Forcing Hospitals and Local Cities To Do Their Share…

The Governor of California is going to have to decide whether new laws should be implemented to force more support of homeless services.

State Senator Gil Cedillo has two bills passed recently by the State Legislature, and are now waiting for the governor’s approval. The first forces hospitals to not “dump” homeless patients in areas, like downtown Skid Row. The second bill forces cities and counties to reserve locations for homeless housing and services in their general plan.

I know personally, that hospitals are already mobilizing to provide alternative ways to help their homeless patients. So such a bill may not have an affect on them.

But watch out for the lobbyists of the thousands of local cities in California who will invade Sacramento on this issue. They are going to fight tooth and nail to prevent a bill that forces cities to site homeless programs in their jurisdiction. Local control is an important value of local cities. They are not going to want Sacramento to tell them what should happen in their local cities. I would be surprised if the governor signs this bill.

He has until October 14th to sign it. If not, it doesn’t become law.

(Pic from media.sacbee.com)

It’s A Reversed Robin Hood: Steal From The Poor To Give To The Rich

Using Affordable Housing Funds To Fund A Billionaire’s Investment Is Just Plain Wrong.

In the past, political maneuvering occurred behind closed Sacramento doors. But today, the doors seem to be wide open for all to see. And no shame at all.

In 2006, Californians voted to pass Proposition 1C, the “Housing and Emergency Shelter Trust Fund Act of 2006.” It was a $2.9 billion fund to provide housing for lower-income California residents. It’s a simple fund—provide shelters for battered women and their children, affordable housing for seniors, homeownership assistance for working families and military veterans, housing for the homeless…

But yesterday, the California Legislature decided to use some of these 1C funds to pay for entertainment and retail developments like the downtown Los Angeles’ “LA Live,” a multi-million dollar entertainment complex next to Staples Center.

The recipient of these affordable housing funds is AEG, the company owned by billionaire Philip Anschutz. This company has donated $1.8 million into political campaigns in the past few years. So I guess his political investment is starting to pay off.

It’s a sick form of “pay to play.” But at the expense of poor people who cannot afford to find housing in Los Angeles. Proposition 1C funds should be used to help house low-income people ONLY.

There is really no excuse to take these desperately needed funds away from the poor in order to invest in a billionaire’s real estate deal.

When Babies Die On The Street: Where’s The Outrage?

When baby Jasmine, a 7-week-old girl, died on August 10th in downtown L.A.’s Skid Row, it didn’t seem like most of Los Angeles was upset. Sure, the media saw this as another mistake by a L.A. County Department—in this case, the Department of Children and Family Services—but nothing like an outrageous occurrence in a First World city.

Let’s look at the facts. She was born to a homeless woman. She lived her brief life at downtown’s Union Rescue Mission. She was a person of color. And she died of starvation—yes, starvation in America.

There’s just too many questions to ask… Too many people to point fingers at…

How could this happen? Why wasn’t anyone doing anything when a baby infant is dying of starvation in front of everyone’s very own eyes? Are we getting numb to the suffering going on here in Los Angeles? I guess when a major public hospital is shut down because people were dying in the waiting room, a small homeless baby of color dying in a homeless shelter just becomes routine…

So do we blame the social worker who worked 11 hours that day, and went home without seeing the baby because she was 3 hours over her normal time of departure? Too many cases to see, not enough time.

Do we blame a homeless agency that is so inundated with hurting people asking for help, that their emergency shelter system looks more like the emergency room of a recently shut down public hospital?

Do we blame the homeless mother who brought the baby to the shelter—a place where they could be fed and sheltered—but wasn’t able to keep her alive?

Some how we need to discard the numbness that we Angelinos have when it comes to homelessness. We think hurting people are more of a normal element of our urban culture rather than a human tragedy that should desperately be addressed.

It doesn’t matter how many questions we ask, or who we point the finger at, Jasmine’s short life has ended.

Irish Struggle With Homelessness

Ireland has a population of just over 4 million people. It is reported that they are struggling with a homeless population that numbers 300,000.

Compare that with Los Angeles that has a total population of almost 10 million, and nearly 90,000 people who are homeless. Clearly, the homeless capital of America—Los Angeles—has a significant problem with homelessness.

But it does appear that Ireland has an even bigger issue of homelessness…


(Pic from www.toddmizener.com)

How The Navy Can Help The Homeless

In Hawaii, a group of advocates are petitioning the United States Navy to give them a decommissioned navy destroyer to be used to house homeless people. It’s an “out-of-the-box” idea that these advocates feel would be a good solution—no NIMBY issues, no construction, etc. Just funds to operate the services.

For some reason it is hard to petition the armed services to help their own citizens. On the Westside of Los Angeles, leaders have been asking for land owned by the Department of Veterans so that they can build housing for homeless vets. It’s taken years for their voices to be heard.

With so much U.S. taxpayers’ money being diverted to armed services, those who are hurting in our own country should be able to get something out of this—like healthcare or housing…