Beverly Hills should try helping homeless people instead of pushing them out

To the editor: Let me get this straight: First we create a country in which the top 20% of households own more than 84% of the wealth, and the bottom 40% are left to fight for a trifling 0.3%. Then, we poverty-shame people who are trying desperately to navigate inside that world. (“Beverly Hills accused of driving out homeless man befriended by Larry King, others,” July 5)

Shame on the Beverly Hills Human Services Division for allocating money but not allowing shelter and services for the homeless, including George Saville, whom I have been lucky enough to run into on occasion, with his smile and good humor.

And double-shame on the city of Beverly Hills for vigorously fostering the aforementioned divide instead of using its wealth and power to institute assistance and encourage empathy for those left behind.

Yvette Davis, Los Angeles

..

To the editor: You get it exactly right in portraying Beverly Hills as a place that callously runs off anyone who dares loiter without, say, a clear commercial purpose. Our green-shirted private patrolmen scour the streets simply to move those folks along.

That $700,000 “ambassadors” program sailed swiftly through city committees and City Council a year ago. Recently it was renewed without much concern for the obvious ethical or constitutional questions.

What about those in need of housing? As you note, Beverly Hills offers just a single unit of homeless support housing. Rents are rising fast, yet our city hasn’t supported a single unit of subsidized housing in over a generation. The “affordable” housing we do resource (under government mandate) graces hardscrabble streets in cities far from the Westside.la

Perhaps our “ambassadors” will soon move the rest of us along. Whether we’re homeless, living below the poverty line or simply trying to eke out a middle-class life here, will we too find ourselves hustled along by the greenshirts?

Mark Elliot, Beverly Hills

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook