Settling on the homeless status quo (The LA Solution!)

LA Times ^ | 14 October 2007 | Staff

[shrinkermd]

It is natural to want to put the most positive spin possible on this week's homeless settlement, which allows people to spend their nights on public sidewalks almost anywhere in the city of Los Angeles without being rousted by police. Frustrated advocates, policymakers and observers grasp at any hint of forward momentum after years of official ping-ponging between approaches to the problem. Treat the homeless with dignity and let them get help at their own pace -- by allowing them to camp out near food service businesses and residences? Crack down on crime -- by sweeping the streets and compelling the mentally ill, the drug-addicted and the destitute to move to some other part of town?

So there is some appeal to the agreement, under which the Los Angeles Police Department agrees to stop enforcing, from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m., the city law against sleeping on sidewalks. All bets are off once the city opens 1,250 units of permanent supportive housing -- units that put roofs over the heads of a few of the city's most desperate people while providing the drug treatment, mental health services and job counseling meant to keep them from drifting back to the street. Unlike earlier settlement proposals, it avoids unfairly placing the responsibility for putting up the homeless on the eastern part of downtown that has become known as skid row.

Still, the settlement carries a very distinct whiff of status quo. An agreement that puts an end to legal wrangling is fine, as far as it goes. But there is little here that actually moves the city toward getting homeless people housed.

[shrinkermd]

I once managed and ran a large residential facility for the serious and persistently mentally ill. The majority of the residents were dual disabled--mental illness plus serious substance and alcohol habituation. Besides being troubled and troubling they were initially incapabable of caring for themselves.

The "Homeless Problem" is a misnomer. It is actually seriously and troubled people dumped on the streets by those who believe civil rights requires this. Alternatively, there are even some who see the homeless plight as proof positive of the evils of capitalism and the US system of government.

Regardless of the reasons, the problem is really lack of adequate supervision and treatment not simple lack of housing.

I do not see allowing the mentally ill to sleep on the sidewalks betwen 9:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. a forward step.

[YellowRoseofTx]

Many of those who were mentally ill were kept in hospitals for the mentally ill until Geraldo did his expose' about the hospitals. Then the libs closed those hospitals and dumped the people on the streets.

At least in the hospitals they had a roof over their heads, a bed to sleep in, 3 meals a day, but they lost all that due to the libs bleeding hearts.

[DGHoodini]

...and when the next 25,000 show up, looking for free housing, food, drugs, and money to buy booze...?

[sgtyork]

Very interesting. Thanks for the ground-level observation. Have you seen the studies of the direct relationship between the reduction of state mental patients in the 70’s and the increase in crime? I can’t find the link now.

[calex59]

But there is little here that actually moves the city toward getting homeless people housed.

Since when is it the business of government, city, state, or fed, to house people? Most of them are simply lazy bums or winos, the rest are probably mentally ill and need treatment, not housing.

[shrinkermd]

No, I am not familiar with that statistic.