USA Today - 26.08.2019

NEWS USA TODAY z MONDAY, AUGUST 26, 2019z 3A

same level of permanent housing as
regular renters or homebuyers? Should
the units be distributed equally
throughout the city, even in the fancier
districts, or clustered in lower-income
neighborhoods where land costs are
lower? Are there lower-cost alterna-
tives?
“There’s nowhere that’s doing a great
job,” said Megan Hustings,managing
director of the National Coalition for the
Homeless in Washington, D.C. “Across
the board, we have not been investing in
affordable, low-cost housing.”

The high price for toilets

With the backing of Mayor Eric
Garcetti,Los Angeles voters passed a
$1.2 billionbond measure in 2016 with
the hope of seeing up to 10,000 perma-
nent housing units. It would be enough
to make a significant dent in the 27,
people deemed living “unsheltered” in
the most recent homeless count. Be-
sides tents, they sleep in cars or out in
the open.
The result has been a crash program
to construct new apartments meant as
permanent housing for homeless peo-
ple across the city at a median cost that
Galperin pegs at $520,000each. He
said by taking a costly route, at the cur-
rent rate only a little more than 7,
units will be constructed, far short of
the 10,000 goal and leaving thousands
on the street who otherwise might be
able to be housed if there were a lower-
cost alternative.
The bond issue provides up to about
$150,000a unit for permanent housing
for the homeless with the rest coming
from a variety of sources. In addition,
the city is developing shorter-term
homeless shelters, often dormitory-
style housing or units with shared bath-
rooms or kitchens.
Being forced by court order to let
people camp out on the streets is no
bargain, either.
“It’s still cheaper to put a person into
a home than leave them on the streets,”
said Joel John Roberts, CEO of People
Assisting the Homeless, or PATH.
There’s the cost of police, ambu-
lances and health care at emergency
rooms. And under pressure to improve
sanitation, the city is putting additional
toilets near encampments: The average
annual cost per toilet under the city’s
Mobile Pit Stop program is $173,930for
the permanent ones and $320,325for
the temporary portable ones.
The high cost for toilets reflects not
only the cost of servicing them but also
the need to provide monitors to make
sure they stay clean and are not used for
nefarious purposes. San Francisco has
operated a similar system for five years
at 25 locations, at an average cost about
$200,000 each, and is expanding it.

High costs are an urban reality

The soaring cost of permanent hous-
ing isn’t the result of extravagance, city
officials say.
“Mayor Garcetti is leveraging every
available dollar – as efficiently as pos-
sible – to confront our region’s home-
lessness and affordability crisis,” Gar-
cetti’s spokesman, Alex Comisar,said in
a statement. “Angelenos in need are al-
ready benefiting from high quality,
long-lasting supportive housing that
will serve our city for generations to
come.
“Mayor Garcetti recognizes the im-
mediacy of this crisis, and is working
with a diverse coalition of partners to
find innovative solutions that can be

scaled up quickly.”

High costs are due to the realities of

building in a city like Los Angeles,

where land is more costly than ever and

there are shortages of construction

workers and materials amid a building

boom in high-end apartments and con-

dos in the rest of the city, officials say.

The permanent units are meant to last

at least 55 years, which is why construc-

tion standards have to be as high as any-

where else.

“Obviously, the city would very much

like to see projects produced at a lower

price point,” said Rushmore Cervantes,

general manager of the Los Angeles

Housing and Community Investment

Department, which is leading the

charge on homeless housing construc-

tion. But many of those costs, he adds,

are outside the city’s control. And while

it provides funding for some conven-

tional projects, it is also looking for in-

novative approaches.

As for units costing almost

$700,000, Cervantes said the price tag

includes common areas and spaces

aimed at helping the homeless make the

transition to housing. As part of the

transition, there will be help for resi-

dents to cope with addictions or mental

illness. The median sales price of a

home in Los Angeles County was

$618,000in June, tracker CoreLogicre-

ports.

“We include the wrap-around ser-

vices to address their needs and make

them successful,” Cervantes said.

Is the program sustainable?

Those camped out on the streets are

mixed in their opinions about whether

it’s better to wait out the prospect of

having their own apartments, kitchen

and bathroom included, rather than

getting into something lesser sooner.

Billy Lindsey, 50, who lives in a tent

under a blue tarp on Seventh Street in

the city’s Skid Row area, eyed the

homeless apartment building under

construction across the street.

“You got a place to live – water,

shower, all the things you don’t have

here,” he said. “They need to be build-

ing more like this.”

Cynthia Angulo,54, living near the

opposite corner, wasn’t sounding so

choosy.

“I settle for what I can get,” she said.

“I won’t be picky. There’s a lot of pred-

ators out here. It’s getting worse.”

Critics, however, wonder if more

people could be housed by less expen-

sive means. The city’s program is “not

sustainable,” said Mark Ryavec, presi-

dent of the Venice Stakeholders Asso-

ciation,which has been raising ques-

tions about some homeless projects

slated for the hip seaside enclave

that’s home to some of the city’s prici-

est real estate.

He calls the pricey apartments a

product of the “homeless industrial

complex,” in which “they are buying

Mercedes-Benzes and Cadillacs

when they should be buying Fiat 500s”

when it comes to providing homeless

housing.

The Union Rescue Mission, one of

the city’s oldest religious-based facil-

ities in downtown Los Angeles serving

homeless people, is trying the cheaper

approach. It is building a large fabric

structure, complete with heating, air

conditioning and access to clean rest-

rooms, that’s expected to last for dec-

ades and will provide beds for 120

women who are now sleeping on air

mattresses in the chapel, said its CEO,

the Rev. Andy Bales.

He said the facility will be built at a

fraction of what the city is spending to

build apartment buildings. He thinks

the city is taking the wrong approach.

“I am not only shaking my head at

the lack of progress over the last three

years, but I am shaking my head over

how much money has been spent and

how little there is to show for it.”

In Los Angeles, thousands of homeless people have set up camps along the

street, bed down in cars or sleep out in the open, without basic necessities

such as bathrooms and running water. JEFF LEWIS/AP

Homelessness

Continued from Page 1A

“There’s nowhere that’s

doing a great job. Across

the board, we have not been

investing in affordable,

low-cost housing.”

Megan Hustings

National Coalition for the Homeless,

Washington, D.C.

On Sunday, former Illinois Rep. Joe
Walsh addressed his role in stirring rac-
ist rhetoric in politics in the past while
announcing his intentions of challeng-
ing President Donald Trump in the Re-
publican primary.
Walsh apologized for his past com-
ments in an appearance on ABC’s “This
Week with George Stephanopoulos” in
which he said he had a role in Trump’s
ascension.
“I helped create Trump, there’s no
doubt about that,” he said.
Walsh went on to offer his opinion of
Trump: “He’s nuts, he’s erratic, he’s cru-
el, he stokes bigotry.”
He also wrote in a recent New York

Times op-ed that Trump “inspires imi-

tators” but brought up his own “share of

controversy.”

“At times, I expressed hate for my po-

litical opponents. We now see where

this can lead,” he wrote. “There’s no

place in our politics for personal attacks

like that, and I regret making them.”

Walsh announced his campaign on

Twitter Sunday morning, saying, “It

won’t be easy, but bravery is never easy.”

ABC News’ Jonathan Carl said on the

show that the Trump campaign’s only

response thus far to Walsh’s challenge

was one word: “Whatever.”

Walsh joins former Massachusetts

Gov. Bill Weld in the primary against

Trump.

In 2014, Walsh was pulled off the air

during his talk radio show for using rac-

ist slurs. He also promoted the “birther”

conspiracy during President Barack

Obama’s time in office and said Obama

was elected only because he is black.

When asked by Stephanopoulos on

Sunday to address instances of his own

racism, including his promotion of the

conspiracy theory that Obama is Mus-

lim and remarks against Sen. Kamala

Harris, Walsh said he has reflected on

his previous statements.

“I said some ugly things about Presi-

dent Obama that I regret,” Walsh said.

Walsh has a history of inconsistency

in his opinions of Trump’s rhetoric. At

times, he has denounced the president

as a racist. This summer, when Trump

told four Democratic congresswomen,

who are people of color and citizens of

the U.S., to go back to their countries of

origin if they do not like this country,

Walsh spoke out.

“To say ‘go back to where you came

from’ is gross. It’s offensive, ignorant,

anti-American, and racist,” he tweeted.

Walsh said the one good thing about

the president’s language is that it has

made him realize his attacks were inap-

propriate.

“We have a guy in the White House

who’s never apologized for anything

he’s done or said. I think it’s a weakness

not to apologize,” Walsh told Stephano-

poulos.

Joe Walsh: I’m sorry I helped ‘create Trump’

Former Illinois Rep. Joe Walsh has

been criticized for using racist slurs.

MANUEL BALCE CENETA/AP

He enters GOP primary,

apologizes for own past

Jeanine Santucci
USA TODAY

discord spilled into the public over

France’s claim that the G-7 leaders had

authorized Macron to send a joint

message to Iran on their behalf.

Trump said he never signed off on

any such statement.

“No, I haven’t discussed that,” he

told reporters at his meeting with Abe.

Regarding whether he supported

Macron’s outreach to Iran, Trump said

“sure” but stressed that the United

States would speak for itself.

“We’ll do our own outreach,” he

said. “But, you know, I can’t stop peo-

ple from talking. If they want to talk,

they can talk.”

A few hours later, Iran’s Foreign Min-

istry spokesman said the Islamic Re-

public’s top diplomat, Foreign Minister

Mohammad Javad Zarif, had landed in

the French city hosting the G-7 summit,

although he will neither negotiate nor

meet with U.S. officials while there.

Asked to confirm whether Zarif was

coming to Biarritz and if he’d be meet-

ing with him, Trump responded curtly,

“No comment.”

The G-7 gathering, which is unfold-

ing over three days at a French coastal

resort at the foot of the Pyrennes,

comes as Trump is facing pressure

from other world leaders on a number

of fronts, particularly his escalating

trade war with China.

Even one of Trump’s closest allies in

the group, British Prime Minster Boris

Johnson, suggested a “dialing down”

of the tensions with Beijing.

For a while on Sunday, Trump

seemed to soften his tone, signaling to

reporters that he regrets how the trade

war with China has escalated into the

two nations slapping tariffs on each

other’s imported goods.

A few hours later, the White House

said that he had been “greatly misinter-

preted.” White House spokeswoman

Stephanie Grisham said the only thing

Trump regrets is that he didn’t place

higher tariffs on Chinese imports.

For the most part, G-7 members –

the U.S., France, Germany, Canada,

the United Kingdom, Italy and Japan –

have managed to keep their disagree-

ment behind closed doors and out of

the views of television cameras.

In brief remarks to reporters Sun-

day, Trump and Canadian Prime Min-

ister Justin Trudeau focused on a trade

agreement the two countries struck

last year with Mexico.

“We have a deal that we were able to

negotiate that’s good for our workers,

good for our citizens, good for the mid-

dle class,” Trudeau said. “And that’s

the kind of thing that we need to see

more of around the world.”

The summit is expected to end

Monday without proffering a formal

agreement from the G-7 leaders – the

first time that has happened in the

group’s 44-year history.

Contributing: John Fritze

G-7 summit

Continued from Page 1A

President Trump, Emmanuel Macron

and fellow leaders have gathered in

France.FRANCOIS MORI/AFP/GETTY IMAGES