By Nicole Ramirez
McIntyre in the Morning
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Every year, the city of Los Angeles spends $100 million on the homeless, $87 million of that goes towards arrests, skid row patrols, and mental health interventions.
City Administrative Officer Miguel A. Santana said in the 21-page report, that city librarians, recreation and parks, sanitation and paramedics also devote significant resources to handling homeless people, without clear guidelines or a coordinated approach to guide them.
“Its possible that the cost is not $100 million but $200 million,” said Mark Ryavec, Assoc President, Venice Stakeholders.
On McIntyre in the Morning, Ryavec said, the fine print of the report admits that this was just a preliminary report and there was a lot of cost that have yet to be calculated. The report also doesn’t include litigation from lawsuits over stolen property and patient dumping.
According to Ryavec, government cost can come down if the homeless can get housed.
“It’s cheaper to put them in a motel and if necessary provide some services then to allow them to be on the street,” he said.
Ryavec said, those who are drugged out, or mentally ill, should be forced to receive services.
“All they’re doing is allowing the status quo to go on by putting a band-aid over it,” he said. “There is no considered effort in this state to change the laws about committing people.”
