Homeless

It was a shocking rampage that showed the difficulties of policing a major city, even in the midst of a historic drop in crime. A man with a long criminal record and a history of mental illness stabbed four homeless men, two of them fatally, in a series of apparently random attacks on busy Hollywood streets, police said Friday. The attacks occurred Thursday afternoon near the spot where, a few hours earlier, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Police Chief William J. Bratton had held a news conference to tout a major reduction in crime and announce the hiring of 40 new officers for Hollywood.

A homeless man accused of killing his 3-month-old son just weeks after Los Angeles County social workers at a skid row shelter decided he could care for the infant pleaded guilty Thursday to child abuse, authorities said. The November 2005 death of Mikeal Wah-hab III led to sweeping changes in the way social workers deal with homeless children, including a revamped team of county officials who search out and assess children living on skid row. Mikeal's lifeless body was found in a Monterey Park motel room where county social workers had taken the father and child to temporarily live.

A 97-year-old homeless woman living with her two sons in a battered 1973 Chevrolet Suburban in Venice has received a temporary home, compliments of a nonprofit Los Angeles housing group. Bessie Mae Berger and sons Larry Wilkerson, 60, and Charlie Wilkerson, 62, had parked nightly on Venice Boulevard after losing their home in Palm Springs and failing to find a place to stay in Northern California. But a Times story on Friday that detailed their plight prompted authorities from the city, L.A. County and the state to step up efforts to assist the trio and led a year-old group, the Integrated Recovery Network, to offer them immediate shelter.

An L.A. city-county report showing a 38% drop in the homeless population has been met with consternation by the region's homeless service providers, who say the findings are inaccurate and could hurt their fundraising efforts at a time when the need is great. The providers have written newspaper opinion pieces, public letters, blog postings and Tweets -- all taking issue with the census, conducted over three days in January. The study found that the number of homeless in the region dropped from 68,808 in 2007 to 42,694.

Re "Connecting the spots," March 12, and "L.A. hopes its park will be as grand as Chicago's," March 14 The Times' two long articles on the new Civic Center Park downtown did a great job of discussing many aspects of the project but refrained from mentioning one: its interaction with the single most powerful visual and emotional aspect of downtown L.A. -- the very large population of homeless people. Thanks. I don't like thinking of them either. Douglas K. Fenwick Pacific Palisades

Dolores Mission Catholic Church is inviting community members and parishioners to spend the night with the homeless at the plaza next to the church tonight. The event is part of the church's commemorations for Holy Week. Holy Thursday is the night when Jesus waited in the garden for his arrest and crucifixion, said pastoral assistant Ellie Hidalgo. "We are going to unite the sufferings of Christ to the sufferings of the people in the community," Hidalgo said. The event begins with a candlelight vigil at 10:15 p.m. Afterward, everyone is invited to set up cots and sleeping bags in the plaza, at 170 S. Gless St., Boyle Heights.

Re "ACLU disputes city's kindly reputation," April 9 It's unfortunate that no reporter contacted us before The Times ran an article in which sources criticized our strategy in lawsuits against the cities of Laguna Beach and Santa Barbara for criminalizing homeless people. If a reporter had contacted us, he or she would have heard us explain that Laguna Beach dragged its feet in providing services for homeless residents and failed to act on recommendations from its own blue-ribbon homeless task force.

Homeless: An article in the April 25 Home section on new building designs for formerly homeless residents in downtown Los Angeles incorrectly attributed the following quote: "I'm 63. This apartment isn't what I envisioned my later life to be." The quote was mistakenly attributed to Denise Drinkard, 48, but it should have been attributed to Pamela Parker.