I believe however, that the reason for the failures to find answers is that our leaders do not understand the different types of homeless people.
There are the mentally ill, drug and/or alcohol users and those who are still victims of the economy in one way or another and people who are forced out of their homes, be it houses or apartments.
All of those people need help.
However, there is another segment of the homeless population that needs to be addressed and not with free housing.
Those are the ones who can work, but will not.
The moochers who do not care as long as they get free handouts of food and money.
You see them on Hollywood Boulevard, on benches in Santa Monica, in parks in Beverly Hills and just about everywhere in Los Angeles.
They add to the numbers of the homeless and make it difficult to determine who really needs help and who does not.
Spending millions of dollars on people who do not care is not going to solve the problem of homelessness.
You can take them out of the elements, but you are not solving the problems that put them there.
Those who are able to work must do so in exchange for a roof.
Do work for the city or something.
Anything.
Just stop the freeloading attitude.
Most of us are tired of seeing homeless people panhandle and harass.
When something is done about it, they simply move on and do the same thing elsewhere and stay homeless.
The problem is the workable homeless themselves.
They won't change.
Many of us have read the statistics about homelessness.
I don't buy any of it.
I have eyes.
So do you.
Look at those who are homeless and ask for help.
The young men and woman under thirty who use California and don't care.
It's time to force the issue with them because if we can stop that part of the problem, then maybe, just maybe, we can get a grip on the rest of the problem and get them help.
Calling the homeless situation in Los Angeles an emergency that requires a massive amount of money to fix is a big step forward, but unless that money and that time is spent on the real problems, very little will be solved.
George Vreeland Hill
