Homes for the hardest of the hard-core homeless

[undeterred]

By Christopher Goffard, Los Angeles Times August 1, 2010

L.A. County workers identify the 50 people likeliest to die on skid row's streets and find them housing, with no requirement that they quit drugs, stop drinking or seek psychiatric help.

The searchers carved skid row into quadrants and advanced in small groups, aiming flashlights into the cold. They moved between nylon tents and cardboard lean-tos in the Toy District, where junkies had stripped the streetlights and left whole blocks in darkness. They roused the human bundles scattered around the tumbledown hotels and freshly painted lofts on Main Street, wasted faces blinking into their flashlights.

They looked in the eastern section called the Bottoms, around the big missions and flea traps, and around the neighborhood's forbidding eastern edge, a zone of industrial warehouses and razor wire known as the Low Bottoms, where even now, hours before daylight, the crack trade was brisk. The searchers, a couple dozen volunteers and Los Angeles County workers, had orders: Interview everyone living on these streets. Find out how long they've been homeless. Ask about their addictions, their mental and physical health.

Carrie Bach, a 54-year-old nurse with the Public Health Department, was leading one of the teams, a scarf around her neck and a walkie-talkie in her mittens. As her department's homelessness coordinator, she knew skid row better than most. But she felt nervous and a little naive. She had never glimpsed the Boschian tableau that materialized after the warehouses bolted their doors, after the corrugated-metal gates rolled down over the church fronts, cheap-toy outlets and fake-flower shops. She hadn't seen the pavement scattered with bodies, the spectral shapes swaying against the cinder-block walls, the mounds of garbage screeching with rats. For some searchers, it was too much. They handed back their clipboards and went home.

The canvass marked the beginning of a two-year, $3.6-million plan, launched by county Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, to find the 50 people likeliest to die on skid row's streets — the hardest of the hard cases — and house them however possible.

much more at: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0801-homeless-20100801,0,4294177.story



Bobby Livingston, a 37-year survivor of skid row, was No. 1 on the list of people most likely to die on skid row's streets. If anyone tested the idea of offering housing with few strings, thought Project 50 director Carrie Bach, right, it would be him. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

[Naturyl]

1. Wonderful. Now let's expand the 50 to 500,000

Or however many it takes to house EVERY homeless person, no strings or conditions attached.

This story needs to be K&R'ed by EVERY homeless and poverty advocate. This is a new approach to homelessness that finally - AT LONG LAST - recognizes that the best solution to homeless is to simply HOUSE PEOPLE.

The "established thinking" on homelessness, which sets up all sorts of offensive paternalistic hoops for the homeless to jump through, is the primary reason homelessness persists. No-strings housing is the answer.

From the point, help for problems can be offered - not forced. You can't help people who don't want help anyway - so denying them housing as a result of refusing help is simply paternalistic punishment.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

2. and what keeps them from wandering away?

My girlfriend was assaulted by a psychotic junkie in San Francisco - technically not homeless. However AWOL from her group home and roaming the streets.

[Naturyl]

3. Nothing.

But at least the EFFORT to house them - with no strings attached - was made.

Not all will take advantage of it. For for those who will, it will be a long-overdue godsend.

[EmeraldCityGrl]

4. Seattle has several housing project dedicated

to those that find themselves homeless for a variety of reasons.

I remember when 1811Eastlake first opened and how much criticism it was given. It's now considered successful and for those that care, saves the
taxpayers money.


1811 Eastlake opened its doors to 75 homeless men and women with chronic alcohol addiction in December 2005. This innovative housing model is the first of its kind in Washington to address the needs of homeless chronic alcoholics who are the heaviest users of publicly-funded crisis services.



http://www.desc.org/supportive_housing.html#1811_Eastlake_

[JDPriestly]

5. I worked for a non-profit down there on the L.A. Skid Row for years.

In my opinion, the best solution for homeless is to provide homes (not luxury palaces just decent housing) for the homeless.

I have a friend who was homeless for years. Everyone thought she was mentally ill.

She finally qualified for subsidized housing, and every time I see her, she is more normal in every respect. She is looking better, talking better. Recently, a group of us sat together and socialized in a wonderful way. She was included, but no one was trying to include her or to be nice.

This is a wonderful program. I wish everyone the best of luck with it.

[BrklynLiberal]

6. Great potential. Guess they do need to add a facility for managing the money tho...so they do not

go out and spend it all on whatever they are addicted to...maybe adding some psychological support would be helpful as well....voluntary for the folks.

[Bitwit1234]

7. With all the empty houses I think they should be made into old

time boarding houses. Remember when they had those. Some of the houses are huge. And if they were made into boarding houses a lot of people could afford them. The price of apartments and houses to rent is so high that's why a lot of people WHO EVEN HAVE JOBS can't afford them. You have a person making 7.50 an hour how can they afford 1200 a month plus electricity for rent? It is a shame all those community organists can't do this. Extreme home make overs is doing a good job of building homes for people who deserve some help, wouldn't that be a good reality show. You build a big old house over into a boarding home and maintain it til it makes a go of it. Instead of big brother, how about SAVING FAMILIES.

[Statistical]

8. ROI?

"$3.6-million plan, launched by county Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, to find the 50 people likeliest to die on skid row's streets — the hardest of the hard cases — and house them however possible"

SO $3.6 million over 2 years = 1.8 million / 50 persons housed = $36,000 per person.

Just seems not the most effective use of resources.

How about spend $3.6 million to build and fund 10 group homes that can house 200 people and teach them life skills, find them employment, get them mental health (and necessary drugs) to transition them from homeless to housed.

While it is touching the 50 people the reached about the millions of homeless they didn't reach?