Mental Help on Skid Row

Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley is expected to plead forcefully today for help for people on Skid Row who are not only homeless but also mentally ill. They need more than a roof over their heads. They need the kind of help that the Los Angeles Men’s Program could provide--shelter, a bed, therapy and counseling, and placement in a job. LAMP wants to offer such help for 45 men and women, using a city-owned warehouse on Skid Row. But it needs a zoning variance from the Zoning Board of Appeals.

The LAMP center would be in an area zoned for light industry, but not for residences. The original request for a zoning change, channeled through the city’s Community Development Department, was rejected. The mayor will try again today. Much depends on his being at his persuasive best.

LAMP would run the shelter in a San Pedro Street building that houses a drug-treatment program and the city’s emergency shelter. The location is quite suitable because it is in an area where the men and women who are most in need live and congregate.

Councilman Gilbert Lindsay opposes the San Pedro Street site because a major share of the city’s homeless already are in his district, and, he argues, another shelter would serve as a magnet to lure even more. His argument ignores the fact that the homeless are drawn to Skid Row even when there is no shelter for them, and it just makes sense to put a shelter in an area where the homeless live.

Local business owners also object to the new LAMP center. The Central City East Assn., an organization of 50 businesses, wants to protect the light-industrial zoning on San Pedro Street so that light industry can be attracted to the area. The businesses are not so insensitive as to object to opening a new shelter, and they cite their support for LAMP’s recent expansion as evidence. They also suggested compromise sites--another indication of good intentions, although the mayor’s staff received the list of alternative addresses only Friday. The list may provide solid leads for future projects, depending on price and availability, but there is not enough time to start over because budget requirements mandate that some government money be spent by June.

Money, for once, is not the sticking point. LAMP, a group that does outstanding work in its field, has raised $1.2 million in public funds--primarily from the county--and $706,000 in private donations. The money would be used to rehabilitate the warehouse, operate a shelter and start three businesses--a convenience store, a commercial laundry and a coin-operated laundry--to provide jobs for shelter residents. The zoning variance is the only obstacle.

Business leaders who oppose the zoning change have every right to protect their investments and patrons, but government leaders also have a moral--and in the case of the county a legal--obligation to provide for the homeless. Those objectives need not conflict.

Bradley’s balanced vision of downtown Los Angeles includes upscale commercial redevelopment and low-income housing for the homeless. We hope that he will prove today that there is room--and help--downtown for the homeless.