Portable Dwellings

* Your editorial, “Rethinking Home Sweet Home,” (July 13), offers an endorsement for an interesting approach to the homeless crisis. While we applaud your attention to the crisis, unfortunately housing alone is not the answer to the complexities that create a homeless person.

Most homeless people are mentally disabled. Statistics show that somewhere between 60% and 80% of the homeless population are people with mental disabilities. This population needs more than housing. When governments create solutions to housing, whether the housing is portable or permanent, the mere sheltering of these people will rarely be enough. As U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Henry Cisneros has often remarked, we need a “continuum of care” when we deal with the homeless and those in need of affordable housing.

Homeless people are often people with a variety of emotional as well as work-related problems. They are in need of various types of counseling and economic support. While architectural students create innovative answers to the sheltering needs of the homeless, the social service and governmental policy studies schools should also be encourage to view “continuum of care” answers to one of this country’s most intractable and growing problems.

ROBERT A. SANBORN

Executive Director

A Community of Friends

Los Angeles