Decades, not years, for change
Re “Rock bottom on homelessness?” column, Nov. 18
This from Anita Chabria’s column said a lot:
“‘This problem is not 160,000 people who need to be housed,’ [Dr. Margot Kushe] told me. It’s that California has a neverending waterfall of people
tumbling over the cliff into a system that is already flooded. No matter how much we spend, how hard we try or how much we accomplish, it’s not enough — it wasn’t even before the pandemic.”
Therefore, it is important that urgency, including funding and reform, be applied to three strategic interventions.
First, to help the unhoused into permanent housing; second, to stem the rate at which housing insecurity in the rental market drives people to become unhoused; and third, to deliver housing, quickly.
This will take not one year and not one administration. It will need to be in place for the next decade or two.
John Given Santa Monica
Gov. Gavin Newsom is upset with cities over their homelessness action plans.
However, California has been defunding affordable housing for 20 years. In 2011, the state eliminated local redevelopment agencies, which had to spend 20% of their property tax revenue on affordable housing.
Stop telling us we should build when Sacramento defunded projects that provided affordable housing. Stop blaming us.
Fran Offenhauser Los Angeles