Los Angeles Times Editorial- A missed chance to help L.A.'s homeless

[Lady Freedom Returns]

A missed chance to help L.A.'s homeless
Downtown's Cecil Hotel could have — should have — housed 384 people.

By The Times editorial board
April 7, 2014

What the homeless need most is permanent supportive housing. Not shelter beds, not handouts or the occasional hot meal. They need housing in a building or complex that offers the services they require — substance-abuse treatment, mental health counseling, job placement — to help them address the myriad issues that left them living on the streets in the first place. The goal of such housing is to enable them to live as independently as possible while supporting them in their efforts to make a successful transition into a stable life.


Officials at United Way estimate that there are currently about 14,000 units of permanent supportive housing in Los Angeles County. An additional 4,300 are being developed and should be ready for occupancy in the near future. Still, many thousands more homeless people are in need of such a home.

But creating this kind of housing is expensive and complicated, involving cooperative property owners, a government agency or nonprofit to run the operation, and a local community that won't lobby against it. (Or, at least, will stop lobbying against it at some point in the process.)

Read the rest @ latimes.com

[upaloopa]

1. It takes HUD grants . I work with supportive housing grants.

The county administers the program. HUD pays for part of the supportive services. Medicaid pays for part. Community housing agencies pay rent subsidies and the tennent on SSI pays for part of the rent.
Many of these people have such mental problems that they could never support themselves.