Posted on Jul\u00a08,\u00a02013<\/h4>\n\n<\/p>\nBy Bill Boyarsky<\/p>\n
The homeless are a powerful example of economic injustice and the failure of all levels of government to provide for the nation\u2019s poorest. <\/p>\n
Yet Washington\u2019s only response has been sequestration budget reductions that are cutting funds for housing\u2013the best cure for homelessness\u2013for more than 100,000, the majority of whom are families with children, mentally and physically disabled people and veterans.<\/p>\n
That is a substantial number of the approximately 635,000 homeless people in the United States, a figure compiled by the National Alliance to End Homelessness. That estimate is more than the population of Washington, D.C., Seattle, Denver or Miami.<\/p>\n
A disproportionate number\u2013almost 50 percent\u2013are African-Americans, who make up about 13 percent of the general population. In Los Angeles County, widely considered America\u2019s homeless capital, the number of homeless increased by 16 percent to more than 58,000 in the past year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we have so many people struggling, we need every resource,\u201d said Va Lecia Adams Kellum. She is executive director of St. Joseph Center, which provides assistance to about 6,000 poor, including homeless, in the Venice area of Los Angeles, not far from the beach. \u201cWe do not have adequate housing. We do not have enough housing stock.\u201d<\/p>\n
I had visited Kellum and two of her colleagues after reading the report on the increase of homelessness. I\u2019m a resident of the so-called homeless capital and the report confirmed what I see every day.<\/p>\n
In the mornings, my wife Nancy and I walk along Westwood Boulevard toward the UCLA campus, through one of Los Angeles\u2019 more affluent neighborhoods, past restaurants and expensive food markets. In doorways, alleys, on bus stop benches and seated on the sidewalk we pass homeless men and women in a state of poverty, looking confused or even deranged.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s nothing compared to Skid Row, a kind of homeless ghetto in downtown Los Angeles. We drove through it the other night, taking a shortcut from a freeway gridlocked by Dodger baseball traffic. Men and women were packed on the sidewalks, a terrible sight in one of America\u2019s richest cities. With shelters filled, they\u2019d be there for the night unless they were arrested for some minor offense.<\/p>\n
That would take them to the county jail, a couple of miles to the north, a grim facility best known for its twin towers, eight- and nine-story structures that house the mentally ill awaiting trial or who have committed a crime. With 2,200 such inmates, Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca calls it the nation\u2019s largest mental hospital.<\/p>\n
A few weeks ago, James Coley and Robert Warfield, caseworkers for assistance organization Integrated Recovery Network, took me through the place. On the top floors, men pounded the locked doors and shouted. Some, drugged, lay senseless on their bunks or in a corner of their cells.<\/p>\n
On lower floors, it was quieter, although overcrowding had packed the day rooms of cellblocks with bunks. Coley and Warfield interviewed inmates to see whether they were interested in the recovery network\u2019s approach\u2013settling them in housing, linking them up with counseling and drug rehabilitation and, hopefully, jobs. It\u2019s an intensive strategy, requiring great patience by Coley, Warfield and their colleagues.<\/p>\n
The same sort of personal outreach is practiced by the community teams of St. Joseph Center as they prowl the streets, parks and beaches of Venice, befriending the most distressed and long-term homeless, bringing physicians and psychologists to them, persuading them to visit the organization\u2019s facility for food and a shower. Eventually, some would be placed in housing.<\/p>\n
It takes a lot of effort. But St. Joseph and the Integrated Recovery Network have statistics showing that finding housing for the homeless can end their downward spiral.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why it was so discouraging to hear St. Joseph\u2019s Kellum tell of how the sequester cuts are devastating federal housing funds. It is also infuriating to see how the sequester has slipped from the notice of the attention-challenged news media. I hadn\u2019t heard of the housing cuts until she told me, and I doubt if very many other people had either.<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t the only government policy that is exacerbating homelessness.<\/p>\n
Michael Arnold, executive director of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, said the foreclosure crisis has been especially damaging. He noted that banks are buying foreclosed homes, raising rents and flipping houses for profit. \u201cWe have a lot of empty foreclosed homes because people can\u2019t afford them,\u201d he said. The continuing high level of unemployment makes things worse. \u201cIf people had jobs and made a living wage, they could afford housing,\u201d Arnold said.<\/p>\n
Housing isn\u2019t a cure-all. The causes of homelessness are complex and go back more than half a century when well-intentioned reformers in Washington and state capitals, appalled at \u201cOne Flew Over the Cuckoo\u2019s Nest\u201d mental institutions, closed them. They were to be replaced by community care centers, where the mentally ill could be treated near home. But few of such centers were ever built. As the 1970s began, the mentally ill drifted from the hospitals to the streets, the beginning of what we see today in cities big and small and in the suburbs. These are shattered people, too often beset by the twin curses of mental illness and substance addiction, their families long gone.<\/p>\n
Some are incurable. But a great many can turn their lives around if given a chance. That chance begins with housing of their own and accessible medical care and counseling\u2013opportunities that Washington seems determined to deny them.\n<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.truthdig.com\/images\/eartothegrounduploads\/AP110914093551-homeless-bike-300.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
AP\/Jae C. Hong<\/p>\n
<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
By Bill Boyarsky<\/p>\n
The homeless are a powerful example of economic injustice and the failure of all levels of government to provide for the nation\u2019s poorest. <\/p>\n
Yet Washington\u2019s only response has been sequestration budget reductions that are cutting funds for housing\u2013the best cure for homelessness\u2013for more than 100,000, the majority of whom are families with children, mentally and physically disabled people and veterans.<\/p>\n
That is a substantial number of the approximately 635,000 homeless people in the United States, a figure compiled by the National Alliance to End Homelessness. That estimate is more than the population of Washington, D.C., Seattle, Denver or Miami.<\/p>\n
A disproportionate number\u2013almost 50 percent\u2013are African-Americans, who make up about 13 percent of the general population. In Los Angeles County, widely considered America\u2019s homeless capital, the number of homeless increased by 16 percent to more than 58,000 in the past year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we have so many people struggling, we need every resource,\u201d said Va Lecia Adams Kellum. She is executive director of St. Joseph Center, which provides assistance to about 6,000 poor, including homeless, in the Venice area of Los Angeles, not far from the beach. \u201cWe do not have adequate housing. We do not have enough housing stock.\u201d<\/p>\n
I had visited Kellum and two of her colleagues after reading the report on the increase of homelessness. I\u2019m a resident of the so-called homeless capital and the report confirmed what I see every day.<\/p>\n
In the mornings, my wife Nancy and I walk along Westwood Boulevard toward the UCLA campus, through one of Los Angeles\u2019 more affluent neighborhoods, past restaurants and expensive food markets. In doorways, alleys, on bus stop benches and seated on the sidewalk we pass homeless men and women in a state of poverty, looking confused or even deranged.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s nothing compared to Skid Row, a kind of homeless ghetto in downtown Los Angeles. We drove through it the other night, taking a shortcut from a freeway gridlocked by Dodger baseball traffic. Men and women were packed on the sidewalks, a terrible sight in one of America\u2019s richest cities. With shelters filled, they\u2019d be there for the night unless they were arrested for some minor offense.<\/p>\n
That would take them to the county jail, a couple of miles to the north, a grim facility best known for its twin towers, eight- and nine-story structures that house the mentally ill awaiting trial or who have committed a crime. With 2,200 such inmates, Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca calls it the nation\u2019s largest mental hospital.<\/p>\n
A few weeks ago, James Coley and Robert Warfield, caseworkers for assistance organization Integrated Recovery Network, took me through the place. On the top floors, men pounded the locked doors and shouted. Some, drugged, lay senseless on their bunks or in a corner of their cells.<\/p>\n
On lower floors, it was quieter, although overcrowding had packed the day rooms of cellblocks with bunks. Coley and Warfield interviewed inmates to see whether they were interested in the recovery network\u2019s approach\u2013settling them in housing, linking them up with counseling and drug rehabilitation and, hopefully, jobs. It\u2019s an intensive strategy, requiring great patience by Coley, Warfield and their colleagues.<\/p>\n
The same sort of personal outreach is practiced by the community teams of St. Joseph Center as they prowl the streets, parks and beaches of Venice, befriending the most distressed and long-term homeless, bringing physicians and psychologists to them, persuading them to visit the organization\u2019s facility for food and a shower. Eventually, some would be placed in housing.<\/p>\n
It takes a lot of effort. But St. Joseph and the Integrated Recovery Network have statistics showing that finding housing for the homeless can end their downward spiral.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why it was so discouraging to hear St. Joseph\u2019s Kellum tell of how the sequester cuts are devastating federal housing funds. It is also infuriating to see how the sequester has slipped from the notice of the attention-challenged news media. I hadn\u2019t heard of the housing cuts until she told me, and I doubt if very many other people had either.<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t the only government policy that is exacerbating homelessness.<\/p>\n
Michael Arnold, executive director of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, said the foreclosure crisis has been especially damaging. He noted that banks are buying foreclosed homes, raising rents and flipping houses for profit. \u201cWe have a lot of empty foreclosed homes because people can\u2019t afford them,\u201d he said. The continuing high level of unemployment makes things worse. \u201cIf people had jobs and made a living wage, they could afford housing,\u201d Arnold said.<\/p>\n
Housing isn\u2019t a cure-all. The causes of homelessness are complex and go back more than half a century when well-intentioned reformers in Washington and state capitals, appalled at \u201cOne Flew Over the Cuckoo\u2019s Nest\u201d mental institutions, closed them. They were to be replaced by community care centers, where the mentally ill could be treated near home. But few of such centers were ever built. As the 1970s began, the mentally ill drifted from the hospitals to the streets, the beginning of what we see today in cities big and small and in the suburbs. These are shattered people, too often beset by the twin curses of mental illness and substance addiction, their families long gone.<\/p>\n
Some are incurable. But a great many can turn their lives around if given a chance. That chance begins with housing of their own and accessible medical care and counseling\u2013opportunities that Washington seems determined to deny them.\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
AP\/Jae C. Hong<\/p>\n
<\/span>\n<\/div>\n