Question

Housing is more than a shelter?​

Answer 1

Answer: In the city of Los Angeles, there are more than 34,000 homeless people and a shortage of overnight shelter beds. As a result, nearly three-quarters of those people are “unsheltered” — meaning that they are sleeping at night on a sidewalk, in a tent, in a makeshift shelter or in a vehicle rather than under a roof.

So Los Angeles City Councilman Jose Huizar’s motion this week to set up and finance several trailers to offer short-term shelter to homeless people on a city-owned parking lot downtown near the El Pueblo Historical Monument is a good idea. The trailers — each 60 feet long — will offer a bed and personal, private storage space to each person and will do away with common restrictions that often make homeless people reluctant to stay in shelters. For example, homeless people will be allowed to bring their pets. In another trailer, there will be onsite case management to — one hopes — connect people with services for, among other things, mental illness or drug addiction, and to start them down the path toward permanent supportive housing.

The problem, of course, is obvious: There are more than 25,000 people living unsheltered on the city’s streets every night — more than 40,000 countywide — and the three proposed trailers will house only 60 of them. Still, a start is a start. The price is $2 million to set up and operate the trailers for six months. City officials say they will open within six months. (Ojalá...)

Explanation:

Answer 2

Answer:

.Los Angeles is facing many challenges today, none more acute than the shortage of housing. It goes beyond the basic challenge of too few homes for too many people.

As the economy grows, the demand for homes increases, but the incentive for the private sector to build homes decreases. The disincentives emerge in part because capital is more interested in chasing fast and easier returns in the stock market than in the real estate market. In large part, what makes the returns more difficult in real estate is the lack of a housing policy by local government. That is, both the public and the private sectors contribute to an environment where housing is not being built in Los Angeles.