[img]1302|right|Goran Eriksson||no_popup[/img]One never knows when a spark will strike and illuminate a new ad different world.
Goran Eriksson, past president of the Culver City Chamber of Commerce, is no stranger at City Council meetings.
Two years ago at a meeting, the count of homeless persons in Culver City was being announced.
Twenty-one.
“I was surprised it was so high,” said the businessman.
Because Mr. Eriksson sees the community up close on a regular basis.
“I bike around in town and I drive around town. Maybe I have seen one, pushing a cart. That’s all.
“I made a mental note at the Council meeting that night: Next time there is a homeless count (every other year), if I am in town, I want to participate.
“I was so surprised by the high number, and I wanted to get an understanding of it.”
Mr. Eriksson did take part in last week’s week, when the number of homeless took more than a 50 percent leap, from 21 to 33.
“When we were driving last week in one of the back alleys,” he recalled, “we saw something unusual, someone had built a little shelter for himself.”
Now, what to do about the rise in homelessness?
“We had this discussion a year ago in the Financial Advisory Committee,” which Mr. Eriksson chairs, “what to do about this now that the Redevelopment Agency money has gone away. One of the costs for the city was around $100,000 a year to the St. Joseph’s Center (on Rose Avenue, Venice) to help the homeless.”
Two years along, after wading into the deep agency waters of curtailing if not ending, homelessness, Mr. Eriksson is convinced plenty of fine tuning is required between here and a cure.
