The Spark Newspaper articlesLos Angeles: Pushing the homeless out ... to make room for the rich
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors announced a 100-million-dollar plan to open five centers across the county which would provide temporary shelter for homeless people. The supervisors say that they want to help the homeless to avoid the criminals and drug dealers that plague downtown L.A.’s skid row, where the services for the homeless are now concentrated.
One of the supervisors called this move “an absolutely historic investment by the county of Los Angeles.” Historic indeed, for no one can remember the supervisors, or, for that matter, any other politicians, taking an interest in the affairs of the homeless before!
So why this sudden change of heart? Why else? Areas surrounding skid row are becoming “gentrified.” Developers are turning old, historic buildings into housing for the well-to-do looking for a change from the sterility of the suburbs. One of the single-room occupancy hotels in skid row, the Frontier, has rehabbed parts of its upper floors for rent as luxury lofts!
With money to be made for the developers – the politicians suddenly discover the “plight of the homeless!”