Great two letters.
I’m passing this appeal on to the HUFFsters and will bring it up at tomorrow’s HUFF meeting. Not that we can do that much, but we can send e-mails. You’re also invited on the air Thursday night at 6-8 PM, if you’d like. We’ve gotten into a new studio and have live broadcasting again.
Robert
Date: Tue, 21 Jun 2016 16:18:17 -0700
Subject: URGENT – PLEASE ACT
From: peggylee.kennedy@gmail.com
To: venicejusticecommittee@gmail.
Sorry for the duplicate emails, but this is really important!
Tomorrow, June 22 the LA City Council Committee on Poverty and Homelessness has (agenda item 4) the new ordinance making it illegal to sleep in a vehicle!
Here is the link to the agenda:
http://ens.lacity.org/clk/
Please email a letter of opposition ASAP
and
PLEASE try to come to the meeting! It starts at 3pm. Put in a speaker card saying you are opposed to item 4.
Below is the email I sent them. Feel free to use what you want, but use your own words of course.
Below that is David’s email
——————————
To: LA City Council Homelessness and Poverty Committee
LACity Councilmember Harris-Dawson councilmember.harris-dawson@
LACity Councilmember Huizar councilmember.huizar@lacity.
LACity Councilmember Bonin councilmember.bonin@lacity.org
LACity Councilmember Cedillo councilmember.cedillo@lacity.
LACity Councilmember Price councilmember.price@lacity.org
Legislative Assistant Eric Villanueva Eric.Villanueva@lacity.org
CC: Mayor Eric Garcetti
Re: June 22, 2016, Agenda Item 4, Council File 14-1057
Amending LAMC 85.02 (to prohibit lodging in a vehicle on city streets)
Councilmembers:
I am opposed to this ordinance in either of the two draft forms provided by the City Attorney:
It makes the act of lodging in a vehicle a crime when homelessness is persistent and growing.
It does not create solutions first and foremost, which is what this committee should look at first considering the urgency of the homeless situation in Los Angeles.
It is inhumane and innocent people will be harmed.
The City of Los Angeles saw another increase of 11% in the homeless count of 2016 from that of 2015 (one-year). The prior 2015 count saw an increase of 12% from 2013 (two-years). Clearly the homeless problem in Los Angeles is persistent and growing.
These counts are of people, not simply numbers. They are community members and neighbors once housed in Los Angeles. In fact 72% of adults experiencing homelessness have lived in LA County for more than 20-years. (Los Angeles Homeless Service Authority (LAHSA) Homeless County Presentation
https://documents.lahsa.org/
There are no Safe Parking programs in place, if ever created at all, which might meet the demand of those living homeless in a vehicle. Such programs may take years to develop. Any person of average intelligence can understand that living in a vehicle is safer than living outside “rough.” Furthermore, Los Angeles does not have enough homeless shelters for the homeless people living “rough.”
The fact is Los Angeles has a severe housing crisis and is one of the least affordable places to live in the United States. (National Low Income Housing Coalition: Affordable Housing Gap Analysis 2016 http://nlihc.org/sites/
In the mean time, emergency measures are in order now. We need safe places for homeless people to rest, storage for their belongings, access to sanitary facilities, and so much more.
Turning homeless people into criminals is cruel, it certainly is not a solution and it has proven more expensive that housing people.
Vote no and stop this from going forward!