A Guy in LA

I was disappointed this morning when Don Garza at Central City East went off on me. Twice.

Now, I know what goes on in the homeless containment zone known as Skid Row, indeed even the whole Homeless Industrial Complex, doesn't matter much to you drive-til-you-qualify Fourth Floor and Seventeenth Floor types. You get off work at five and you drive home out to Chatsworth or Canoga Park or Claremont and you don't need to worry too much about what goes down on Sixth and Wall. But I do worry about it; and most of all, I'm worried that the things that go on down there---like buying nickel bags, or majoring in Art History---have a way of becoming a pointlessly self-perpetuating, ever-deteriorating cycle of ruin.

But I am very suspicious of Donald Sterling's move into the neighborhood, and CCE big guy Don Garza, whom I respect more than many of you do, has rolled out the welcome mat for him.

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What's to suspect about Sterling's move? First of all: self-promotion. The story didn't really "break" in the Downtown News; it "broke" in the LATimes, via advertisement. It was like the fringe organization who buys an ad with a bunch of signatures. What is the possible message? That Sterling wants publicity for the move, and he can't even buy it. And that was exactly the way the Downtown News reported it: circumspectly.

Now, if we had real reporters at the Times---which we don't on the City beat---they'd be all over this. They'd be all over the City's big homeless debate, the policy of containment v. the policy of dispersal of the County's homeless. They'd be all over the Donald-the-lesser's move. Instead, the local quotidien fishwrap scribes are waiting for cues from the Mayor's office on how to proceed. Patrick, Cara Mia, Steve---oh, forget Steve---let's see a story on this in the next couple days, shall we? You can stand up to your editor every now and then. Do it.

But the real debate on homelessness in LA---as far as I can see, it's not taking place between Donald Sterling and the CRA, it's taking place between none other than Don Garza and yours truly. Because Donald Sterling simply wants Republican-styled triage. I want triage, but with yurts. Both are threats to the City's Homeless Industrial Complex, and both are worth considering. And Don, he's so excited by a player with money coming onto the homeless scene, he's swallowing Donald's vision whole, but not remaining, in my eyes, true to his own beliefs: that the homeless have to be treated as normal people with problems, rather than problem people we're trying to make normal---the opposite of Sterling's approach.

Sterling is coming on strong on behalf of triage alone---and I can see who that pleases Big Don Garza and a few others who would like to see the current Reign of Homeless Terror scrambling a bit more. I have to admit, that pleases me too---I'd love to see the orgs in question compete for the sacred right of serving our most downtrodden---that would be beautiful---for about six months. But homelessness won't even be reduced by one-one-hundredth in six months, and everone knows it---this is a vanity project at heart.

I also recognize that, given this choice---What would you rather have:

• a chance to get out of here in four years; or
• a chance to put a roof over your head tonight...

I know what people would choose, and that's what I choose. A bird in hand.

That's why I'm constantly calling on the City: take money from the City's Affordable Housing Trust to build ten yurts a day for a hundred days. When we have seen how a thousand yurts have impacted the homeless situation---then let's take stock and see what else we should do.

Because I know: when you're homeless, when there's no roof over your head, you can't solve another problem in your life. You're too busy thinking about your next snooze. But when you have a guaranteed roof over your head---it's then and only then that you can start to solve your other problems.