There's nothing anyone can do about homelessness--it's not like a wealthy nation can just give people homes or money for homes, is it?--but that doesn't mean normal, home-having people should have to know about the existence of homeless people, according to home-having residents of the area around La Brea and Santa Monica, where the Greater West Hollywood Food Coalition is doing something completely horrifying: feeding homeless people. In public. Every night. Where anyone with a home can see, if they happen to leave their home. Luckily, these people's homes have given them the perfect place from which to lobby their local government, and City Councilmembers Tom LaBonge and Mitch O'Farrell have heard their disgust and responded with a call to "ban the feeding of homeless people in public spaces," reports the New York Times. That sounds like a very humane solution for the home-havers. There are 53,800 homeless people in Los Angeles, up 27 percent over last year (many are families), so LA is going to have to pass more and more laws like this, or like the ban on homeless people in the Tujunga Wash, to make sure people with homes never have to be offended by knowing about people without them. As an LAPD officer said to a group of residents "anxiously exchanging stories" about the existence of homeless people, "You guys have had your fill here — we know that … And the food coalition doesn't help. Where do all these guys go after they get something to eat?"
· As Homeless Line Up for Food, Los Angeles Weighs Restrictions [NYT]
· Councilmember Proposes Solution to Ending Homelessness at the Tujunga Wash [Curbed LA]
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