Finding a Way Home (homeless services help neighborhoods)

Studies show homeless services don't increase crime or decrease property values - and they needn't destroy the fabric of a neighborhood,


http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-nimby04may04,0,1796260.story?track=tottext

From the Los Angeles Times
FINDING A WAY HOME
A place to call their own

May 4, 2006


FOUR WEEKS AGO, JAMIE KRONICK moved into her first home in six years. She had been sleeping on the streets of Santa Monica, often in a doorway if the building's owners didn't make too much of a fuss. Now Kronick, who is 50, lives in a clean, well-lighted studio apartment in Silver Lake so new it smells of fresh paint.

Kronick's story, sadly, is as exceptional as her apartment. It's hard enough to get homeless people the services they need so they can begin to get their lives together. The task is made all the more difficult when local residents and officials stymie attempts to provide such services simply because they don't want them in their neighborhood. Until Los Angeles realizes that everyone has to be part of the solution, it will stay the nation's capital of homelessness.<snip>

But these efforts are already at risk. There have been dozens of projects — often paid with private dollars — that have been quashed in recent years, usually because politicians buckled to a small but vocal number of local residents who opposed them. Among the projects blocked have been a home in Sylmar for children living on skid row, a winter shelter for families in North Hollywood and a project in San Pedro for veterans.

The result is that both homeless services and housing remain too concentrated on skid row. There are 2.1 homeless people per shelter bed in downtown L.A., compared with 22.4 per bed in the San Gabriel Valley. Only 21 cities in the area spend more than $10,000 a year on homeless services.<snip>