To the editor: Threatening folks with jail time doesn’t appear to work for any crimes, so I’m curious as to why San José Mayor Matt Mahan thinks the homelessness disaster shall be completely different (“San José mayor proposes jailing homeless people who repeatedly refuse shelter,” March 6). Moreover, per the research by the Benioff Homeless and Housing Initiative cited in a recent L.A. Times article, the vast majority of the unhoused will not be unhoused due to drug use.
Clearly, interim housing is an efficient stopgap with everlasting housing and care being the objective, however we ought to be asking ourselves why folks ever fall into being unhoused. It might appear our system fails to take care of folks once they truly need assistance. We must always cease letting capitalist decision-making destroy folks. There’s no motive we will’t make housing a proper as a substitute of a privilege.
Hassan Abdul-Wahid, Los Angeles
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To the editor: Though the explanations for homelessness fluctuate, the primary 5 paragraphs of your article illustrate one frequent motive: Some unhoused people eschew conventional properties in favor of free actual property the place they’ll construct with out permits, inspections, taxes or park leisure autos with out campground charges and different prices.
Alan Bell, Los Angeles
