Why is There So Much Unused Land in LA that Could Be Used for Homeless Camps Instead of Downtown Streets?
by John Lawrence, September 2, 2019
LA just built 72 apartments for the homeless at a cost of $690,692 per unit. This is a foolish waste of money with little to show for it. "This kind of cost is utterly unacceptable," Controller Ron Galperin said. The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) is an abject failure and so is LA's approach to ameliorating the homeless situation and cleaning up the city. In its 2019 count, LAHSA reported that there were close to 60,000 homeless people living in the county, with more than 36,000 of them in the city. All but about 25% live on the streets.
In LA the tents are spread out on sidewalks across the city, the homeless emboldened by a court ruling that allows them to live outside if no shelter space is available. Many live in filthy, third world conditions without basic necessities such as toilets and sinks. It makes them and other denizens of LA who must use city streets and sidewalks susceptible to disease not to mention the sights and smells of people urinating and defecating in public. Another point - isn't it still illegal to use drugs? Reports of needles and syringes in homeless trash heaps around the city abound. Why don't the police arrest the people that are using these and send them to jail? There, at least, they would have a roof over their heads and three squares a day.
Meanwhile, the City of Los Angeles has a real estate portfolio consisting of 9000 parcels. Why not turn some of these into city sanctioned camp sites where anyone could pitch a tent. They should be provided with sanitary facilities such as port-a-potties and portable showers at a minimum. What's happening with the homeless in LA is not fair to them, and it's not fair to the tourists and residents that have to put up with it. You outlaw people sleeping in vehicles. Yet it's OK to live in tents on public sidewalks.
Here, in my humble opinion, is what you need to do:
1) Set up one or more public campgrounds where the homeless as well as others can pitch their tents. Use some of those 9000 vacant parcels.
2) Provide minimal amenities such as sanitation facilities including port-a-potties, portable showers, lockers and security.
3) Provide transit passes so that they can get from wherever the campgrounds are located to downtown homeless services.
4) Allow pets.
5) Provide for parking for those living in vehicles.
5) This is a very low cost solution compared to actual housing.
6) Pass an ordinance making it illegal to sleep on public streets and sidewalks.
So you have a very low cost solution that would clean up public streets and sidewalks and at the same time make the homeless at least marginally better off than they are now. Right now you have the worst of both worlds and are aiding and abetting the creation of a human sub-class. Forget about "shelters." You only need shelters in case of very inclement weather which we have little of in LA. Also don't worry about LA becoming a "homeless magnet." The improvement in the city's ambiance if the areas around downtown Skid Row streets were cleaned up would be a guiding light for other cities to do the same, and it would promote the city as a tourist destination.
The LA Times reported:
With the infusion of sales tax dollars from Measure H, the city-county outreach system has grown from fewer than 300 workers to nearly 800. They include teams employed by the homeless authority and its contractors, and teams fielded by the Los Angeles County departments of Health Services and Mental Health.
The city contributed $3.5 million from its general fund in the 2017-18 fiscal year to LAHSA and $6.8 million last year, the audit said. County contributions increased from $13 million to $31 million.
Finally, in light of the city’s chronic shortage of shelters, the report urged both the city and county to do more to provide short-term resources, such as restrooms, showers, storage facilities and waste services to ameliorate living conditions on the street.
“There are things we can do immediately,” Galperin said. “You look at when civil emergencies happen around the world. This is what we have on our streets right how. Unfortunately, the city is not treating it quite as the emergency it is.”
It’s unclear whether any changes to the way LAHSA operates will be made as a result of the audit. Changes to its contract with the city are likely, but there were no concrete proposals for how the authority’s burden of staffing encampment cleanups could be reduced.
Mayor Eric Garcetti, through a spokesman, issued a statement saying that he would review the audit.
How dumb can city officials be when they have 9000 unused parcels of real estate, a solution that would cost little, such as I'm suggesting here, that would make the homeless better off while cleaning up the city. Instead the city has spent its money on building up a homeless bureaucracy of paid professionals (LAHSA) that is doing little or nothing to solve the crisis except that they are collecting paychecks.