Think Tank Homeless

On November 5th, I saw a TikTok post from General Dogon of the Los Angeles Community Action Network (LACAN) asking for people to come to their headquarters at 838 East 6th Street in Los Angeles to celebrate twenty years of standing up for the Skid Row community and to learn what their future looks like. I was intrigued. General Dogon reminded me of a member of Public Enemy’s S1W’s or NYC’s Guardian Angels.  He had a militaristic intensity to him and the words he spoke (I could tell) were well rehearsed throughout his life but 100% genuine. General Dogon’s video marked the first time I had heard of LACAN. I have lived in Los Angeles since 2015, but have spent much of my time in ‘The Valley’. I was familiar with LA Rescue Mission, People Assisting The Homeless (PATH), and Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA -which recently lost its LA County funding because of mismanagement). These were large organizations that worked to secure shelter and services for people. But, Lo...

On my walk from Studio City to Burbank along Riverside Dr., I passed a gentleman in only shorts. He was making trips between the curb where he had his things and a commercial building with a water spigot. He seemed to be both washing himself and filling containers with water which he then brought back to his little set up along the sidewalk. He muttered to himself while he seemed to manically make trips to find reasons to run the water. As I watched him, I thought, “Oh, this is going to make people angry.” I had just watched a news report about an apartment building owner who locked up her water spigots to stop the squatters across the street from stealing her water. Burbank is good at incentivizing the homeless to go somewhere else. I once heard a library patron comment on the homeless in the surrounding park that ‘we don’t do THAT here.” For the past ten years or so, the call from homeless activists has been for ‘housing first’ and ‘harm reduction’. Taxpayers have paid millions...