New group to look at care for homeless
Most people in Los Angeles County know that finding solutions for the problems of the unhoused won’t happen overnight. Even our favorite pet fixes, most of us know, would run into complications.
The tens of thousands of homeless people on our sidewalks, in tents under overpasses, in mass encampments in empty lots are not a single entity. They are tens of thousands of individuals, each with her and his own problems, each requiring a complicated solution.
The people the residents of our county have entrusted with “solving” this problem of so many destitute people living among our general affluence — the politicians we don’t like, and even the politicians we do like — have not exactly covered themselves in glory in finding any solutions at all.
To which the best of them reply, “Fair enough. But what you don’t understand is that there are more homeless people coming to these parts every day.”
New ideas from a fresh perspective are always welcome when there is a seemingly intractable problem. The county, city and nonprofit group workers who try to help the homeless should not feel defensive about an outside group taking a look at how our current safety nets are utilized.
That’s why we applaud the majority of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors who voted this week to support the creation “a Blue Ribbon Commission on Homelessness to assess existing structures and systems and provide recommendations on reforms that will help Los Angeles County and its 88 cities solve homelessness.”
There will be 12 members, five of whom will be appointed by the supervisors, one nominated by the mayor of Los Angeles, three nominated by the Los Angeles City Council president, two nominated by the L.A. Councils of Government and one nominated by the Contract Cities Association.
Authored by Supervisor Kathryn Barger, co-authored by board Chair Hilda Solis and supported by Supervisor Janice Hahn, the plan empowers the group to examine Measure H spending and ways to expand mental health and substance abuse care.
To be clear, this isn’t a matter that can be solved by creating new commissions or panels or writing more reports. But clearly the status quo isn’t working.