Letters to the Editor: Nothing will solve homelessness until we fix the high cost of housing

To the editor: The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that it is OK to move homeless individuals from one area to another, issue expensive citations or arrest individuals and throw them in jail simply for camping on public property. However, from my experience as a homeless services volunteer, those actions do not solve the problem. (“Newsom orders California agencies to clear homeless camps, but the impact remains a question,” July 25)

The only solution is to provide housing and supportive services. To the credit of L.A. city and county agencies, they’re already providing resources and housing to unhoused individuals. The problem is social service agencies are stretched thin, interim housing is scarce, and individuals and families are still falling into homelessness.

So, Gov. Gavin Newsom and others may be losing patience with the pace at which homeless encampments are cleared and individuals are being housed. But that is more a result of high housing costs, community opposition to the development of extremely low-income housing and a dearth of mental health and substance use services.

Jane Demian, Los Angeles

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To the editor: The RAND study is wrong in its conclusion that cleanups simply move homeless people around.

Thanks to a combination of cleanups, offers of shelter, enforcement of 24/7 no-camping zones and the installation of landscaping, fencing and physical barriers at strategic locations, there are no large homeless encampments in Venice today.

While a few dozen drug-addled and mentally ill homeless folks remain in and around the beach, many of those date from a failure of outreach efforts by social service organizations during the major cleanup in the summer of 2021. That cleanup still succeeded in removing more than 200 campers from the Venice Boardwalk and made it far more welcoming to the public.

All in all, cleanups along with enforcement have dramatically improved residents’ quality of life and visitors’ experiences.

Mark Ryavec, Venice

The writer is president of the Venice Stakeholders Assn.

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To the editor: Moving homeless people from the streets into temporary housing (such as hotels or motels) without comprehensive and easily accessible social services is just as ineffective as clearing encampments and moving people from one city to another.

Though L.A. Mayor Karen Bass claims to disagree with Newsom’s approach, they both advocate for temporary “fixes.”

When our solutions are more geared toward us not seeing homeless people for a brief time, rather than geared toward actually helping them, we hold some of the blame for perpetuating the cycle of homelessness. Just like I tell my kids to make decisions today with the long term in mind, apparently we have to tell our adult leaders that too.

Follow the money: Are we spending more on moving homeless people around or on easily accessible, trained social workers, mental health professionals and healthcare?

Until we address this in an actionable way, the only change that will happen is a long-term increase in homelessness, as life in California continues to get more expensive.

Matthew R. Jensen, San Pedro