Home-grown help for the homeless

Re “Funds OKd to aid skid row’s neediest,” Jan. 9

As a former staffer at a homeless shelter in Santa Monica, I was pleased to read that the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved $5.6 million for a pilot program to provide permanent housing for 50 skid row residents. What surprises me is that it needed to bring in an outside consultant from New York to advise on it.

Granted, the Common Ground program should be a model that is replicated across the country, but there are enough experts in this field right here in L.A. who have been working with this population for decades, so there doesn’t seem to be a need to import outside experts.

Roxann Smith

Beverly Hills