How would YOU resolve LA's homeless problem? (Los Angeles, Long Beach: for sale, rental)

[adr3naline]

Random thought...

Decriminalize marijuana in November, consolidate prisons due to the influx of empty cells, and convert empty jail/s into homeless housing. This is of course assuming decriminalization frees up adequate space. I'll have to find some stats...

[jm1982]

Originally Posted by adr3naline

Random thought...

Decriminalize marijuana in November, consolidate prisons due to the influx of empty cells, and convert empty jail/s into homeless housing. This is of course assuming decriminalization frees up adequate space. I'll have to find some stats...

Isn't marijuana pretty much already decriminalized in CA? Is there anyone that is in jail for smoking a joint?
I mean just smoking a joint , not selling tons of weed and having illegal guns ,etc?

[adr3naline]

Originally Posted by jm1982

Isn't marijuana pretty much already decriminalized in CA? Is there anyone that is in jail for smoking a joint?
I mean just smoking a joint , not selling tons of weed and having illegal guns ,etc?

My thought was with regard for those in jail for selling it, not smoking it. To your point, their sentence was likely compounded by additional charges, so maybe there isn't enough meat on this bone.

Spitballin'!

[Kings Gambit]

Originally Posted by adr3naline

How would YOU resolve LA's homeless prdoblem?

Let's hear it.

Very, very difficult question to answer with actual facts and true sense of how to handle it without resorting to "they are criminals" and/or "they are not as good as us" like many people tend to do. Im sure our city leaders are trying to figure this out now with hopes of landing the 2024 Summer Olympics. The homeless issue has come up a few times with the IOOC.

I live in Encino and we now have quite the growing population of homeless, most of which are flocking to the Balboa Park complex. There are lots of old campers/mobile homes that line Havenhurst full of people who are homeless. They have no where to go so they just live in their campers or in tents that are in the park area.

You have all types of homeless:

Young runaways
Those who fell between the "cracks" of society
Drunks
Those who are addicted to drugs
Those with mental diseases/issues
Those who really are trying to better themselves but cant seem to find work.

The homeless are not all (or even mostly) criminals like people seem to think. None of them want to be homeless, they are in that situation due to one (or more) of the reasons I stated above. In order to truly try to resolve the problem, you'll have to address each one of those categories individually because they will require different methods for fixing.

[cmarlin20]

Originally Posted by 2sleepy

How does their stated reason for being homeless impact "what to do about them now"?

If the reason for the majority of those homelessness is unemployment, we might surmise finding them jobs would end homelessness.

[2sleepy]

Originally Posted by cmarlin20

If the reason for the majority of those homelessness is unemployment, we might surmise finding them jobs would end homelessness.

well yeah, of course except a good number of them will never be employed but I assume on some level you already knew that...

http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2008-04/37761061.jpg

[cmarlin20]

Originally Posted by 2sleepy

well yeah, of course except a good number of them will never be employed but I assume on some level you already knew that...

http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2008-04/37761061.jpg

My response was pertaining to the unreliable self reporting surveys showing the cause for homelessness as unemployment. Too may say they lost their job, but don't report the real reason for their homelessness.

I'm well aware employment is not the cause nor solution.

This appears to be a circular discussion, its not moving forward.

[payutenyodagimas]

those abandoned warehouses/factories..they could be converted as shelter for the meantime. no need to modify or build beds. they have their own sleeping bags. bring portalets and portashowers then bring in there the food banks, those non profits feeding the hungry.


let the sheriff or police patrol to avoid fights.


the non profits could train those w/o mental problem to keep it tidy


the owners of abandoned warehouses could be given tax credit for the use of their facilities

[Tulemutt]

Originally Posted by cmarlin20

My response was pertaining to the unreliable self reporting surveys showing the cause for homelessness as unemployment. Too may say they lost their job, but don't report the real reason for their homelessness.

I'm well aware employment is not the cause nor solution.

This appears to be a circular discussion, its not moving forward.

The degree of accuracy of self-reporting for surveys is a legitimate issue - that has been studied. And the conclusions are that the degree of inaccuracies / accuracies vary with the type of study for which self-reporting is utilized. Rather than take this topic off track too far, I'll suggest you can research the issue separately. Summarily, for our discussion purposes here, I'll simply say that self-reporting in the case of asking homeless where they are from and how long they've been in the current area, what they were doing when they became homeless - has little basis for mis-reporting. Now, asking "Why they became homeless, has a significant potential for false reporting.

That said, the best mediating function to establish accuracy is to compare results from similar - but separate - studies. As I have pointed out already, the type of survey collecting information about residence and employment at time of becoming homeless has been conducted in many cities across the country yielding nearly identical results. That lack of variation is validation in the world of statistical studies.

[Ceece]

Originally Posted by adr3naline

My thought was with regard for those in jail for selling it, not smoking it. To your point, their sentence was likely compounded by additional charges, so maybe there isn't enough meat on this bone.

Spitballin'!

While I agree with legalizing pot I don't think we'd see empty prisons due to "just sold some pot" prisoner releases. It rarely is a case of "just sold some pot".


We definitely need a SYSTEM of dealing with all levels of homelessness though, and to offer it to those who want it and force it upon those who need it. It's too big an issue to try to deal with it on a case by case basis.