City Watch: Could ‘Conservatorship’ Be Another Solution for LA’s Homeless Crisis?

Photo Credit: Alex Datig

DENNIS P. ZINE 20 JUNE 2019

"...The ultra-liberal San Francisco elected officials recently authorized to remove homeless individuals and place them in a facility for their own health and safety. Known as Conservatorship, the program has the endorsement of Mayor London Breed, Supervisor Rafael Mandelman and California State Senator Scott Wiener, along with many other political and civic leaders in San Francisco. They report that it is a necessary step in dealing with the often-homeless addicts who are a danger to themselves and others. The program allows a court to appoint a public conservator for those who have been involuntarily detained for psychiatric hospitalization under section 5150 of the California welfare and institution code.

If San Francisco can implement this program, LA can and should explore it, too. It could be a way to finally begin to reduce the number of homeless individuals and families in Los Angeles. It has been determined and known for a long time that a significant number of homeless people are either mentally ill or addicted to drugs and can no longer hold a job or function in society. The utilization of the Conservatorship provisions can serve as a reasonable and humanitarian way of addressing the tragedy of homelessness..."

Read the full article here

(Dennis P. Zine is a former and retired LAPD Supervisor, former and retired 12-year Los Angeles City Councilman and current General Manager at Bell Canyon in Ventura County. Edited for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.)

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The Los Angeles Times: L.A. is swamped with 311 complaints over homeless camps. But are the cleanups pointless?

Photo Credit: Alex Datig

By EMILY ALPERT REYES, BENJAMIN ORESKES and DOUG SMITH
JUN 07, 2019

...Los Angeles has been deluged with requests to clean up homeless encampments in recent years. Between 2016 and 2018, such requests shot up 167%, according to a Times analysis of 311 data. The trend has continued this year, with requests up 37% in the first few months compared with the same period a year earlier.

The surge in cleanup requests has happened as L.A. and other cities have seen hefty increases in the number of people without permanent shelter. The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority announced Tuesday that the homeless population had jumped by 16% in the city and 12% across the county. Most — 75% — were living outdoors, including in vehicles.

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The Los Angeles Times: Homelessness jumps 12% in L.A. County and 16% in the city; officials ‘stunned’

By Benjamin Oreskes and Doug Smith

Jun 04, 2019

In a hard reality check for Los Angeles County’s multibillion-dollar hope of ending homelessness, officials reported Tuesday that the number of people living on the streets, in vehicles and in shelters increased by about 12% over last year.

The annual point-in-time count, delivered to the Board of Supervisors, put the number of homeless people just shy of 59,000 countywide. Within the city of Los Angeles, the number soared to more than 36,000, a 16% increase.

And as in past years, most — about 75% — were living outside, fueling speculation of a growing public health crisis of rats and trash near homeless encampments downtown.

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The Los Angeles Times: L.A.'s homelessness surged 75% in six years. Here's why the crisis has been decades in the making

By GALE HOLLAND , FEB 01, 2018

Some of the poorest people in the city spend their days in the shadow of Los Angeles City Hall, napping on flattened cardboard boxes.

On any given day, as many as 20 people take to the City Hall lawn, across the street from LAPD headquarters. They're there to "escape the madness" in downtown streets, a 53-year-old homeless man named Lazarus said last week. At night, they fan out to doorways or deserted plazas to wait for daybreak.

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