Addressing skid row

Re “LAPD’s Skid Row Divide,” March 10

It is appalling to read that the two contending plans to deal with skid row are equally self-defeating and inhumane. One plan is “to move thousands of homeless people off the streets” without providing any place for them to go; the other “focuses primarily on reducing crime.”

Neither plan offers any help to the people who, for whatever reason, are reduced to a subhuman existence on the streets of Los Angeles.

It seems that the current proposals consider the problem to be one of beautifying those streets, not helping the people in need.

Have we really become so heartless, materialistic and inhumane that we consider the problem of skid row to be one of cleaning up trash rather than finding a solution to a human tragedy?

What is needed is not more police officers but more housing, healthcare, counseling and education programs. Let’s wake up and get to work on a real solution.

LUCY HORWITZ

Los Angeles

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We need to be better listeners to all those affected by the homeless problem: those in public office, the Los Angeles Police Department, service providers, the local business community, the public and, as important, representatives from the homeless community.

Listening works. At the L.A. Mission, we have regular meetings with the homeless to get their feedback. It’s made us better. We also host regular “Ask the Captain” meetings with the chief of the LAPD Central Division and the homeless. Both settings require the humility to realize that we don’t have all the answers and that we can learn from listening.

Also listening is the Skid Row Health Initiative, which is improving collaboration of our collective healthcare efforts. And there are new efforts to better address the many mental health needs of the homeless through Proposition 63 funds.

The well-worn axiom has never been truer: There’s your way, my way and the right way.

MARSHALL MCNOTT

President

Los Angeles Mission