‘Waste, Fraud and Abuse’ – Time to Involve the Feds

GUEST COMMENTARY-We have all seen these words bantered around when talking about Local Government. 

But today, I use these words as they directly relate to our city’s homelessness crisis: 

WASTE …of $600,000 of taxpayers’ money to pay for homeless housing units. 

FRAUD … committed against voters by leading them to believe that Measures HHH and H would solve the homeless problem. 

ABUSE …of homeless individuals and families by leaving them on the streets while knuckling under to NIMBYs about locations and then overpaying for housing that could never amount to more than a dent in the homeless problem.  

WAKE UP VOTERS! And stop believing the lies. People are living on the streets in almost every neighborhood in our city. LAHSA and the LA Housing unit are failures.  

It's time for the feds to get involved before too many more people become homeless and die in our streets.

(Jay Handal is a long-time neighborhood council activist, is Co-Chair of the NC Budget Advocates and is a contributor to CityWatch.) Edited for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.