Los Angeles County officials Thursday proposed establishing five regional homeless centers in an effort to reduce "dumping" by hospitals and police agencies in skid row, while spreading out the burden of providing care for homeless people beyond downtown Los Angeles.
The plan marks a significant shift in government policy on homelessness, which until now has concentrated drug rehabilitation services as well as transient shelter beds on skid row. Critics have long said the policy has made downtown a dumping ground for criminals, drugs addicts, mentally ill people and others without homes.
But the proposal is also expected to spark a public debate over whether suburban areas should be -- and are capable of -- taking on a greater role in providing services and shelters for the homeless. The county plan calls for one regional shelter in each supervisorial district but does not specify where.
In the past, communities have opposed efforts to place homeless shelters in residential areas -- one reason why downtown now has the largest homeless population in the western United States.
The plan is "a recognition of what we know to be true: That we have to regionalize the issue," said Orlando Ward, director of public affairs for the Midnight Mission in downtown.
But some community leaders say the plan could be a hard sell in their neighborhoods.
"It isn't going to go down well if this city was chosen for one of these centers, and I suspect it will be much the same in other cities," said Burbank Mayor Jef Vander Borght. "We wouldn't want to house the county homeless population. We probably represent a hundredth of that population, not a fifth. I hate to sound like I suffer from NIMBYism, but it is unlikely to fit in with the neighborhoods."
The five proposed facilities are the centerpiece of a long-awaited $100-million effort by the county to improve conditions on skid row.
While the county is focusing on services for the homeless, the Los Angeles Police Department is expected to decide in the next few weeks on a new approach for attacking drug dealing and other crimes on skid row. And Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has set aside $50 million to build new housing for homeless and low-income residents, while state legislators have sponsored measures aimed at halting dumping.
But the county's plan may end up being the most controversial, because it would disperse homeless services into other communities.
