City Committee Fine with Homeless Status Quo

Money intended to help the homeless has doesn’t seem to help.

In a March 10 L.A. County Public Health statement, it noted that instead of seven homeless dying on the street daily, now it’s only six (mostly due to alcohol and drug overdose).click here.

L.A. Mayor Karen Bass touted improvement. At a L.A. City Council Committee Meeting, councilmembers tried to make a decision about LAHSA (Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority) and funding. Councilmember Monica Rodriguez had introduced the item two years ago and it had just came up for discussion on March 3.

“No longer can we afford indecision in making decisive actions around how we change this system. We must act. We must act now,” Rodriguez said.   “We still have a broken and dysfunctional system without a singular entity directing our work around homelessness.”

The committee was told there were four choices: 1) Not change anything. 2) Keep city money at LAHSA and have tighter control. 3) Shift funding from LAHSA to City control. 4) Shift city funding from LAHSA to the county homelessness department to administer it.

“There are no dedicated policy staff on homelessness in the city [government],” said John Wickham, a legislative analyst official at the city who presented the staff report of options to the committee.

After 45 minutes of discussion, which started late in the afternoon, L.A. City Homeless Chair, Nithya Raman, said “it’s getting late and we’re not staffed to be able to handle that right now.”

Tim Campbell has been reporting on the lack of real improvement between the amount spent on homelessness in L.A. and a reduction in homeless numbers.

He said, “Ten percent of the City’s budget is spent on homelessness and there are no staff people to advise the Council on homelessness? Each Councilperson has employees appointed to handle homelessness issues in their districts. Can’t they talk to each other?

“The City pays LAHSA $300 million a year, and nobody knows what taxpayers are getting for the money,” Campbell said.

Turns out there was a fifth option: 5) Hold another committee meeting. One is now scheduled for tomorrow, March 18.

Campbell noted that Mayor Bass in a statement encouraged the city council to develop a “thoughtful transition plan” before shifting funds away from LAHSA. “She’s three years into her term and other than spending more than $320 million on Inside Safe, what ‘thoughtful’ action has she taken?  She refuses to testify in the Alliance court case and only talks about homelessness in carefully orchestrated press opportunities.”

Campbell also questions Raman’s leadership on this committee. “She let this issue languish for almost two years before bringing it up in her committee.  What does her inaction say about her as a potential mayor?”

Campbell said, “In my CityWatch columns, I often write LA’s entire homelessness structure needs to be dismantled and rebuilt. This committee meeting is the perfect example why that’s true.”