[Editor’s Note: This is the opening portion of a paper City Council candidate Christopher Patrick King helped develop recently regarding housing, homelessness and suggested roles for developers.]
[img]2333|right|Christopher King||no_popup[/img]We were leaving a political event in Santa Monica on a Thursday, one of those fall nights in L.A. when the wind comes up and the cold air has a bite to it. As we walked around the corner to our car, a homeless man greeted us. His bag was lying across the sidewalk. When he saw us coming, he moved it and politely apologized for the inconvenience.
We wished him a good night, and he asked if we could help him out at all. We said yes. In the car, we had several brochures with dollar bills stapled to them. The brochures come from the Culver City Homelessness Committee. They list a number of local resources for housing, homelessness, mental health, food services and emergency services.
We told him this as we handed it to him and introduced ourselves.
His name is Guy. He told us he has been homeless for the last 20 years. He is working with the Ocean Park Community Center to obtain a Section 8 housing voucher, but he said they have been unable to secure one for him. We mentioned that for the City of Culver City, Saint Joseph’s Center is our homeless service provider. We suggested that he contact our Social Worker there. He was amenable to it, but asked that we reach out to her first and be sure it would be okay if he contacted her. We agreed.
Focus on His Main Request
This is a true story. If, for a moment, we suspend judgment and second-guess Guy’s motivations and life circumstances, it is important to note what his main “ask” was for that Thursday night.
He wants housing. He is not the only one. Los Angeles County is the homeless capital of the nation.
According to United Way and studies done on Los Angeles County homelessness, 51,340 people are homeless in Los Angeles County. Of these, 12,556 are “chronically homeless,” meaning that the individual or family has been homeless for a year or more “and has serious health, mental heath, or substance abuse problems.”
But homelessness is a social issue with far reaching impacts.
Through the course of this project, we have taken a comprehensive view. Of course, there is the humanistic side of assisting the homeless and helping to improve the lives of others. Additionally, from a developer’s standpoint, people sleeping on the streets is a form of “blight,” and makes people perceive neighborhoods as dangerous, less desirable and not worth investment. This topic therefore ties in a variety of important social issues: Access to government programs such as Section 8, incentive programs for developers, issues surrounding job creation, the role of non-profits. In a very powerful way, the critical issue becomes how to form creative solutions that pull together private investment, government, non-profits and businesses.
(To be continued)
