Orange County officials should keep this in mind: They can’t simply force homeless people off the streets and into shelters. The more warehouse-like the shelter, the less privacy it offers and the less safe it seems, the less homeless people will want to live in it and work with the service providers there, and thus the longer the homelessness problem will endure. The one bridge shelter in L.A. that has already opened has only 45 beds, each of them shielded to some degree by partitions. Most of the bridge shelters in L.A. will be larger than that — the proposed shelter for an expansive bus yard in Venice will have 154 beds — but the plan is to offer some semblance of sleeping cubicles, not an armory filled with beds. Officials should think about that as they design more shelters.

Source: Los Angeles Times November 05, 2018 10:07 UTC