To the editor: The U.S. Supreme Court docket just lately dominated that it’s OK to maneuver homeless people from one space to a different, difficulty costly citations or arrest people and throw them in jail merely for tenting on public property. Nonetheless, from my expertise as a homeless providers volunteer, these actions don’t clear up the issue. (“Newsom orders California agencies to clear homeless camps, but the impact remains a question,” July 25)
The one answer is to offer housing and supportive providers. To the credit score of L.A. metropolis and county businesses, they’re already offering assets and housing to unhoused people. The issue is social service businesses are stretched skinny, interim housing is scarce, and people and households are nonetheless falling into homelessness.
So, Gov. Gavin Newsom and others could also be shedding endurance with the tempo at which homeless encampments are cleared and people are being housed. However that’s extra a results of excessive housing prices, group opposition to the event of extraordinarily low-income housing and a dearth of psychological well being and substance use providers.
Jane Demian, Los Angeles
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To the editor: The RAND research is flawed in its conclusion that cleanups simply move homeless people around.
Due to a mixture of cleanups, provides of shelter, enforcement of 24/7 no-camping zones and the set up of landscaping, fencing and bodily obstacles at strategic areas, there aren’t any giant homeless encampments in Venice immediately.
Whereas a number of dozen drug-addled and mentally ailing homeless of us stay in and across the seashore, a lot of these date from a failure of outreach efforts by social service organizations in the course of the main cleanup in the summertime of 2021. That cleanup nonetheless succeeded in eradicating greater than 200 campers from the Venice Boardwalk and made it way more welcoming to the general public.
All in all, cleanups together with enforcement have dramatically improved residents’ high quality of life and guests’ experiences.
Mark Ryavec, Venice
The author is president of the Venice Stakeholders Assn.
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To the editor: Transferring homeless individuals from the streets into non permanent housing (similar to motels or motels) with out complete and simply accessible social providers is simply as ineffective as clearing encampments and transferring individuals from one metropolis to a different.
Although L.A. Mayor Karen Bass claims to disagree with Newsom’s method, they each advocate for non permanent “fixes.”
When our options are extra geared towards us not seeing homeless individuals for a short time, slightly than geared towards truly serving to them, we maintain a number of the blame for perpetuating the cycle of homelessness. Similar to I inform my youngsters to make selections immediately with the long run in thoughts, apparently we’ve got to inform our grownup leaders that too.
Observe the cash: Are we spending extra on transferring homeless individuals round or on simply accessible, educated social employees, psychological well being professionals and healthcare?
Till we deal with this in an actionable approach, the one change that may occur is a long-term enhance in homelessness, as life in California continues to get costlier.
Matthew R. Jensen, San Pedro
