Bush’s “Homeless Czar” Meets With Mayor Villaraigosa

Mayor Villaraigosa met with Philip Mangano, President Bush’s Executive Director of the federal Interagency Council on Homelessness yesterday afternoon. (Here’s an article on this.)

It didn’t appear that anything new resulted in their talks. But interestingly, Bush’s appointee said this… "Los Angeles can be a tipping point in our country in terms of this issue [homelessness].” I agree with Mangano. Because L.A. is the “homelessness capital of America”, we can show the rest of the country how to dramatically reduce homelessness. (We just need strong leadership…)

I met with Mayor Villaraigosa’s new point person on homelessness, Torrie Osborn, Friday afternoon before the Mayor’s meeting with Mangano. She is the former Executive Director of Liberty Hill Foundation, who is now on the Mayor’s staff.

A Healthy Approach To Dealing With NIMBYism

County Board of Supervisor Antonovich has appointed a task force to investigate locations for next year’s Winter Shelter program in the Santa Clarita Valley, just north of Los Angeles. (Here’s an article.)

In past years, finding a location for emergency shelter in this area has been contentious. Like other neighborhoods, local residents have fought tooth and nail to prevent homeless programs from locating in their community.

The Supervisor has appointed local leaders from business, homeowner associations, and political offices to represent the community.

This is an excellent proactive way to deal with NIMBYism (“Not In My Backyard”) in a community. I applaud the Supervisor’s effort.

China’s Response To U.S. Allegations:Los Angeles’s Homeless Problem Is Also A Human Rights Issue

Yesterday, the United States State Department put out its annual report on human rights. It strongly criticizes China’s human rights record—specifically its crack downs on dissidents and censorship of the internet.

So what is China’s response? Today, they publish their reaction in their official People’s Daily.

They basically say that the prevalence of homelessness in the richest country in the world is an assault on human rights--and they include Los Angeles. (It's sad that homelessness in Los Angeles is now a part of global politics.) Here is what they say:
_________

Last year, the United States found 727,304 homeless people nationwide, meaning about one in every 400 Americans were without a home, according to the Human Rights Record of the United States in 2005 issued by the Information Office of China's State Council Thursday.

The figures came from The USA Today published on Oct. 12, 2005.

"The Los Angeles County has become 'the homeless capital of America,' with the average number of vagabonds or people in shelters hitting 90,000 a day, including 35,000 people chronically homeless," the report quotes an article of The Los Angeles Times on June 16, 2005 as saying.

"The United States dubs the world's richest country, however, it maintains the highest poverty rate among developed countries," the report says, given a study of eight advanced countries by London School of Economics in 2005, which found that the United States had the worst social inequality.

Will Winter Shelter Beds Become Year-Round?

Yesterday, the Los Angeles City Council voted to keep winter shelter beds open through June. That means 820 people without homes won’t end up back on the streets on March 15th. The County of Los Angeles agreed to split the cost of keeping these beds open with the City of Los Angeles.

I’m sensing that our community leaders are catching on to the idea that providing shelter beds for 12 months of the year—-rather than just a few months—-is a good thing.

I like to hear statements like this:

"The homeless don't just suddenly, when it's warmer weather, have another place to go," said Councilwoman Wendy Greuel. "This is their opportunity for the transition, to have a place to stay while they figure out what their next step will be."

Responses To LAT Editorial

When you’re the Los Angeles Times Editorial Board, you don’t have to worry about stepping on people’s toes—in fact, their pieces probably intend to do that very thing. So last Sunday’s editorial on homelessness in L.A. (see my post on this) elicited a couple of responses from toes that were stepped on. Particularly, the ACLU and LAHSA.

Here are the two responses (both are LAHSA commissioners) that were published in today’s LAT:

__________

We agree that homelessness is a serious issue and will only be solved by a comprehensive solution and the dedicated attention of elected officials and others. But your editorial does not accurately represent litigation filed by the ACLU of Southern California.

In 2003, we filed suit over concerns that police officers were stopping homeless people without probable cause and harassing them about their parole status. A federal judge agreed that police officers were unfairly targeting the homeless, and the practice has changed. Additionally, in Los Angeles County, there are no shelter beds for more than half of the 88,000 people without homes. Arresting people for simply sleeping on the street when there is nowhere else to go is not a solution. If anything, this signals that the situation is so dire we can't wait any longer to address it.

RAMONA RIPSTON
Executive Director, ACLU of Southern California

__________

While I agree with much of your editorial, I strongly disagree with your categorization of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority as a failure. Despite having limited funds, the agency, with its small administrative staff, has achieved significant successes. In 2005, it wrote a 3,000-page application for federal funds that earned Los Angeles its largest federal grant ever to combat homelessness — $60 million. It also conducted the 2005 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count that produced the clearest picture yet of how many are homeless, where they "reside" and why they are homeless.

LAHSA oversees private agencies that combat homelessness. In the last year, thousands of individuals received aid of one type or another. While the need is much greater, I am proud of the agency's role in serving so many. In reforming homeless programs and agencies, we should build on what is already working by strengthening agencies such as LAHSA so Los Angeles can better combat homelessness.

OWEN NEWCOMER
Chair, Los Angeles Homeless Services Commission

NIMBYs Trying To Stop A Hollywood Homeless Housing Project

The L.A. Community Redevelopment Agency purchased a property in Hollywood to provide 40-60 apartment units for people who are homeless. I reported on this earlier.

Here is the latest discussion, via NBC Channel 4 News:

MACK (Reporter): Of the 90,000 homeless people in LA County, many idle away on the streets of Hollywood, attracted to 20 social service centers, like the "Teen Canteen" on Gower and the "Free Clinic" on Hollywood Boulevard. The homeless here have easy access to free food and medical testing. Now the LA Community Redevelopment Agency wants to provide at least 50 of them with apartments.

HELMI HISSERICH, LA COMMUNITY REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY: It's an apartment building that's a little different than most apartment buildings because it has services for homeless people.

MACK: The plan is to take this parking lot just north of the intersection of Hollywood blvd and Gower Street and turn it into a 40- to 60-unit apartment building with social service centers on the ground floor for the residents. But some of those services will also be available to the general homeless public.

SARAH PHELPS, LA VOICE/PROJECT BACKER: It really will be ... a little more program space for the teen canteen, which is already on the site, which is a drop in center for homeless youth.

MACK: And therein lies the rub, according to Fran Richenbach, the founder of the Hollywood-Gower neighborhood association.

FRAN REICHENBACH, HOLLYWOODD-GOWER NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION: What they are proposing is 5,000 square feet of social services on the main floor, not just for the residents (but) for the general public. And that is a recipe for disaster.

MACK: Reichenbach is convinced that if the apartment building is built, more homeless people will flock to Hollywood and more will be "dumped" here, as they are now in downtown LA's skid row. The concern is that an existing problem will grow much worse.

REICHENBACH: It's a public safety issue. It is a health issue.

MACK: Opponents of the homeless project are also concerned about its potential impact on a large revitalization project that is going on nearby in Hollywood. More than a billion dollars is being spent on high end hotels, condominiums and shopping districts.

REICHENBACH: They all go out there and they victimize tourists; they steal things from shops.”

MACK: But project backers argue it is a step in the right direction to get at least some chronically homeless off the streets.

HISSERICH: It's much better having someone who is schizo living in housing with a case manager. They're able to help them know when to take their medications rather than having that person live under a bridge.

Supervisor Antonovich Keeps Shelter Open Another Month

It gets cold in Santa Clarita, a rural/urban community just north of Los Angeles. So when you’re homeless in that region, the cold could actually kill you.

Thankfully, Supervisor Antonovich is requesting that the winter shelter program there is extended another month. (Here's the article.) The winter shelter program is a system of temporary shelters located throughout the county that are open between December and March of each year.

Although the Santa Clarita shelter was to close on March 15th, it will be extended until April 15th.

I’m actually a proponent of making the winter shelter program a year round program. I don’t think we should be housing people only during the winter time. If you are homeless on the streets, we should be trying to house you year round.

But I think it’s great that the Supervisor realizes the devastating effect cold can have on people sleeping outdoors.

Homeless Attacks: From Baseball Bats To Being Set On Fire

Looks like the tools of bigotry are changing. I guess baseball bats are just not enough. So now thugs need to use fire—as in setting homeless people on fire while they are sleeping.

That’s what happened yesterday morning in a park in Boston, MA. According to CNN, the 30-year-old man was first beaten by two men. Then later was doused with flammable liquid and set on fire.

Thankfully, he survived. (Now officials just need to catch these bigots.)

LAT Adds Their Ideas To The Numerous Homeless Solutions Floating Around L.A. County

In today’s Los Angeles Times editorial page, the editorial board used their whole editorial space to propose solutions for L.A. County’s homeless problem. Like the numerous political leaders that have proposed solutions to homelessness, the LAT are also doing their part.

Here is their list of solutions:

Build more low-income and homeless housing. California's real estate boom has been harshest on those at the bottom rungs of the economic ladder. Like a cruel game of musical chairs, those who could barely make the rent a few years ago can now no longer afford decent housing. Since the federal government began scaling back its low-income housing programs two decades ago, Los Angeles hasn't picked up the slack. That has left Los Angeles with a bigger affordable-housing gap than almost any major city in the United States.

Reform the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority. In 1993, the city and county created the agency to oversee their local homeless contracts. It has been an unqualified failure. Financial problems have been so bad that it has scrambled to meet bills and payrolls. And the agency has never adequately explained how it has spent hundreds of millions of dollars or sufficiently evaluated the programs that get money. The agency's 10-member board has no real power: One member is selected by each county supervisor; the other five by the mayor. The setup allows both city and county officials to hide from accountability.

Encourage regional solutions. In the 1970s and '80s, a deliberate policy of "containment" was popular in such cities as Los Angeles, Long Beach and Santa Monica; the idea was to create and maintain low-income housing and services in one area. But that approach has left too many concentrated problems, overloading service providers and local residents. It needn't be this way. Each of the county's 88 cities gets state and federal community development money that must be spent on the homeless and low-income housing. A review last year by Shelter Partnership Inc., a nonprofit homeless agency, found that 61 cities have failed to zone emergency homeless shelters as required by law. The California Department of Housing and Community Development could investigate, but it doesn't have enforcement powers..

Set up community courts. Many of the homeless end up in court on drug charges or quality-of-life crimes — such as panhandling — every year, but there is no coordinated effort to link services and reduce recidivism. New York and Washington, D.C., have a better idea: They have specific courts in blighted areas that allow police, prosecutors, social workers and public defenders to help the homeless and mentally ill get off the streets. Research shows that this approach is both cheaper and more successful.

Enforce the law. Los Angeles Police Department Chief William J. Bratton is trying to crack down on parole violators and enforce laws against public urination and sleeping on sidewalks. But in 2003, the American Civil Liberties Union tried to block police from arresting people for sleeping on the sidewalk. This is shortsighted. As New York and other cities have shown, "broken windows" policing is sensible and ultimately more humane than the status quo. The ACLU's position on this issue is counterproductive.

Use Proposition 63 funds wisely. Thanks to a ballot initiative two years ago that imposed a 1% levy on taxable incomes over $1 million to pay for mental health services, Los Angeles is set to collect as much as $200 million a year. Ultimately, however, the initiative's success will depend on what local bureaucracies, including the L.A. County Department of Mental Health, do with that money. Homeless people must get their fair share. That will require thorough state and local oversight and diligent evaluations of programs that get funds.