As if Los Angeles didn't already have enough problems, now the city of Santa Clarita has decided it can't find a suitable place to shelter its growing homeless population. So Santa Clarita is going to ship them out, headed for guess where.
I drove up the Golden State Freeway on Tuesday to see what this is all about. I wanted to hear from the homeless, and I also wanted to confront Santa Clarita's mayor, an ex-cop with the LAPD.
They've had shelters in the past, Mayor Bob Kellar had told The Times' Carla Rivera. But this year, they couldn't meet "the needs and concerns of the entire community." What this means is that they got a few complaints last year from people living near a temporary shelter set up at a train station.
I don't know my way around Santa Clarita, so I stopped for directions at an Exxon station on San Fernando Road. There I met a homeless man named William, who said he likes to "dress cowboy," and he had a fine black hat and black boots to prove it.
William lives in a tent behind the station and said he ran out of heating fuel, but Jesus keeps his heart warm. The gas station preacher had a menorah set up on a brick wall along with a Bible.
The shelter never interested him, William said. But he thinks Santa Clarita's decision to shut it down was a raw deal.
"I'll tell you what it is," William said. "It's government goin' for the rich."
William directed me to the Via Princessa Metrolink station where the shelter was set up last year. Frankly, I didn't see the big threat to public safety the mayor had mentioned. You've got to go up a long, steep hill and cross a busy highway to get to the condos where residents were shaking in their boots.
To be fair, not all the homeless are harmless. Some are predators and cons, and then you've got the epidemic of mental illness and addiction, so this isn't an easy population to work with. Especially when there's never enough drug and alcohol rehab, job training, transitional housing or mental health treatment.
But many of Southern California's new homeless are families that got priced out of the ridiculous real estate market, says Claire O'Garro of Lutheran Social Services in Van Nuys.
O'Garro's agency got the contract to ship Santa Clarita's homeless to shelters in Sylmar and downtown L.A. She said she'd prefer that somebody -- anybody -- take responsibility for the homeless instead of passing them off. She's in daily contact with people who live in their cars and visit churches begging for help.
