LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors signed off Tuesday on a plan to offer more mobile showers for people living on the streets or in their cars.
Pilot programs are currently running in Whittier and Pasadena. New locations for the showers have yet to be identified, but may include sites near Metro stations. The expansion will make use of county-owned trailers with mobile showers that were bought for emergency use. The trailers will be lent at no cost to trained homeless service providers, and the county will fund operating costs.
“Providing access to a shower to someone who doesn’t have access to one often can help on a job interview. For children, a shower is often the difference between going to school or not,” Supervisor Hilda Solis said.
County workers also use the offer of a shower to reach out to homeless individuals in need of other services, including hot meals, health screenings and help with expunging criminal records.
“Being able to address their hygiene needs and restore their sense of dignity often leads to transformation and a break in the cycle of homelessness,” Supervisor Kathryn Barger said.
The Department of Parks and Recreation will also explore whether showers that go unused in county parks can be made available to homeless individuals. That could include showers at county pools during months when the pools are closed to the public.
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ICARE says
This is awesome. I hope this helps one person get back on their feet. Then it will all be worth it.
Magnetlady says
Are the ”TAXPAYERS” going to pay for Laundry services too? What’s next? Where did the ”tax $$” go from Measure H that passed a couple yrs ago? That tax was supposed to be for ”Homelessness”…
Tim Scott says
The “taxpayers” are the ones who benefit from the homelessness situation, so asking them to pay a pittance to make the homeless a little less miserable doesn’t seem like a huge imposition.
Laughing says
Uh Tim, what benefit do I receive?
I have sketchy looking people shambling around. On trash day, folks digging through the trash. People asking for money (though that seems to be subsiding , at least until the holidays).
I see no benefit from my viewpoint.
Tim Scott says
The solution to the “homeless problem” is pretty simple: remove the shortage. About a million units of VERY basic housing: studio apartment, single room with kitchenette plus a three quarter bath, would do it. Those units, if fast tracked, could be built to be profitable at a rent that even people on general relief could afford.
Problem is that it would really take more like three million units, because people who are currently “house poor,” which means that after they pay for their not really all that great housing they can barely afford to live, would want them as well and if there were only enough for the homeless the homeless couldn’t get them.
So, three million units of profitable but affordable housing solves the problem. Now, Laughing, who do you think prevents us from solving the problem, and why?
That three million units eliminates the pressure on renters to totally kiss the butt of their overbearing landlord, and pay whatever price “the market” demands in the process…even if it bankrupts them. That crashes the rental market and all the “I am a genius, I own rental property” investors go into a panic.
That crashes housing values, and homeowners don’t get to supplement their income by drawing off the equity that has “built up” in their home (through absolutely no action on their part), so their paycheck actually has to support their lifestyle. They demand raises. Corporate America can’t have that.
Bottom line, there is no “free” market. Every market is regulated and managed for outcomes. The housing market is managed to produce what Corporate America and property owners want. In the process it punishes renters, and it REALLY punishes anyone who makes a mistake or catches a bad break and winds up homeless. That’s the cost of your benefits, and you aren’t paying it.
TIm is Pelosi says
“The solution to the “homeless problem” is pretty simple: remove the shortage. About a million units of VERY basic housing:”
I like the idea as well … but the extra units built should be in the form of state penitentiaries or ICE holding facilities, YO!
long winded says
Your opinion has nothing to do with the problem of homelessness, and why people are homeless. Your long winded opinion does not address the cause and effect. I can see by your so called “simple solution,” that you are not involved in this process to attempt reaching a solution. You’re are too involved with yourself, and how intelligent you want people to think you are.
long winded says
edit to last sentence…omit are.
Tim Scott says
Long Winded…if you think there is no shortage of housing, where exactly are the million housing units standing vacant that we could just fill “if only the homeless understood”?
I get the feeling you are just wanting to be snotty rather than really discuss this, but I have hope.
Laughing says
Ok, so for me, a simple homeowner/taxpayer there is no benefit ,”The “taxpayers” are the ones who benefit from the homelessness situation”
Glad we got that straight.
Tim Scott says
Well, no, apparently you didn’t get it straight. The growth in equity in your home is a direct consequence of the housing shortage, and the housing shortage is maintained to provide that to you…at the expense of the homeless.
Now, you might want to claim that you don’t care about that growth in equity, and that you will never-never-ever cash it in, never, no way, nope. But you still are accumulating wealth and others are suffering for it.
Alexis says
Everybody is talking, and no one is listening, really listening (hear, process, understand, and do.) You can’t just put a homeless person that has been on the streets, in a house, or small apartment, studio, whatever you want to call it. There are so many reasons a person becomes homeless, too many to mention. There is already enough money to deal with solutions. but because of poor management of the money, and greed, well, it is only going to get worse. You can receive more wisdom from one homeless man than you can from all of the politicians that want you to think they know what they are doing. Glad to see there will be more mobile showers available.
Tim Scott says
Alexis, every homeless person has some different circumstances and different needs, and I agree that you can’t just “put them in a house” and call it a day. But addressing every individual’s situation can’t affect the problem overall when the current housing market, by design, relies on maintaining a population of people who cannot afford housing.
You made it off the streets, and I’m glad for you, but the current design of the system requires that every time someone makes it off the streets someone else takes their place. Money can “deal with solutions” all you want, or you can say it is just being “mismanaged,” but the reality is that as long as you throw money at the symptom rather than the cause the situation is going to get worse.
Alexis says
That’s what I said, Tim. So we’re on the same page. The money is being mismanaged. I work with the homeless, and I am well aware that as long as you throw money at the symptom rather than the cause, the situation is going to get worse. That is what I said, therefore we agree. Hallelujah!
Alexis says
Tim, I said “there are so many reasons a person becomes homeless, too many to mention.” You said “every homeless person has some different circumstances, and different needs.” After getting off the streets in 2011, and becoming a productive citizen, I made the choice to work with the homeless, many I know in Palmdale, and Lancaster. I don’t know much, Tim, but I know where the money goes, and so do others that truly care. It is heartbreaking to watch leaders waste money through gross mismanagement, and greed. Yes, there is already enough money, Tim. More taxes only mean more mismanagement, and more greedy hands that pilfer. If the so called leaders would step out of the way, stop with the photo-ops, and let those that know what they’re doing handle it, people would see a positive difference.
Tim Scott says
No amount of money, no matter how well managed, can change the impact that being a million housing units short has on the market. And the problem, Alexis, is that basically no one wants to address being a million units short. The symptoms; Bob the good guy who is homeless, some will and some won’t.be interested in trying to deal with that symptom of the problem. You apparently do, and I respect that.
When Laughing asked how he benefits from the homeless problem, I told him. He chose to ignore that with a flip “so I don’t benefit, cool” rather than acknowledge responsibility, and that’s not unusual. Then there are the usual lame attacks just because I’m me, and the inevitable Trumpist spouting a variant on “lock them up.” What didn’t happen was anyone jumping up and saying “let’s get these people housed, my property values be damned.”
Ultimately, you and I do agree about treating the symptoms. I’m glad to see these showers provided, and said so. I do my own “working with the homeless” as best I can. But I know that no amount of treating the symptoms will really affect the problem.
Laughing says
Well that is a better explanation of what you were getting at.
But it is an incomplete picture. Yes I plan on dying before selling, yes my kids may inherit, but homeless numbers do not directly correspond to land value increases. The location of land has more impact than the availability. The midwest is much less expensive in land value than here in this forsaken desert, but this desert is in a desired state near the ocean.
There could also be a crash (which I bought at the bottom of one) again, greatly reducing that value and flooding the market with more homeless as they lose jobs, go upside down and abandon properties.
I agree, we should turn commercial warehouses into homeless centers that provide medical care, job counseling, mental health units, and skills training. However, many homeless I have seen in this valley and in the greater LA/Orange metro areas do not want to work. Many are just drifters, looking to live ‘free’ and be given free stuff for whatever their personal reason is. Some are addicts, some just like the unencumbered life, some are lost in this world.
Laughing says
Oh yes, dirt. California needs to stop building match stick homes and start building compacted earth homes. Saves the world, lowers prices. Seriously.
Tim Scott says
Laughing, a “crash” is just a reshuffling. As you note, there are winners and losers. You bought in the last crash, so you won, others lost their jobs, homes, and futures, and wound up homeless, so they lost. But even the intermittent event called “a crash” is a feature of the established market…just like your growing equity and the misery of the homeless.
None of those features can be “fixed.” We either accept the market for what it is, or we don’t. As a beneficiary I can’t blame you for choosing to accept it. You just asked HOW you are a beneficiary, so I told you.
I don’t count you among the idiot crowd represented by Magnetlady, who not only refuse to acknowledge the benefits they receive, but insist on acting like THEY are the ones on the raw side of the deal.
Alexis says
Tim, thank you for having a heart for the homeless. There are some that live on the streets that are predators, but I can tell you that I have grown to know so many living on the street that are selfless, kind, gentle people. When I offered a man two knit hats that he could use during the winter, he said he only needed one, and said, give it to another one that needs it. So many stories of those that have nothing, but willing to share what little they have. How grateful I am to have these people in my life.
Alexis says
there are groups of people that get together, paying for laundry services for the homeless. One of them is called “Laundry Love.” Isn’t that wonderful, Magnetlady!
Ilovetim says
Same place all the tax money gos,towards the health,welfare,housing,education,legal defense of illegals.it’s on the news everyday.ca will do and spend whatever it takes to defend illegals.