SOUNDING OFF: Housing will cure homelessness

After viewing www.lbhomeless.org www.lbhomeless.org and watching the CBS News item, as well as reading the statistics on the “housing first” model used by many cities for their homeless residents, it’s clear that it is actually less expensive to house people and get them into existing programs than it is to continue cycling them through the emergency response and penal systems.

This is a no brainer. Let’s build a small multi-service center with beds, showers and lockers, and be a smart and compassionate city instead of just another beachfront fortress of wealthy people determined to keep the have-nots out. Homeless people are part of our town “” why not help them (and our merchants) in a way that shows Laguna Beach can think outside of the box to solve its problems? The cure for homelessness is housing.

KRISTIN FAST lives in Laguna Beach.