President Trump once denounced Los Angeles for its sidewalk encampments and vowed to take action without consulting the city.
By Larry Buhl
Housing and homeless advocates are cautiously optimistic about a recent meeting between Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, believing that federal action — if it materializes — could help, and hoping it doesn’t come with onerous strings. Garcetti met with Carson in Washington, D.C., late last month with the intention, according to the Mayor’s office, of bringing “new resources to Los Angeles to house more of our homeless neighbors through the use of federal lands, new funds, and the wraparound support services they need to permanently come off the streets.” Garcetti did not specify how much money, what kinds of services and where the federal lands might be, nor what conditions, if any, HUD might demand. The Mayor’s office did not answer queries about the meetings with Carson and other officials.
Carson’s invitation letter, however, indicated that the federal government might make stipulations, including empowering and utilizing local law enforcement and reducing housing regulations to expedite affordable housing construction. In a Fox News interview, Carson also mentioned the need to support law enforcement in protecting communities from “people on the street who are not orderly individuals.” It’s words like those that cause some homeless advocates to worry that the feds will take both a carrot and a stick approach to the city’s homelessness.
For Tommy Newman, senior director of impact initiatives at United Way L.A., policing homelessness, if that’s what HUD will ultimately demand, would run contrary to the “housing first” model — which prioritizes permanent housing with support services over temporary shelter — that Newman and other advocates support.
“If [the feds] want to invest in short term housing, we won’t say no to the money, because we do need that,” explains Newman. “But law enforcement-based solutions don’t work. It’s not the cop’s job to be case managers to bring people inside. Compulsion to come inside doesn’t work.”
Newman says the federal government should play a critical role in addressing homelessness. “There is evidence that when the federal government steps up it can end homeless,” he says. One example of how federal help can succeed came when the Obama administration addressed veteran homelessness. In 2016, the White House announced that the number of veterans experiencing homelessness in the U.S. was cut by nearly half since the 2010 launch of a strategic plan called Opening Doors.
“Back in the Obama administration it was normal to have a D.C. partnership,” Newman said. “With Trump that collaboration ended.”
