How come nothing is done to help the homeless in downtown LA so that there won't be any of them there??

Question

I don't even see groups of homeless people like that in downtown phoenix or in other areas of phoenix... Why is it like that in downtown LA ??

Why isn't the governor doing anything about it?? What about those programs and welfare for the homeless??

Are there still many of those homeless people there in downtown LA??

Are there less homeless people in downtown LA now than back in 2000 and did the situation improve since 2000??

Answer 1

In the beginning there was a California that had the strongest community mental health system in the country if not the world. Then we had Ronald Reagan. This guy, in the spirit of cutting taxes, dismantled the mental health system. No other leader or group of leaders has had the guts to rebuild it; being that the leaders feel it would be political suicide to address this issue, I say there is so much homeless mentally ill because we the people do not demand better and we do not want our taxes raised to deal with it. period. We are the reason there is a homeless problem in Los Angeles.

Answer 2

Before you say NOTHING is being done, do your research.

There are several homeless shelters that provide shelter, food, and even job training for homeless people... Many of the missions even provide job placement for those that make it through the training. Los Angeles does MANY things to help the homeless. Oh, but wait.. most of the shelters require you to be clean and sober in order to stay there long term. There ARE drug rehab shelters even... but the homeless person has to volunteer to participate.

I have interviewed plenty of homeless people in Santa Monica. Without exception, each one has stated that they don't want "the man" telling them what to do... they don't want to give up their drugs and or alcohol... they don't want to do what it takes to accept the help that is being offered every single day.

Many organizations provide food lines, blankets, clothing to the homeless - with NO expectations. The Salvation Army has a huge station downtown where homeless can come and pick up food, clothing, blankets... and many shelters provide a warm meal and a shower.

Yes... there are homeless who are discarded... who are insane (you would be too if you had to live on the streets)... but many many many of them have chosen a lifestyle of drugs, alcohol, and abuse over taking responsibility for cleaning up their own lives.... the opportunity is there...

What can be done? What do you want to do? Why don't you support these shelters that are providing help to those who want help? Fred Jordan Mission operates solely on donations... or if you live in LA, call up one of the missions to see if you can't go help out in their kitchen or on their staff of volunteer trainers.

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Answer 3

Phoenix: 13,000 homeless, 2004 data, 500 square miles, 1.5 million residents.

Los Angeles: 48,000 homeless, 2005 data, 4000 square miles, 10 million residents.

adjust by square miles, phoenix has proportiantely double what we have.

By population: Los angeles has one homeless person for every 208 people, Phoenix 1 per 115.

Its relative size. LA is so big, everything looks overwhelming. Complex problem EVERY city has been trying to deal with.

Answer 4

DRD is dead on. Reagan signed a law that flung open the doors of the mental institutions to all but the most insane or dangerous.

The majority of the homeless are mentally ill and substance abusers.

The better question would be--why is the mental health system in this state deplorable? Of course, so is the physical health care system.

In fact, there are a multitude to programs to help these people. Union rescue mission, the Salvation Army, shelters, etc. But they are designed to take care of the physical needs of people, not their mental needs. Unlike Europe and elsewhere.

And we call it progress.

Answer 5

Its because of "Skid Row" - homeless people from all over the country head there for limited charity services, drugs, and a sense of "community" with others who share their plight. Working downtown, I have gotten chummy with two of the downtown homeless - a teenage girl who I believe died and another young man who is still living on the streets addicted to heroin. (The girl was also on heroin) Also, there have been news stories about nearby cities such as San Bernardino and Riverside arresting their own homeless and dropping them off down on skid row.

Answer 6

DRD and Easternacademic have got it right.

During the Reagan presidency, he directed the Social Security Administration to boot off their disability roles all those people "faking mental illness" and so huge proportions of the mentally ill all of the sudden stopped getting social security benefits. No one interviewed these people to make the determination if they were "faking", it was determined by sending people denial letters and then putting the burden of proof on the disabled person to prove that they were still disabled. Although there was an appeal process, the instructions on how to appeal, and preparation of the documentation was sufficiently complex that anyone who was really disabled wouldn't be able to follow it.

I was a social worker for the severely mentally ill back then and found myself with tons of documentation work to do to keep people on the rolls so that they could maintain housing. In some cases, over 2 years worth of appeals were required to get people back into payment status.

But keep in mind, most people with mental illness don't have social workers to do that for them. Many who didn't just found themselves without checks one day, and never got reinstated. So that's how they became homeless. If they were in their 20s or 30s then, those that never got reinstated are in their 40s and 50s now, and some of the people you are seeing on the street. Of course, being that living on the street ages you quickly, they look a lot older than that.

If you have never assisted anyone in completing social security disability paperwork, it is incredibly difficult. Way more complex than a college application, for instance.

The irony is that if you weren't really psychiatrically disabled, then you'd be most likely to have completed the paperwork necessary to retain benefits then. If you were really disabled, then there's no way you'd be able to complete them on your own.

You wonder why families didn't do this stuff for them? Many of the most severely disabled mentally ill are estranged from their families. If they have schizophrenia, 80% are likely to be unmarried as well.

In order to get SSA disability now, the initial application requires on average 9 month for processing. If you are homeless or change residences during the application period, if you don't keep social security informed then the process is terminated. Since homeless people relocate a lot and loose mail, many initial applications get abandoned because they don't have a reliable address to receive mail.

It didn't use to be this way. Twenty years ago it would take maybe 3-4 months to process an application. Shorter time to process meant less chance of losing track of a homeless person's whereabouts.

Bottom line, the public benefit system for disabled people is not set up to meet the needs of the homeless.

As regards the homeless of Phoenix, several years ago I saw a documentary that was done by a doctoral student at Arizona State University on the homeless of Phoenix. At that time (and maybe now too) the police had an extremely aggressive harrassment campaign to get the homeless out of Phoenix, or at least to keep them out of sight. Those of us who work with homeless refer to this as "Greyhound Therapy" which means that lots of jurisdictions arrest homeless and then offer to either jail them or give them a bus ticket over the state lines. You can imagine what choice most people make.

Answer 7

Because Regan threw out all of them back when he was president.

They are mentally ill for the post part, and can't be rehabilitated.

They need to be helped, but the government is too busy blowing up other countries to worry about it's cultural and social obligations.

Answer 8

There's just too many to do anything about it..
LA is too big and I guess it's just too hard to make it out here and people become homeless..

Answer 9

If you will donate about a 100 million dollars help will be available. We do all we can to help them, but most do not want help other than the food lines. They are crazy drug addicts, not all, but most.

Answer 10

plus a lot of homeless dont want any help you cant
help those who dont want the help