Letters to the Editor: Is Rick Caruso’s ‘short-term’ homelessness plan what L.A. needs?
Editor’s note: Letters to the Editor appear in the March edition of The Times Opinion section. Send letters to [email protected], or mail them to [email protected] Letters must include the author’s name, contact information and a brief biographical note. All letters deemed “helpful” by the editors will be published, though readers who prefer printed letters will continue to receive them in the print edition.
Rick Caruso
The City Council is considering a $500,000 “Short-Term” Housing Program to address the city’s homeless crisis, but the plan is shortsighted and will cost us far more.
The plan doesn’t stop the homelessness problem. On the contrary, it is the next step in a long and tragic process that began when the city abandoned the idea of permanent supportive housing.
It was a bold stroke to begin with. The idea was to buy homes on sites far away from downtown and then demolish them and build shelters or housing. Instead, city staff and politicians decided to keep the homes, but only by renting them out to homeless residents.
The city did this as a “quick fix” to address its homelessness problem, but it is a disaster that has no place in the city’s long-term plan.
First, the city’s goal is to create a new system called “Affordable Housing.”
This is the right goal. But we need to move beyond a quick fix and get to long-term reform. Short-term solutions will not solve the problem.
The city’s plan to demolish homes is a bad idea for a couple of reasons:
First, there are better and cheaper solutions at the local level. The city should focus on building affordable housing by investing in land trusts and community-based housing.
