Skid Row Resident on Impacts of Criminalization

A Skid Row Resident asked us to share her story about what criminalization is really about and how it punishes people for being poor and without a home.

 

Shelly also brings up an important point about the myth of homeless people being “service resistant.” If it’s LAPD offering an ultimatum – shelter or jail, it is not outreach or help, it’s coercion masked as options.

 

This is exactly the kind of situation that erodes residents’ trust in government and service providers. And this is exactly why any homeless plan MUST include an end to the failed policy of managing street homelessness with the enforcement of quality-of-life crimes.

 

This sort of approach is NOT about public safety – it is about punishing homeless people for the failed housing and social safety net policies and mismanaged budget priorities of elected officials.

 

Mayor Eric Garcetti, Herb J. Wesson, Jr., Jose Huizar, Mike Bonin , Marqueece Harris-Dawson, Gil Cedillo, Curren D. Price, Jr. and other City Councilmembers can do something about this – TODAY. But will they muster up the political will and courage to do so?

 

#housekeysNOThandcuffs