Los Angeles to Permit Sleeping on Sidewalks
(New York Times, October 11, 2007)
In recent years the Los Angeles police were, by law, able to arrest homeless people that were sleeping or lying on public sidewalks in and around Skid Row. Skid Row has one of highest concentrations of homeless people in the country at 10,000-12,000. On October 10, city officials agreed to no longer enforce that law until 1,250 low-cost housing units are built. Until then, the city will allow the homeless to sleep on sidewalks between the hours of 9 PM and 6 AM. They cannot, however, sleep within 10 feet of the entrance to a building, parking lot, or loading dock. Ramona Ripston, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, said, “What this does is permit people to sleep throughout the city… without the police disturbing them.”
I do not think that LA is approaching their homeless problem in the right way. Instead of focusing on finding housing for their homeless, they should be focusing on getting jobs for them. Building only 1,250 housing units will hardly put a dent in the number of homeless people in the area – especially considering only half of the housing will be in the downtown area by Skid Row. I think that allowing them sleep on the streets is not the way to go. Ripston says that the police won’t be disturbing the homeless now, but what about the homeless now disturbing the other residents?
2 comments:
I agree with bryanna that LA is going about the homeless problem the wrong way. they really need to focus on getting people steady jobs and cleaning up the streets. There should never be shelter given to people they need to work for it unless they truely cant. Also, we need to get everyone working so that we can have less homeless shelters and less free food places. Everyone needs to learn how to work for what they need unless they have a true reason they cant.
After reading this article, I also think LA is going out this problem all wrong. Yes, building 1,250 cheap housing units is a step in the right direction; however without jobs these homeless people won't beable to afford them anyway. Also I think the new laws about exactly where someone is allowed to sleep (10 ft. away from parking lots, businesses, etc.) is pointless. What is 10 feet going to do? I think what LA needs to do is build more shelters for these people to sleep at and focus more attention on creating new jobs. This way the homeless population will beable to pick themselves off their feet.
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