To the editor: Threatening individuals with jail time doesn’t appear to work for any crimes, so I’m curious as to why San José Mayor Matt Mahan thinks the homelessness disaster will probably be totally different (“San José mayor proposes jailing homeless people who repeatedly refuse shelter,” March 6). Moreover, per the examine by the Benioff Homeless and Housing Initiative cited in a recent L.A. Times article, nearly all of the unhoused are usually not unhoused due to drug use.
Clearly, interim housing is an efficient stopgap with everlasting housing and care being the purpose, however we ought to be asking ourselves why individuals ever fall into being unhoused. It could appear our system fails to take care of individuals once they truly need assistance. We must always cease letting capitalist decision-making smash individuals. There’s no cause we are able to’t make housing a proper as an alternative of a privilege.
Hassan Abdul-Wahid, Los Angeles
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To the editor: Though the explanations for homelessness range, the primary 5 paragraphs of your article illustrate one frequent cause: Some unhoused people eschew conventional properties in favor of free actual property the place they will construct with out permits, inspections, taxes or park leisure automobiles with out campground charges and different prices.
Alan Bell, Los Angeles
