Tomorrow night, Councilman Bill Rosendahl is holding a Town Hall forum to discuss homeless issues in the 11th Council District.
You need to be there to have your voice heard.
You need to bring your neighbors to have their voices heard.
This is not a fight against the homeless. This is not a class war. This is a fight against the unchecked and unregulated influence of the social service industry in Venice, which by necessity fights to maintain and enable a large population of homeless in Venice to the detriment of the community at large.
Many of the social service businesses of Venice will lose tons of grant money if they can’t keep Venice full of “clients” aka “The Homeless” aka “the statistics they get grant money from”. For this reason, they will be very organized and vocal. They will make sure they fill seats to tell the politicians that this is simply gentrification and “developer” residents hate the poor. Sorry social service lobbyists: issues of safety are not issues of gentrification. Residents should be able to have safe streets, even if it means you won’t be able to expand and grow your businesses.
These small but politically well connected special interest groups have been representing themselves as “The Voice of Venice” to politicians. It is time to show the politicians that Venice is tired of the social service industry running this town into the ground and actively lobbying to keep a disproportionate population of homeless in Venice for their own needs and agenda.
We need to put the social service industry lobby in check, and stop letting them use the misery of others (both the homeless and residents) to run their businesses.
About the Town Hall forum:
The session will include a series of presentations on ongoing and new efforts to prevent people from living on the streets or in their vehicles. Those efforts include law enforcement strategies, parking enforcement and the “Streets to Homes” program.
Rosendahl will moderate the session, which will include questions from the audience to officials from the Los Angeles Police Department, the Office of the Los Angeles City Attorney, the Los Angeles Department of Transportation and the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, which will manage the “Streets to Homes” program. The program will provide safe parking places and case management to eligible vehicle dwellers.
Councilman Bill Rosendahl, 11th District
Los Angeles Police Department representatives
Los Angeles City Attorney representatives
Los Angeles Department of Transportation representatives
Michael Arnold, Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority
September 23, 2010. 7:00 P.M.-9:00 P.M.
Westminster Elementary School
1010 Abbot Kinney Blvd
Venice, CA 90291-3312
