To the editor: Carla Corridor makes so many necessary factors in her editorial on the significance of listening to the homeless (“To know homelessness, take heed to homeless folks. Right here’s what I realized,” March 30). I imagine, primarily based upon a few years of working with and across the homeless inhabitants of Los Angeles County after I was in regulation enforcement, that her most necessary level was that, above all else, folks actually do want a protected place to sleep earlier than they will turn out to be extra stabilized. Corridor encourages the reader to think about how laborious it might be to unravel a private downside in case you had no place to sleep, bathe or use the lavatory.
I thought of this level on a regular basis after I labored across the homeless. I remembered how horrible I at all times felt after taking a red-eye flight wherever; getting off the airplane drained, hungry and in want of a bathe. This thought at all times crept into my thoughts when making an attempt to think about how a lot worse folks should really feel when that is how they really feel on a regular basis and the way virtually unimaginable it’s to make a sound choice once you really feel this exhausted. Combine some drug use and crime into this recipe of stress and exhaustion and it spells catastrophe for many.
If town of Los Angeles was actually severe about getting the homeless inhabitants stabilized, it might make investments closely in cell items with docs, pharmacists, social employees, showers and meals that might come on to the homeless encampments to help folks. It’s a lot simpler to have a dialogue with an unhoused particular person a few long-term plan when they’re rested, clear, fed and feeling protected (to not point out extra hopeful). That is such a easy idea, but it by no means appears to be emphasised sufficient when discussing the difficulty of homelessness.
Jennifer Swoboda, Lengthy Seashore
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To the editor: Of all the profound reflections that Corridor shares with us that span the length of her profession masking problems with homelessness for The Occasions, maybe essentially the most poignant remark she makes is in her concluding assertion when she calls upon all who care in regards to the destiny of Los Angeles with a name to motion:
“I problem you to care about offering properties to individuals who want them. I problem you to welcome new reasonably priced housing when it’s proposed in your group, as a result of as an Angeleno witnessing this disaster, you understand how many lives that housing might change — what number of lives it might save.”
The acute housing disaster that has led to the best degree of homelessness within the nation, together with the unwillingness of the few who’ve benefited from a system of single-family zoning on the expense of the various who’re caught in everlasting leases, will destroy our metropolis if not addressed in significant methods. For these dwelling on the sting of housing insecurity, restrictive zoning, restricted revenue development and ever-increasing rents will proceed to destroy lives and the way forward for our once-great metropolis.
Lisa Ansell, Beverly Hills
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To the editor: Studying Corridor’s fascinating column about understanding the homeless bought me fascinated with how so many well-meaning folks wish to see the unhoused. Sadly, the issue is way bigger than the homeless being simply people who misplaced their jobs and had fallen on laborious occasions however in any other case are not any totally different than the remainder of us.
In my Burbank neighborhood, there’s a person wandering round who sometimes walks down my road and begins howling on the prime of his voice. He seems to not have bathed prior to now yr. Final week, I needed to escort a girl dwelling close to me to her entrance door as a result of he was standing close by, wanting scarily at her. Prior to now, he’s dropped his pants and uncovered himself to ladies on my road whereas having a clean stare in his eyes. The police have been contacted by a number of of us neighbors reporting this dangerous-looking vagrant however, in fact, nothing ever occurs consequently.
I attempted to ask the person to please depart the world, however he didn’t even appear to grasp that I used to be standing there earlier than him, a lot much less speaking to him. This man would doubtless by no means settle for dwelling in a shelter house or being endorsed or cared for by anybody as a result of he trusts no person.
Till L.A. finds a solution to take care of the mentally unwell and substance-abusing addicts roaming and dwelling on our streets, no quantity of public insurance policies or funding will make a lot of a distinction, sadly.
Doug Weiskopf, Burbank
