To the editor: Carla Hall makes so many important points in her editorial on the importance of listening to the homeless (“To understand homelessness, listen to the homeless. Here's what I learned», March 30). I believe, on the basis of many years of work with and around the population of the Los Angeles County homeless when I was in the application of the laws, that its most important point was that, above all, people really need a safe place to sleep before being able to become more stabilized. Hall encourages the reader to imagine how difficult it would be to solve a personal problem if you would have no place to sleep, shower or use the bathroom.
I thought at this point all the time when I worked around the homeless. I remembered how terrible I always felt after having taken a flight to red eyes anywhere; Get out of the tired, hungry plane and needs a shower. This thought has always slipped into my mind trying to imagine how much people must feel worse when it is that they feel all the time and how it is almost impossible to make a solid decision when you feel exhausted. Mix drug consumption and crime in this stress and exhaustion recipe and this means a catastrophe for the most part.
If the city of Los Angeles was really serious to stabilize the homeless population, it would invest massively in mobile units with doctors, pharmacists, social workers, showers and food that could arrive directly to homeless camps to help people. It is much easier to have a discussion with a poorly given person about a long -term plan when they are rested, clean, nourished and feeling safe (not to mention more hope). It is such a simple concept, but it never seems to be sufficiently underlined during the discussion on the question of roaming.
Jennifer Swoboda, Long Beach
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To the editor: Of all the deep reflections that Hall shares with us which cover the duration of his career covering the problems of homelessness for the Times, perhaps the most poignant observation that she makes is in her declaration of conclusion when she calls all those who care about the fate of Los Angeles with a call to action:
“I challenge you to worry about providing houses to people who need them. I challenge you to welcome new affordable housing when offered in your community, because as a Angelo witness to this crisis, you know how many lives this accommodation could change – how many lives it could save. ”
The acute housing crisis which led to the highest level of homelessness in the nation, as well as the reluctance of the few who have benefited from a unifamilial zoning system to the detriment of the many which are stuck in permanent rentals, will destroy our city if they are not treated significantly. For those who live at the limit of housing insecurity, restrictive zoning, limited growth in income and ever -increasing rents will continue to destroy lives and the future of our former city.
Lisa Ansell, Beverly Hills
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To the editor: Reading the Hall's interesting chronicle on understanding the homeless made me think about how so many well-intentioned people would like to see the non-husbands. Unfortunately, the problem is much larger than the homeless being just people who have lost their jobs and had fallen in difficult times, but otherwise are not different than the rest of us.
In my district of Burbank, there is a man who wanders sometimes in my street and begins to scream at the top of his voice. He seems to have been bathed in the past year. Last week, I had to escort a woman living near me to her front door because he stood nearby, looking at her frightening. In the past, he dropped his pants and exposed himself to women on my street while having an empty look in the eyes. The police were contacted by several American neighbors reporting this dangerous vagabond but, of course, nothing ever happens accordingly.
I tried to ask the man to leave the region, but he did not even seem to understand that I was standing there, even less to speak to him. This man would probably never accept to live in a refuge or to be advised or neat by anyone because he does not trust anyone.
Until it finds a way to manage mentally ill toxicomans and abusing wandering and living substances in our streets, no quantity of public policies or funding will make a big difference, unfortunately.
Doug Weiskopf, Burank
