Task Force to Feed Homeless Draws Fire

Some West Hollywood residents hoping to participate in a recently created city task force to deal with feeding the community’s homeless population say the effort is veering in the wrong direction after only two meetings.

Many of those complaining are the same neighbors of the Greater West Hollywood Food Coalition feeding program in Plummer Park who in October persuaded the City Council to shut the program down because of reports of crime, intimidation and unsanitary conditions at the site.

After a flood of publicity and Hollywood celebrities surfaced to protest the decision, the council reinstated the program for four months and created the task force to oversee the future of the program.

Now critics say the task force, which was to be made up of citizens, city staff and food coalition representatives, has been taken over by city staff and is unlikely to produce solid results.