By Sara Chesluk Santa Monica
While I am generally supportive of services for the homeless, I was amazed to read in “Wishes granted for alcoholics, chronic homeless” (SMDP, weekend edition, Aug. 20-21, page 1) that the HUD funds will be used to place them in “market-rate housing,” and later that the homeless people have been placed in one-bedroom apartments in Santa Monica.
We all know this is an extremely high-rent city. Unless these are women with children, how can the city explain placing the homeless in one-bedroom apartments when many people who work here cannot afford those apartments? Could some of that money not be used to provide other services?
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 23, 2005. Read the original PDF.