Homeless Count or Are Counted -LAT

[Rose Siding]

snip>
Numerous other cities and counties around the nation this week, including Orange and Riverside counties, are conducting similar counts after the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development demanded more accurate assessments of the homeless problem. The department this week awarded about $1.4 billion in homeless funds, including $228 million for California.

Organizers in Los Angeles County reported few glitches: Overflow crowds of homeless people who hoped to pick up a few bucks for walking familiar streets were turned away from one Westside center; one count in an Antelope Valley census tract was scrapped after canvassers found the mountainous road washed out; and Burbank police reportedly blocked a team of volunteers.
...
There were also murmurs at one of the deployment sites, the Ken Edwards Center on 4th Street in Santa Monica, that police had rousted the homeless in the days before the census....
The two, who drove around to do their count, also said they were pulled over twice by Santa Monica police officers for no apparent reason.
...
Burbank police confirmed that they are investigating an incident in which a team of canvassers said it was stopped by a police officer, told there were no homeless people in the city and asked to leave.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-homeless27jan27,0,1868398.story?coll=la-home-local

[EFerrari]

1. The homeless problem is a mental health problem, period.

And L.A. County has mastered the art of promoting mental health programs IT DOES NOT DELIVER.

My husband has a serious mental illness, the support of family and friends. While we lived in Santa Monica, for 18 months he did not recieve ONE MINUTE of appropriate therapy or medication. If it weren't that I have my share of ovarian fortitude, he'd be dead or in jail -- no matter how much he wanted treatment. To date, the county hopes I don't sue them because I kept a journal of EVERYTHING they did.

Los Angeles County is the biggest (non)provider of mental health services on this planet.