The Heat Is On Again…

Every summer, stories of homeless people dying during heat waves crop up. As the summer season roars ahead this year, the issue of protecting people living on our streets once again is here.

In past summers, dozen of people who were homeless died in the heat. Mostly in the Southwest.

Chattanooga, Tennessee is being proactive. Encouraging their community to donate bottled water, sun screen and box fans to their local homeless programs so they will be ready for the scorching heat.

I hope other cities follow suit.

(Pic from www.plasticsmythbuster.org)

Do L.A. Hospitals Just Hate Poor People?

This is the question that Kia Franklin is posing on the TortDeform blog.

It is an appropriate question to ask, given the accusations of patient dumping onto Skid Row by local Los Angeles hospitals. And given that a patient died in L.A.’s Martin Luther King/Harbor County Hospital, after calling 911 from the waiting room of the hospital.

However, being in numerous meetings with local hospitals in the past year, I know they are working hard to develop an efficient system to transition homeless patients from their hospitals into shelters and housing.

It is important to note that it is not fair for hospitals to take the brunt of the responsibility for L.A.’s lack of addressing homelessness. With nearly 90,000 homeless people in L.A. County, and only around 15,000 shelter beds, it’s clear that when a homeless patient leaves the hospital they will probably not be able to find a shelter bed.

Hospitals are in the business of providing medical care. Not shelter beds. Not permanent housing. The burden for providing shelter care and permanent housing lie on the county and the cities within the county.

So my answer to Franklin’s question is this. No. L.A. hospitals do not hate poor people. They need to take responsibility for being a part of a better discharge planning system. However, it’s not their responsibility to resolve homelessness.

Perhaps a better question is this: Does Los Angeles Hate Poor People?

Is Paris Hilton’s Promise All “Talk”?

As she left prison this week, Paris Hilton promised she would set up a program to help women leaving the jail system who have no place to go. People leaving the jail system and ending up homeless is a big issue. Hilton’s support in this issue could be a big boost.

Let’s see if it was a fleeting promise while leaving jail, or something she really believes in…

Here’s what a media outlet said about her promise:

“She (Hilton) also reportedly spoke of her desire to set up a halfway house for women inmates who would otherwise by (sic) homeless, friendless and without food or money when they were released from prison. She said that she wanted to stop the cycle of reoffending for such women.”


(Pic from graphics8.nytimes.com)

Berkeley A Conservative City? Are Their Homeless Policies Discarding Their Liberal Past?

When you think of “liberal” cities in America, invariably the California city of Berkeley comes to mind. But something is going on in the Bay Area. First, the “hippie” neighborhood of Haight-Asbury has taken conservative steps to address homelessness.

And now, Berkeley, famous for an anti-war movement a generation ago, is also donning their conservative hats to address homelessness. Like many cities around the country, the quickest approach to getting people off the streets is by passing laws and using law enforcement.

The “East Side”, an independent news outlet writes:

“More anti-homeless proposals are being scheduled to come up for another city council vote sometime soon during the fall. The proposals being considered include strict enforcement of laws against noise disturbances such as yelling, parking a bicycle against a window or on a parking meter, smoking near buildings, unauthorized possession of a milk crate, obstructing or restricting use of the sidewalk, reducing warning provisions for sitting or lying down on sidewalks, littering, hitching animals to fixed objects, unauthorized possession of a shopping cart, increased fines for using the great outdoors as a lavatory, public drunkeness or drug abuse, and anything else that city officials can dream up as an excuse to run the homeless out of town.”

I wrote an op-ed piece in the L.A. Daily News recently on this law and order approach to solving homelessness. It is a popular municipal response to a problem that stems from lack of affordable housing and livable wages. And it is cheaper. Why spend hundreds of thousands of dollars building affordable housing when you can simply dispatch law enforcement officers to sweep the sidewalks clean?

But quick fixes never work. Sweeping humans from one neighborhood to another, or arresting them on misdemeanor “crimes” does not solve the problem of lack of affordable housing. They will soon be back on the streets.

Law enforcement approach to solving homelessness only works when there is enough affordable and emergency housing for people to go to.

I would hope a “liberal” city like Berkeley would embrace a balanced approach to helping their people who are living on the streets.

(Pic from bancroft.berkeley.edu)

Blog Highlighted In AOL/Netscape News

AOL/Netscape News outlet is highlighting LA's Homeless Blog.

It writes:

Japanese homeless youths sleeping in 24-hour Internet cafes. The latest in high-tech cardboard street "tents." A review of Yosemite International Airport's plan to donate toiletries--seized from travelers during security checks--to local shelters.

These are just a handful of the stories recently posted on LA's Homeless Blog, one of the few blogs commenting on the topic of homelessness. Founded in 2004 by Joel Roberts, the L.A.-based site was launched to "create a virtual dialogue on homelessness," he says.

"I wanted to talk about how communities deal with the issues," says Roberts, the CEO of PATH Partners, a local non-profit organization providing shelters and services. "Not only in Los Angeles, but everywhere."

His blog could easily just cover Los Angeles, which has the largest homeless population--45,000 people--in the country. But if local topics, such as the latest developments in Skid Row, a 50-block section of downtown Los Angeles where an estimated 8,000 people gather every day, frequently appear on Roberts' blog, he also looks at the larger social, political and economic issues related to homelessness.

Click here for full article.

Thanks to L.A. City Council President, Eric Garcetti, for making a pitch for the blog in this article...

(Pic from the article.)

Is "Homelessness" On The Minds of Americans?

The United Way of Greater Los Angeles emailed me some Gallup Poll information on homelessness. It shows that homelessness, hunger, and poverty are definitely on the minds of Americans, and the issue is growing.

In fact, 43% of Americans personally worry about hunger and homelessness, and 40% are very dissatisfied of our nation’s efforts to deal with poverty and hunger.

Perhaps if our political and community leaders see the importance of addressing hunger, poverty and homelessness, they will invest more resources and support more innovative solutions…

Here are some of the statistics:

Do you personally worry about hunger and homelessness?

43% said “Great deal”, March 2007
43% said “Great deal”, March 2006
37% said “Great deal”, March 2005
35% said “Great deal”, March 2004
37% said “Great deal”, March 2003

How do you feel about the nation’s efforts to deal with poverty and homelessness?

40% said “very dissatisfied”, January 2007
40% said “very dissatisfied”, January 2006
35% said “very dissatisfied”, January 2005
37% said “very dissatisfied”, January 2004
33% said “very dissatisfied”, January 2003


(Pic from www.donotgiveup.net)