Elected officials, homelessness providers and community members came out on May 11, to dedicate the Lillian Mobley Family Housing, “A Bridge Home” (ABH) shelter and the first of its kind in Council District 9.
Homelessness takes center stage, again, in Los Angeles mayor s budget bondbuyer.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from bondbuyer.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Every homeless person on Skid Row must be offered housing by October 18
Single women and unaccompanied children must be offered a place to stay within 90 days of the order
Families, meanwhile, must be offered a place to stay within 120 days
Those who accept the offer must be provided support services by the county
The city is being ordered to put $1 billion in escrow to tackle the problem
Earlier this week, Mayor Eric Garcetti proposed $955 million for the problem in his budget
If the city and county comply, enforcement towards removing tents from the streets and sidewalks of the neighborhood can continue
For years, Shawn Pleasants did nothing but rise up.
He was high school valedictorian, went to Yale, landed banking jobs on Wall Street, started his own business.
And then, for years, he did nothing but fall.
Lost his business, his home, the car he was living in, and landed on the streets of Los Angeles.
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For about six years, home for him and his common-law husband was a lean-to near 7th and Hobart in Koreatown. And like a lot of L.A.’s sizable homeless population, Pleasants was addicted to methamphetamine, a cheap and abundantly available drug.
“It always felt to me like I’d fallen off a fire escape, and once you get on the ground, the ladder is 12 feet up in the air,” Pleasants told me. “I always thought, ‘If I could just get to that first step.’ But the first step is so far away.”