Perry picks up mayoral endorsement



Los Angeles City Councilwoman Jan Perry, who is running for mayor in 2013, got an endorsement today from former councilmember Greig Smith (12th District). 

In a statement, Smith praised Perry’s record as a job creator and advocate for citizens across the city’s 9th District.

So far, Perry faces City Controller Wendy Greuel and city council president Eric Garcetti in the 2013 mayoral race.

Perry re-elected as L.A. City Councilโ€™s President Pro Tempore



imageDistrict 9 Councilwoman Jan Perry, who is serving her third term in the Los Angeles City Council, was re-elected as President Pro Tempore in vote of 12-1. Councilman Richard Alarcon voted against her appointment.

โ€œI look forward to working with my colleagues to continue to address the challenges ahead,โ€ Councilwoman Perry said in a statement.

The cityโ€™s new fiscal year began July 1st. Eric Garcetti, of District 13, was unanimously re-elected as Council President.

Councilwoman Perry is only one of two women on the City Council. Thatโ€™s why, she says: โ€œthis position is even more meaningful to me; I hope that young women will see that they too have a place in local politics and can be leaders in their community.โ€

Perry was first elected to the City Council in 2001. She will be ineligible for re-election to her current seat at the end of her term, but is currently exploring a possible mayoral bid in 2013.

City Council votes to oppose โ€˜Secure Communitiesโ€™



The Los Angeles City Council voted today in favor of opting out of the controversial โ€œSecure Communitiesโ€ program that requires police and law enforcement agencies to submit fingerprints of arrested people to federal immigration officials.

City Councilman Bernard Parks, who is also a former Los Angeles police chief, introduced the motion supporting current state legislation that proposes to suspend the federal program in California.ย  Parks said that while the intention of โ€œSecure Communitiesโ€ was to target undocumented immigrants with violent criminal backgrounds, the program has gone off-course.

Almost 70 percent of people deported under โ€œSecure Communitiesโ€ had no convictions or were accused of minor offenses, according to a report by the cityโ€™s chief legislative analyst.

Parks pointed out that one of the biggest problems with the program is that it hinders safety by making victims think twice before reporting a crime.ย  Councilwoman Jan Perry, who co-sponsored the motion, said โ€œSecure Communitiesโ€ also threatens victims of domestic violence, who would be too fearful of getting deported if they report their abusers.

According to LAPD Assistant Chief Michel Moore, the city has been much safer since it established Special Order 40 in 1979 preventing police officers from considering immigration status when initiating a police action.

The โ€œSecure Communitiesโ€ program was created in 2008. It requires police to submit suspectsโ€™ fingerprints to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) so they can be cross-checked with federal deportation orders.

The states of New York, Massachussetts and Illinois have recently suspended their participation in the federal program, citing some of the same concerns the L.A. City Council voiced today.

City Council offers $75,000 reward for information on shooting of South LA toddler



The Los Angeles City Council unanimously approved a motion authored by Council President Pro Tempore Jan Perry that authorized the issuance of a $75,000 reward for information leading to the identification and apprehension of the person or persons responsible for a shooting that killed 22-month old, Joshua Montes, and left his uncle, Josefat Canchola, in critical condition.

On May 23, 2011, at approximately 8:30 p.m., Josefat Canchola was holding his 22-month old nephew, Joshua Montes, on their front porch at 1278 East 55th Street when gunfire broke out and both were struck in the head. Joshua Montes died as a result of his injuries that evening and his uncle remains in critical condition.

“It is my hope that this reward will help us find the person or persons responsible for this unimaginable crime,” said Council President Pro Tempore Jan Perry in a press release. “These people obviously have no regard for human life and we need to do everything in our power to find them before they hurt anyone else.”

If you have any information regarding this shooting, please contact Newton Area Detectives at (323) 846-6556. On the weekends and during off-hours, please contact the 24-hour toll free number at the detective Information desk, at 1-888-LAPD-24-7. Anonymous tips can also be left at the 24-hour hotline number.

Congresswoman Maxine Waters hosts community meeting on federal budget cuts



image
Hundreds of South LA residents gathered at Jesse Owens Park today to attend a community meeting on federal budget cuts hosted by Congresswoman Maxine Waters.

Many in attendance work with community organizations that are at risk of losing funding because of federal budget cuts. Signs demanded everything from more jobs to more money for early childhood education or senior care.

Sunny skies and upbeat music lightened the mood, but there was no mistaking the serious subject matterโ€”people were concerned about what these cuts will mean for them.

When Waters took the stage, she addressed the fiscal frustration in her opening statements: โ€œWeโ€™re sick and tired of the mess thatโ€™s going onโ€ฆwe are not going to take these cuts sitting down.โ€

She saw the large and vocal crowd as a clear counter to the accusation that her district is quiet and complacent. โ€œNobody is going to do more for us than we do for ourselves,โ€ Waters said.

Later, addressing the near shut down of the federal government the night before, Waters initially had good news. โ€œThe government is not going to shut down now. I donโ€™t know if we deserve any applause for that, but we didnโ€™t want the government to shut down. People are depending on their paychecks and services.โ€

But she cautioned that the stability would not last long. โ€œWeโ€™re going to have to vote on Wednesday for the deal that was cut on the permanent continuant resolution through the end of the year.โ€

Waters encouraged her constituents to seek out information through the news and the internet so they would know exactly what was on the chopping block in the latest round of proposed cuts.

In addition to State Assemblymen Isadore Hall and LA City Council members Bernard Parks and Jan Perry, local government leaders from the surrounding cities of Carson, Lawndale, and Gardena also spoke.

Waters introduced local religious leaders as well as the heads of dozens of community organizations. Many encouraged residents to continue to band together as a community. Several stressed the importance of writing to senators and the president. There was also mention of the recent protests in Wisconsin and Ohio and the suggestion that California could be next.

Latisha Edwards works for the Training and Research Foundation Head Start Program in Inglewood. When asked why she came to the meeting, she pointed to her bright purple sign that read, โ€œHead Start is the foundation of education.โ€

โ€œMy sign says it all,โ€ she said. โ€œWithout education there is no future, and without a future, thereโ€™s nothing.โ€

House Republicans introduced a bill this month to reduce Head Start funding by $2 billionโ€”nearly a quarter of President Obamaโ€™s 2011 budget request.

โ€œWe need funds for our kids because without those funds and education, how do you have doctors, lawyers, senators, governors, presidents?โ€ Edwards continued. โ€œHow can our country be a leading country?โ€

Read more on this topic:
Advocates, citizens, leaders celebrate first birthday of health care bill
South LA officials and community members push to save libraries

Small park opens in South Los Angeles



By: Smitha Bondade

—–

Listen to an audio story by Annenberg Radio News:

—–

The ninth district is one of most the populous areas of Los Angeles – one not usually associated with wildlife and marshlands. But now it will be with the opening of a wetlands pocket park. Councilwoman Jan Perry leads the way.

image “It was covered with asphalt and barbed wire and truck and machine parts and it was just pretty ugly,” Perry said. “But with a little creativity, some tenacity, some community support – well, this is where we are now.”

The 9-acre wetlands park is built on the site of a former Metropolitan Transportation Authority bus yard. Seventh grade students at Celerity Dyad Charter School, who live a mere mile from the park, were at the opening. Ricardo Gallo piped up with his plans for the park.

“At this park, I’m probably going to bring my friends so we could play football so we could do activities together,” Gallo said.

One of the residents of the community, Janae Oliver, has lived in the area for more than 30 years.

“My aunt is an avid walker,” Oliver said. “She walks every single day, so now she can come right here to this park and walk here. So I feel like the spirit of this community is back.”

The park is one of the first projects set up around Los Angeles in conjunction with Proposition O, a clean water bond program. Its mission is to clean up pollution, protect the public’s health and maintain beaches and oceans free of litter in accordance with the federal Clean Water Act. It’s funded by Propositions 12 and 40.

Gary Lee More works at the Bureau of Engineering and describes one of the park’s innovative and green features.

“And these lights, you don’t see any wires,” More said. “You don’t see any wires underground or overhead, and that’s because they’re all solar powered.”

While there is still much work to do on the park, Perry says this $26 million project will be open early next year.

City Councilmembers raise money for victims of Japanese earthquake



image

Historic South Los Angeles neighborhood breaks ground on new housing project



Listen to an audio story from Annenberg Radio News:

—–

University of Southern California alum and renowned Los Angeles architect Paul Williams had a dream for the African-American community around the historic 28th Street district in South Los Angeles.

Williams, the first practicing African American architect west of the Mississippi River, built a YMCA in 1927 that would provide housing and basic social needs for young African American men starting out in the city.

Over the past 80 years, while Williams’ intricate Spanish architecture has remained the signature of the community’s aging center, the late architect’s vision has slowly withered away.

After his death in 1980, the YMCA discontinued providing housing for low-income residents and, in effect, the community around the district began to struggle socially and economically.

Today, though, with the help of Councilwoman Jan Perry, Clifford Beers Housing and the Coalition Responsible Community Development organization, Williams’ YMCA is getting a breath of new life, as ground was broken to begin construction on a new housing project inside the building.

“It’s almost as if he [Williams] is here with us today,” Perry said. “His life touched our lives in so many ways, and that still continues to resonate.”

The project will provide the surrounding community with 49 new apartment spaces aimed at helping low-income residents, mental health patients and emancipated youth.

Perry believes it is the first step in creating a sense of stability in the neighborhood.

“We just need to be able to help people live stable lives,” said Perry. “If we stabilize the people who are in the greatest need, we actually life up the entire community.”

Although the YMCA has teamed up with organizations in the community like Youth Build to promote education, job training and healthy lifestyle choices, members like 19-year-old Joe Serrano believes the new plans help to fulfill an even greater need with the area’s children.

“Today means a lot to the community because there are a lot of people with no homes out there, no where to go and no where to live,” Serrano said. “This is something that is needed in our community.”

The new 28th Street Apartments are set to be unveiled to the community in June 2012.

More stories on housing in South Los Angeles:

Protestors give Herb Wesson a hand-delivered Valentine

City Planning postpones ruling on luxury apartment complex

Proposed shopping center slogs toward finish after 20 years



imageThe City of Los Angeles is moving forward on a $20 million South Los Angeles development project but not after a messy, 20-year struggle that has turned a spotlight on a redevelopment process that in the past has resulted in empty fields and broken promises.

The project to bring a badly needed shopping center to the corner of Slauson and Central avenues has exposed charges of political influence and favoritism in the redevelopment process run by the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA). And a partner in the development, Concerned Citizens of South Central Los Angeles (CCSCLA), has run into trouble in the past while working on public money projects.

Over the past 10 years, the nonprofit CCSCLA has been sued for breach of contract by the City, sued by construction contractors for nonpayment of invoices, and audited by the state controller over grants to build soccer fields.

Opponents of the group claim a political connection with City Council member Jan Perry — often mentioned as a candidate for the city’s next mayor — helped to deliver the project at Slauson and Central to Concerned Citizens.

“From the start this was a politically motivated process and it was intended to take a great benefit and give it to people who had supported certain politicians,” said Stanley Kramer, who had his land taken to build the project. “It was done from day one illegally.”

But Mark Williams of Concerned Citizens says that Jan Perry has turned her back on ordinary South L.A. citizens, favoring instead big development interests like AEG, and that she actually now seeks to destroy Concerned Citizens.

Most people, such as CRA Board member, Madeline Janis, say the shopping center project would help alleviate South L.A.’s status as a “food desert.” But she added that the project’s problems represent some of the worst mistakes and challenges of redevelopment.

“It’s an embarrassment,” said Janis, commenting on the long 20-year road, fraught with delays, the project has taken. The site has sat empty since 2006.

Who Are Concerned Citizens

When the ground was broken for Juanita Tate Elementary School in October 2009, Concerned Citizens was on hand for the ceremony. The school, set to open in 2011, is to be named for Concerned Citizens’ founder who passed away in 2004.

image“It’s fashionable now to look at this community as a new frontier in a place of possibility,” said Mark Williams, Tate’s son and Concerned Citizens’ director of youth programs. “It wasn’t always that way.”

Ironically, the school property used to belong to the nonprofit. It was taken from them after the group was sued for breach of contract by the City.

Concerned Citizens is a prominent community housing development and property management company working in South Los Angeles which evolved from a community activist organization. Williams said the group manages almost 700 housing units and owns close to $50 million dollars in real estate and investment.

“Concerned Citizens is involved in every real estate development in South Central Los Angeles, bar none, because of their relationship with the City Council,” said Deacon Alexander, a former Vernon/Main Neighborhood Council member who tangled with Tate over a community garden in the mid-2000’s. “There’s no two ways about that.”

But as a result of the nonprofit’s recent problems while working on public projects, opponents of Concerned Citizens are questioning how were they selected for the Slauson-Central project in the first place. The project, which will include $7 million in public subsidies, would be developed by a partnership with Concerned Citizens and Regency Partners, the largest grocery store center developer in the country.

Concerned Citizens, Past and Present

Concerned Citizens was formed by Juanita Tate in 1985 to fight a proposed trash incinerator project in South L.A.. After a successful bout to stop the project, the group evolved into an affordable housing developer which later on was able to secure funds for development projects due to a close relationship with 9th District City Council member, Jan Perry.

Alexander said Tate and Perry were like “bugs in a rug.”

“They did everything illegal and they did everything secret and they did it together,” added Alexander.

Deacon said Tate was a genius at block-by-block organizing which Perry benefited from during the 2001 council elections.

image“Juanita Tate is not a major player by no stretch of the imagination until Jan Perry comes to office. But by her coming to office it enables her to become an absolute major player,” added Deacon. “We don’t see that until we see her relationship with developers.”

But troubles began for Concerned Citizens when they began assembling grants to build soccer fields in South L.A.

In 2001, the group secured a $2.4 million block grant from the city to build a soccer field and youth center at the corner of Slauson and Main. After the property was purchased in 2003, the proposed Antes Columbus soccer field remained a collection of clay soccer fields until the grants expired and the property was taken away from Concerned Citizens through eminent domain and given to the LAUSD in 2008. In January 2010, the City was awarded $4.8 million dollars by the courts for breach of contract by Concerned Citizens for not completing the fields and center.

The city charged Concerned Citizens was attempting to flip the property and “left the Property in a blighted state as a bare dirt lot and then used the property for commercial activities while the market value of the Property increased.”

After the project collapsed, construction and architectural firms filed lawsuits against Concerned Citizens because of nonpayment for services. In three separate lawsuits against Concerned Citizens, the plaintiffs were awarded almost $400,000.

In addition, during a 2004 audit of money given out by the California parks department, it was discovered that the group received a $1 million grant from the state after getting a $2.1 million federal grant to fund the same project. Concerned Citizens had not stated it had received the federal grant on their application.

The group was eventually asked to pay the state back $170,000 which had been paid out to two of Tate’s sons who Concerned Citizens said were “consultants” on the project.

But Williams now claims that Jan Perry was the person actually responsible for deep-sixing the project. He said that Concerned Citizens was twice promised to receive special parking revenue funds from the city to help complete the project but the funds never came through and subsequently the grants expired because the project wasn’t completed.

“My guess is that Jan Perry’s office is the one that pulled the plug on Slauson and Main,” Williams said.

Yet, back at the beginning of the 2000s, when the time came to award the development agreement for the Slauson-Central project, opponents say Perry used her influence to steer the project towards Concerned Citizens. Despite the difficulties encountered by the group in recent years, Concerned Citizens remains a part of the development partnership and will be the property manager when the project is completed.

When asked if Perry had interceded on behalf of Tate and Concerned Citizens in order for them to be awarded the Slauson-Central development contract, Williams would not confirm the assertion. But he did confirm the tight relationship between the two women.

“My mother considered Jan Perry to be her daughter,” said Williams. “If there’s any single person that’s responsible for Jan Perry being the councilwoman, it was my mother Juanita Tate.”

Stabbing the table in front of him with his finger, Williams asserted, “Juanita delivered Jan Perry through votes.”

Tate famously sent out family members, aged 12 to 17, to canvas neighborhoods and get out the vote for Jan Perry and force a runoff election, which she won.

Williams added that Concerned Citizens was at the time the most prominent nonprofit with the established capacity to get projects done in the 9th District, because for-profit companies were not as willing. Therefore, according to Williams, Perry was most likely supportive of Concerned Citizens’ efforts.

In fact, when describing the development process in Los Angeles, Williams said that council support is not only helpful but “absolutely necessary.”

“So did Jan Perry give any political favor to this project?” said Williams. “Ask Jan Perry.”

“I cannot comment on items currently in litigation,” said Eva Kandarpa-Behrend, Jan Perry’s communications director, when asked.

image
A draft of the proposed site plan of the shopping center. For larger size, click here.

The Project

The Slauson-Central shopping center project that inspired that litigation is part of a 20-year effort to construct a new grocery store and a strip mall in South L.A. The plan was to utilize three adjoining plots to create the shopping center, which will be called the “Juanita Tate Marketplace” after the projected Summer 2011 completion date.

The anchor store will be a Northgate Gonzalez grocery store. Other tenants would include a pharmacy, a sit-down restaurant and various smaller stores.

CRA Board member Madeline Janis called the collection of lots, including a former metal recycling yard, an eyesore in an area “desperately lacking full service supermarkets.”

“It’s still a food desert. No question,” said Janis.”

Kramer Metals was located on the site since the 1970s until the property was taken under eminent domain in 2006 for the project.

In 1990 Concerned Citizens approached the owner, Stanley Kramer, about developing a shopping center at Slauson and Central avenues. Over the 1990s the parties failed to agree on a deal to jointly develop the property. Each side said the other backed out or made unreasonable demands during negotiations.

In the mid-1990s, the City Council passed the Recovery Redevelopment Plan for the Council District Nine Corridors which designated the Slauson thoroughfare a blighted area and made funds available to redevelop the corridor and create new jobs. Then, near the end of 1999, the CRA issued a Request For Proposal (RFP) to develop the Slauson-Central site. Kramer and his development partner lost out to Concerned Citizens when the RFP process came to an end.

After losing their eminent domain case, Kramer was moved off of his property by 2006 and now operates his company east of the site. Kramer said he attempted to cooperate with the proposal to build the shopping center but feels he wasn’t treated fairly from the beginning.

“We were eliminating blight not contributing blight,” Kramer said. “Of course some people don’t consider a pile of scrap necessarily beautiful but I guess beauty is all in the eyes of the beholder.”

Kramer filed multiple lawsuits to fight the property taking, to sue for public records regarding the project and to allege improper award of the project to Concerned Citizens. Currently, he is fighting the project on the City Council level in order to get the city to settle with him.

The CRA-assisted project will be the first commercial development done by Concerned Citizens. According to development agreement, Concerned Citizens will be allowed to lease a 1,000 square foot community center for $1 a year for 25 years and will also receive a developer fee amounting to $300,000, which Kramer has argued is a political reward.

“Take that $300,000 developer fee and spread it out over 20 years, there’s no money in it,” counters Williams. “We’ll never recoup the man-hours involved.”

Concerned Citizens’ partner in the development, Regency Partners, said that CCSCLA is an ideal partner because they are much more in tune with community needs.

“In any development project that knowledge is priceless so yeah we are very happy and lucky to have them as our partner,” John T. Mehigan, vice president of investments for Regency, when asked whether or not Concerned Citizens has been necessary to the development process.

Kramer’s attorney, Robert Silverstein, argues that the development process was never fair to Kramer and his neighbors and that officials were never going to allow the owners to develop their own property.

“The fix was in,” Silverstein said. “It was a sham process put on by the CRA with a predetermined result.”

image
Property document shows the lots that were taken through eminent domain for the project. For larger size, click here.

During the legal fight, which has cost the City $7 million in legal fees, one of Kramer’s arguments has been that Concerned Citizens is repeatedly mentioned as the presumptive owner of the shopping center after development.

In multiple city department memos, Concerned Citizens is mentioned as a partner in the ownership organization called “Slauson Central Partners, L.P.” However, on the development agreements, Concerned Citizens officers did not sign as representatives of Concerned Citizens. Kramer’s attorneys argue this will make their liability negligible if the partnership fails and, therefore, the agreement is invalid.

Williams responded that the RFP process was won fair and square by Concerned Citizens and refers to the scoring of each proposal submitted.

“There’s an objective reality,” said Williams. “There’s an RFP. These are documents. This is not like a subjective thing. Look at Kramer’s RFP and look at Concerned Citizens’ RFP. He responded and his response was deemed to be inadequate compared to our proposal. This is not as if he didn’t participate in the process. His effort wasn’t a serious effort.”

One of the few things that the two sides can agree on is the development system in the city is broken and prone to political influence.

Williams argues that each City Council member is like a mini-mayor for their district and what he or she says goes, for the most part.

“In my opinion, it’s broken because that way the political representatives have an inordinate say and influence over what gets built and what doesn’t get built,” said Williams.

Kramer added that City Council members seem to approve each other’s projects all too willingly.

“If a councilperson in this district proposes something, no matter how bad it is for the citizenry and no matter how badly it is put together, the rest of the City Council will not question it,” said Kramer. “They will simply rubber stamp it because they expect the same from those council members when they propose something in their council district.”

But Paul Zimmerman, the Executive Director of Southern California Association of NonProfit Housing, said that development is always inherently political and is about officials weighing the benefits and costs of projects.

“What I would object to is when that the power that is associated with making profit or the interests of making profit outweigh the social or local benefits,” Zimmerman said.

Williams now argues that delays in the project are actually reflective of Jan Perry switching her loyalty to larger development interests focused on downtown, such as Eli Broad and AEG.

image
A draft of the proposed site plan of the shopping center. For larger size, click here.

“The CRA staff has dropped the ball over and over and over and over again,” said Williams. “Have they done that through negligence and incompetence? Perhaps. Have they done it because they’ve been directed to do it by Jan Perry or the masters that Jan Perry serves? That’s more likely.”

Alexander said that people in the community really have no loyalty one way or the other and that they are more interested in shopping projects simply getting done.

“It’s a question of a power play of which the community has no interest in,” said Alexander. “They have no interest because it’s a project that needs to be developed.”

Empty Fields of Los Angeles

Despite the delays and running up of costs and legal fees, Perry’s office believes the project is still worth pursuing with the CRA.

“Without the support of the agency many projects like these (which act as catalysts for further development) would not be possible,” said Kandarpa-Behrend. “Developments like these bring tax increment to the community which can then be used for further development and economic development.”

Currently, the project is still moving forward and the 6.5-acre site has been cleared for development. It is undergoing environmental remediation which will cost $2 million in federal brownfields funds. Despite a piece of the site being a former scrap yard, Janis said there was an underestimating of the amount of toxics on the site.

In fact, in e-mail sent in 2004 regarding the $1.5 million remediation cost for the Kramer lot, CRA Project Manager Jenny Scanlin wrote “Woah! I didn’t realize Kramer’s was so high.”

Stanley Kramer and his attorney are now fighting a political battle and sent a letter to City Attorney Steve Cooley on September 7, asking for an investigation.

“We continue to fight at the City Council and we’ve not lost a single battle with no support of any city officials,” Kramer said. “All we’re asking is ‘Hey, treat us fairly. You guys have cheated us. You’ve lied and you’re continuing to lie and no one’s questioning it.'”

Williams said that Kramer’s assertions about what transpired during the process are false.

“Mr. Kramer is a liar,” said Williams. “And there’s no other way charitable way to put it. All of his rhetoric, years after the fact that ‘I could develop this without public subsidy.’ This is a lie.”

But Janis ultimately believes there was no case of bad faith on anyone’s part.

“I think there’s a set of circumstances that resulted in unconscionable delays,” Janis said. “It was very ambitious and maybe too ambitious to take a site that was so polluted and contaminated as well as lacking a cooperative seller and turn that into a successful grocery store in a reasonable amount of time.”

And just as with the Antes Columbus soccer field, the city is left with empty field waiting for a shovel to finally dig in.

Los Angeles Police Department argues nonprofits are better than handouts on Skid Row



Listen to the audio story:

—–

Los Angeles City Councilmember Jan Perry and members of the Los Angeles Police Department met Thursday at the Midnight Mission Homeless Shelter to raise awareness about how to channel efforts and resources to better help the homeless community. Perry recommended that people who want to give should donate through reputable organizations, like the Midnight Mission, the Union Rescue Mission and the Los Angeles Mission, rather than dropping off supplies directly onto Skid Row.

“We’re encouraging people and groups who want to help the homeless to partner with local non-profits in Central City East to ensure that donations are distributed in a manner that is safe, healthy and that will have the greatest impact,” Perry sad.

Orlando Ward, the program director at the Midnight Mission, said essential supplies in homeless shelters like his are distributed to hundreds of people in the community. Ward said this helps more people than just the few that might receive food and clothing on the street in the form of a handout.

“Tossing commodities out of the back of a truck is okay for cattle but not for people,” Ward said. “This is not to say the community isn’t welcome, absolutely not. There is a better way to do it…without the unintended consequences that happen when you treat people with less than the dignity they deserve.”

LAPD Captain Todd Chamberlain said that some of those unintended consequences can lead to desperate community members fighting over the resources handed out to them or dropped off on the streets.

“When people come and open the back of their truck up and throw out some clothing and pass out some sandwiches, that’s good for the short term,” Chamberlain said. “But over the long term we find that there is a lot of trash and garbage…there’s crime from the people from in and around the area who want certain things, and once those people leave, there’s a kind of plight left behind in that.”

Chamberlain said those who volunteer their time or resources with non-profits like the Midnight Mission not only help those who are homeless in the short term, but they can help the homeless begin to live more fulfilling lives in supporting organizations that provide rehabilitation, medical and job training services.