Los Angeles Community Action Network
Founder and co-executive director of the Los Angeles Community Action Network, a community-based organization on Skid Row that represents the interests of the poor and homeless on housing, and economic and community development
One Small Step toward Housing the Homeless The LA City Council today made good on an eight-week-old promise. It declared a " shelter crisis ," designed to pave the way to temporary housing for some 19,000 people who sleep on the streets of the city. We hear from a reporter covering the story, a councilman who put forth the plan, and from homeowners and advocates for the homeless.
Los Angeles Declares a "State of Emergency" on Homelessness Homelessness has increased by some 12% in Los Angeles since last year. The 4000 people downtown on Skid Row are just 15% of the total on the streets of the city. Today, members of a City Council committee called homeless an "emergency," and called for $100 million for housing and other services.
Fatal Shootings and Retraining at the LAPD This year, LAPD officers have shot 22 people — up from an average of 15 or 16 in the first half of recent years. Jason Davis, a homeless man shot in a Venice coffee shop Monday, died last night, bringing this year's death toll to 11. Chief Charlie Beck says last summer's shooting death of Ezell Ford, a mentally ill black man, was "an important incident in the history of the LAPD." It's apparently what led to what Beck calls a "refresher" course in the use of force for all 10,000 officers — beginning this week.
Hospitals, the Homeless and 'Patient Dumping' on Skid Row There was public outrage recently when a driver forced a quadriplegic man out of an ambulance into a gutter on a skid row. Last year, a woman was left wandering in the same neighborhood with an IV still in her arm. There are 55 recent examples of what's called "patient dumping," but only one prosecution, partly because there's no specific law against the practice. Moreover, hospitals ask what they're supposed to do with 90,000 homeless in Los Angeles County, and just 40 beds for the chronically ill with no place to go. Today, Democratic State Senator Gil Cedillo announced plans to remedy that. We hear from Cedillo, the hospital association and advocates for the homeless.
Terrorism and tweets, hate speech and murder Just days before an election, Britain is coping with a rash of deadly terrorism, and Prime Minister Theresa May is on the defensive. And again today, President Trump has tweeted criticism of the Mayor of London. Later, a double murder in Portland, Oregon has revealed the ugly past of a supposedly “progressive” city. One immediate question: is “hate speech” protected by the First Amendment?
How was the trip? President Trump's travels got less fun as he went from the Middle East to Europe.
The Trump agenda: where's the beef? President Trump says big things are happening. After celebrating a House bill on health care, he doesn’t yet have Senate agreement. With James Comey’s public testimony scheduled tomorrow, the President today tweeted his selection of a new FBI Director. Is the Chief Executive all style and no substance? Later, terror attacks in Iran and conflicting claims about who’s behind them.