ending homelessness?

Last Monday, a group marched through downtown Los Angeles to help the homeless. What did they decide to do? Have a drive to collect clean underwear for the homeless.

I don’t think I’m going to comment any further, other than to say that we need more community members to march through downtown Los Angeles on behalf of the homeless.

But perhaps it might be better to march for shelter and permanent housing, rather than underwear.

Here’s the article.

Skid Row Bills: Can We Legislate Homelessness Away?

State Senator Cedillo put on his press conference last Friday with community leaders, and armed with a handful of proposed legislative bills.

Here is the list of proposed bills:

Senate Bill 1318 – Creates stricter penalties for anyone selling drugs near rehabilitation centers or service centers.

Senate Bill 1320 – Creates “Narcotics Recovery Zones” in Skid Row prohibiting anyone convicted of selling drugs from being in the zone.

Senate Bill 1319 - Prohibits any arresting agency from taking people who need drug treatment, mental health services or shelter outside of their jurisdiction. (In other words, “anti-dumping”.)

Senate Bill 1321 - The "Community Reunification Act” requires that the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department release an inmate either to the inmate's previous residence or the sheriff's substation or detention facility closest to the point of arrest.

Senate Bill 1322 – The “Fair Share Zoning Bill” calls for cities and counties to identify sites in the housing portion of their general plans that will be reserved for emergency homeless shelters and residential service providers.

Senate Bill 1323 - Provide $2.5 million in funding for a felony offender drug treatment program targeting those with serious mental health and substance abuse issues.

Clearly, Cedillo’s office has been busy. The question is whether all of this new legislation will resolve homelessness. I think it will certainly help “clean up” Skid Row. The criminal elements of Skid Row should get a wake-up call with these bills.

However, will this also encourage law enforcement to “criminalize” homelessness? In other words, if you are homeless on the streets—but doing nothing illegal—will you be a target?

The critics of these bills also say that there is no serious funding behind these bills. Homelessness can only be resolved when more resources are invested in the problem.

So… can we legislate homelessness away? If legislation includes more resources, encourages a better coordinated system, and actually builds more shelter beds and permanent housing, then the answer is: Yes.

A balanced approach of more resources, better coordinated system, and laws that keep our streets safe and clean is what we need.

I call it: “Clean Streets, Not Mean Streets.” (Here is the op-ed piece on this.)