Conversation : Low-Cost Homeless Housing: ‘Not On the Mayor’s Agenda’

Of the estimated 70,000 homeless adults on Los Angeles County streets on any given night in 1993 (the latest year for which figures are available), nearly one-third suffered from mental illness. Providing some of these people with housing that includes counseling and other services on-site is the task of A Community of Friends, which last month received $11.2 million from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to fund five facilities.

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The affordable housing gap will never be closed in Los Angeles unless there’s very active leadership from the mayor’s office. Funding coming from the federal government after the 1992 uprising and the [Northridge] earthquake was primarily for rehabilitation, with little for new housing stock.

Unlike in older cities where the housing stock is usually concentrated in a defined area, Los Angeles is overbuilt, with little vacant land. But the homeless problem is not going to go away until people realize we’re spending $3 or $4 or $5 on hospitals and police for every dollar we don’t want to spend on housing.

I first worked on special needs housing in Boston, where I received a master’s degree in city planning from MIT. [Housing] initiatives in Boston derived from Mayor Ray Flynn saying, “We want to deal with homelessness.” When the mayor says we’re going to deal with this problem, that we’re going to educate the public, perceptions change. In older cities, it’s assumed the city is going to put up some dollars to match federal funds. They’re geared up to help you find a site or [match you with] some other urban renewal programs.

Here it’s mostly very hands-off. We’ve had to be entrepreneurial: You go out and find a site, negotiate with the private seller, convince the public to support you, go to corporations to provide investments, ask banks for a mortgage, then go to the federal government and say, “I have all these sources. Will you please give me help with the cash-flow side?”

It doesn’t appear at this time that the mayor of Los Angeles has on his agenda to be out front on this issue [of homelessness]. The Los Angeles Housing Authority is very pro-active but it’s one department. And [there are] the City Council members, but they don’t have the resources the mayor does.

So it’s up to the rest of us. [Recipients of the July HUD award] were part of a collective effort by approximately 40 agencies that came together under the umbrella of the year-old Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority. We each had wanted to apply for money, but by collaborating we strengthened each other’s effort. I believe Los Angeles County received $71 million of the $78 million requested because it fit into HUD’s new mandate to provide a continuum of care.

The difference between us and a for-profit developer is that we’re in it for the foreseeable future. We’re not on a money-making scheme. Most of our covenants are for 55 years and we’ve planned for our expenses to keep our buildings well-maintained. And that helps the community because it can attract other money that could benefit small businesses.

Nearly 75% of our funding is from the private market, where investors aren’t going to put a dime if something is substandard or going to attract controversy.

According to county mental health officials, high-volume mental health users can cost in excess of $40,000 a year. Joint public and nonprofit [mental health] efforts can cost up to $22,000 a year. But our units, including services and building costs, run between $5,000 and $8,000 a year.

The July HUD money means my agency will be able to offer 520 units valued at $40 million. Funds will be used for rent subsidies, social services such as counseling and job assistance and capital costs at sites on Figueroa Street, 39th Street and Western Avenue, and in Hollywood, Boyle Heights and San Pedro. Ours are mostly single rooms and a few one-bedroom apartments. It’s permanent housing--we’re not warehousing people.

I spend 20% of my time educating people about mental illness. Fears are based on misinformation. We work closely with local officials, businesses, neighborhood watch groups. We humanize the subject by bringing along someone who’ll live there.

These are people whose lives have been destroyed, like the woman who had lived so long on the streets that she had to be told to take the plastic off the mattress and use the sheets provided. Our clients may need medication just like someone who has heart disease. But they want to turn their lives around.