Letters to the Editor: Is Rick Caruso’s ‘short-term’ homelessness plan what L.A. needs?
This year at the annual meeting of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LHSA) Board of Directors, I was thrilled to welcome two members of the board, Rick Caruso and Scott DeLong, to the podium in front of the large blue chairs in the back of the room. In the past I’ve been critical of the work of Rick Caruso, a member who serves as board secretary of both the LHSA and the City of Los Angeles. I’ve often characterized their work in this way:
In a city with 10 million people, the annual needs of 1,000 people are going to be more than the annual needs of 1 million people in the past. If some of these people are to go to work, stay out of the hospital, eat, sleep and get to their destinations on the other side of the L.A. River, then at some point we are going to have to say, “Enough is enough.”
In his introduction at the LHSA Board meeting, Caruso reiterated his goal of getting all of those who call the streets of L.A. home to permanent housing within six months. As you may recall, Caruso had a difficult time getting this goal accomplished in the spring of 2016. As he told the L.A. City Council at the LHSA Board meeting:
I would have used my last minute to write something to the Board, to say, “Hey there, I know it is going to be tough. I know that you are going to have to push, and you’re going to have to take more of this [$60,000] than you would like to take … You [LHSA Board] can’t do things the same way forever. So now I’m going to tell you about our very, very short-term plan … and we’re going to