City May Sue County for More Homeless Services

In an escalation of its criticism of county government’s handling of the homeless, Los Angeles city officials Friday asked the city attorney to sue “if legally possible” to force county officials to provide more services for those living on the streets.

Mayor Tom Bradley late last week asked the city attorney’s office to pursue legal action because, the mayor said Friday, “They (county officials) have abdicated their responsibility under the law to take care of the indigents, which include the homeless.”

After Deputy Mayor Grace Davis told the Los Angeles City Council of Bradley’s action during Friday’s council meeting, council members voted unanimously to urge City Atty. James K. Hahn to pursue a lawsuit to require the county to provide “human services and housing for indigents,” including the homeless.

The city, under fire from some homeless advocates for its recent sweeps of Skid Row encampments by sanitation crews and police, increasingly has sought to spotlight the responsibility of county government, which under state law is charged with caring for the indigent. Bradley on Wednesday sent a letter to county officials charging them with “shirking” their “legal responsibility to care for the homeless.”

Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, while voting to pursue a lawsuit, bemoaned the city’s threatened legal action as “evidence that the situation has deteriorated beyond repair. . . . We have sister-city relationships all over the world, but we can’t communicate up the street,” he said in reference to the county Board of Supervisors. “Instead we write a letter, rather terse, and they write us a terse letter . . . and nothing gets done.”

County and city staff members are “very frustrated by egos that have gotten in the way on this side of the street and the other side of the street,” Yaroslavsky said.

The city’s controversial sweeps--now announced to people in the area 12 hours before they start--were ordered to rid Skid Row streets of debris and garbage, “but not people,” Davis said.

The sweeps, which had been due to resume this week, were canceled Thursday and Friday because of the rain. Meantime, an additional emergency shelter near 5th and San Pedro streets opened Friday night to supplement one already operating near Little Tokyo. Both shelters, staffed by volunteers, opened to provide shelter during inclement weather and will close April 30, Davis said.

While the city sought to shift some blame to the county, the county tried to bounce some responsibility back to the city and to the state. Supervisor Mike Antonovich, chairman of the county Board of Supervisors, reacted to the city’s threat of a lawsuit by asserting that “the problem arises from the city’s failure to replace housing it destroyed for redevelopment downtown and the state Legislature’s failure to provide mandatory treatment for the mentally ill.”

Antonovich called the council action to pursue a lawsuit “rash” at a time when “all levels of government and the private sector should be working together.” He added that he plans to work with Bradley’s office to set up a meeting “in search of a viable solution” on handling the problems of the homeless.

Antonovich said the county is spending $200 million annually on the homeless. Figures from the county’s chief administrative office indicate that the annual figure is $184 million, with the major chunk of that money, $150 million, counted from money in the county’s general relief fund, which helps indigents, who may or may not be homeless.

Homeless organizer Ted Hayes, who Friday suggested that the homeless be housed on publicly and privately owned lots, told the council it was “very disheartening to see the city and county tossing the ball back and forth.”