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> For the 90+% of homeless that are homeless due to mental illness or drug abuse Where did you get this number? Do you think that number is a constant, and doe

by abeppu 3y ago

> For the 90+% of homeless that are homeless due to mental illness or drug abuse Where did you get this number? Do you think that number is a constant, and doesn't vary with the cost of housing?

abeppu 3y ago
The Skid Row Housing Trust situation does sound bleak, but insofar as "housing first" is meant to provide a safe and stable environment that can enable other kinds of life improvements, I dunno that the housing they were providing fits the bill. > its portfolio is heavily weighted with early 20th century hotels with tiny living spaces, communal bathrooms and kitchens > Residents complain that lax security allows intruders to have easy access to the building and that one resident disrupts the entire building. > While giving a tour of the building to a Times reporter, a tenant pushed open the disruptive man’s door > Residents of the Hart alleged they frequently had to use buckets in their rooms as toilets. > Los Angeles County departments of health services and mental health warned the trust of habitability and safety issues that were causing clients to decline housing in its buildings Suppose you live in one of these, and every time you go to the bathroom or the kitchen, you feel unsafe (anyone could be in the building), or are going to encounter various triggers (how much harder is it to get clean if there's drug use still all around you?), and are still subject to a lot of stress, disruption and uncertainty caused by your living situation. It seems like this organization was ambitious in the number of people it could house, but took real compromises in the quality of that housing. And it depended on very high occupancy to be financially even close to viable. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-03-26/skid-row-housing-trust-collapse-los-angeles-homeless-housing https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-03-26/skid-row...
gamblor956 3y ago
I used to be a public defender in the LA area, and I used to work with LAHSA. My 90+% number refers to the chronic homeless, not the temporary homeless for whom financial issues or fleeing domestic violence are the primary causes of their short-term homelessness.

by abeppu 3y ago

> For the 90+% of homeless that are homeless due to mental illness or drug abuse Where did you get this number? Do you think that number is a constant, and doesn't vary with the cost of housing?

abeppu 3y ago

The Skid Row Housing Trust situation does sound bleak, but insofar as "housing first" is meant to provide a safe and stable environment that can enable other kinds of life improvements, I dunno that the housing they were providing fits the bill. > its portfolio is heavily weighted with early 20th century hotels with tiny living spaces, communal bathrooms and kitchens > Residents complain that lax security allows intruders to have easy access to the building and that one resident disrupts the entire building. > While giving a tour of the building to a Times reporter, a tenant pushed open the disruptive man’s door > Residents of the Hart alleged they frequently had to use buckets in their rooms as toilets. > Los Angeles County departments of health services and mental health warned the trust of habitability and safety issues that were causing clients to decline housing in its buildings Suppose you live in one of these, and every time you go to the bathroom or the kitchen, you feel unsafe (anyone could be in the building), or are going to encounter various triggers (how much harder is it to get clean if there's drug use still all around you?), and are still subject to a lot of stress, disruption and uncertainty caused by your living situation. It seems like this organization was ambitious in the number of people it could house, but took real compromises in the quality of that housing. And it depended on very high occupancy to be financially even close to viable. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-03-26/skid-row-housing-trust-collapse-los-angeles-homeless-housing https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-03-26/skid-row...

gamblor956 3y ago

I used to be a public defender in the LA area, and I used to work with LAHSA. My 90+% number refers to the chronic homeless, not the temporary homeless for whom financial issues or fleeing domestic violence are the primary causes of their short-term homelessness.