Welfare Offices

When, as a journalist, I was researching homelessness in downtown Los Angeles it became clear to me that the Department of Public Services located it offices in large part as a form of social engineering; that is, it attempts to move the homeless from one place in the city to another by moving services from place to place.

It should be noted, too, that welfare workers are quick to cut off services to people who miss or are even a few minutes late for scheduled appointments. They are then required to wait several weeks before receiving welfare again and must apply all over again. Putting an office farther away, and requiring long bus rides and transfers to reach it, guarantees that large numbers of people will mess up in one way or another and miss their appointments. That means that either the homeless must move closer to the office or that the welfare rolls will dwindle.

PETER MARIN Santa Barbara