Help the Homeless Don’t Need

AFTER NEARLY 12 MONTHS of platitudes from civic leaders about confronting the homeless crisis, skid row in downtown Los Angeles this summer looks worse, not better. And the people who claim to be helping the downtrodden bear a good portion of the blame.

In the last six months, the number of sidewalk tents has nearly tripled, leaving block after block of chaos and open lawlessness on skid row. The number of rapes and homicides in the area has jumped. And in the most symbolic declaration of defeat yet, law enforcement chose to rope off downtown’s Pershing Square, the city center’s most important public space, for most of the summer’s evenings rather than try to clear the area of open drug users.

Getting downtown under control requires providing more shelter beds and long-term housing, offering more mental health treatment and decentralizing homeless-related services to all areas of the county. These goals are broadly shared by the American Civil Liberties Union. But the ACLU has also stood in the way of another crucial element to any solution: vigorous policing.

In April, the group won an injunction in federal court blocking the police from fining or jailing people for violating the city’s anti-camping law. The court ruled, wrongly in our view, that the ordinance can’t be enforced unless police demonstrate that there are enough shelter beds for the thousands of people who sleep on the city’s streets every night. There aren’t, so the LAPD must now leave most homeless where they are. The city is appealing the ruling.

A federal judge this summer ordered both sides into mediation to see if they could agree on a compromise rather than let the case drag on for years while downtown deteriorates. But at the first meeting, held Monday, the ACLU continued to resist compromise, increasing the likelihood that the talks will fail.

For instance, it now appears that the group won’t accept a daytime camping ban unless some categories of the homeless are exempted, such as the mentally ill or those who aren’t blocking entrance to a business or private property. And an offer to arrest only the same number of people as there are available shelter beds on any given evening also was rejected.

Yes, the ACLU has a court ruling in its favor. But the LAPD, the mayor’s office and the district attorney are all more than willing to compromise. The city said it would drop its initial demand that the police be able to clear out large homeless encampments and suggested that it might pay all the attorneys fees in the lawsuit.

That’s the spirit of compromise that should motivate these talks as mediation continues next week. Los Angeles can’t afford another summer like this one.