Confusion About the Homeless

Emergency responses are no substitute for a coherent, consistent policy. That is why keen interest is focused on Los Angeles City Hall as a so-called Comprehensive Homeless Policy, the emergency Skid Row encampment and Central City rezoning all come up for action this month.

Public confidence has understandably been eroded by the way in which matters have been handled until now. The police sweeps of Skid Row, on again and off again, were ill planned and uncoordinated with broader city policy. They were a measure in themselves of the importance of Mayor Tom Bradley’s getting more deeply and seriously involved in this and the allied issues.

The 60-day emergency encampment may create more problems than it solves. Clearly there was need for an alternative to the sidewalk encampments that had become centers for crime and threats to public health. But tents in a vacant lot are not an acceptable substitute for permanent facilities. Yet there do not appear to be plans for more appropriate facilities that will be all the more necessary when the tent encampment closes just as the rainy season approaches. The short-term emergency facilities now authorized by the City Council for periods of severe weather are the clearest evidence of all of the shelter shortage.

There will always be some confusion about the various issues on Skid Row. There are several populations. Most are permanent residents, some are short-term homeless, some are mentally ill and critically in need of special services. About 8,000 live in single-room-occupancy hotels, 2,000 more use missions, and about 1,000 are without shelter.

The city has had no choice but to address the crisis created by the burgeoning sidewalk population. But that concern must not be allowed to divert attention from the long-term need for housing. The Community Redevelopment Agency reports than an additional 1,731 beds will be available in the next 18 months, including 996 in the Skid Row area. It is not clear how many of those will be allocated to relieve long-term Skid Row housing needs. The slowness of the rehabilitation of additional hotels in the Skid Row area has drawn sharp criticism. Hopes for a more significant increase in housing have been dimmed by new zoning proposed by the City Planning Department that would target all housing for the area between Main and San Pedro, south of 3rd and north of 7th, maintaining as a light-manufacturing zone the larger area that runs from San Pedro east to Alameda. It would be a grave error to place any obstacles in the way of maintaining and developing Skid Row housing all the way east to Alameda.

There are two encouraging notes. The City Council this week will consider the mayor’s proposal for a six-month freeze on the demolition of single-room-occupancy hotels and on rents in these hotels. Both are important. Pressure is building on Skid Row to replace the hotels with commercial buildings. Some housing already has been lost.

Bradley has a special role to play in this. He needs to be heard, stating clearly his goals for the long-term development of Skid Row and the provision of adequate, appropriate shelter for the population--both permanent and itinerant, residential and temporarily homeless. His commitment to suspend sidewalk sweeps and arrests of the homeless when alternative housing is not available is reassuring. But the plans for those alternative accommodations are not clear.