Mister mayor, we welcome you thank you for the opportunity you have afforded to me and other members of congress to visit with you recently while you help to get us to understand exactly what you are doing and what other assistance could be helpful with what you are attempting to do. You are now recognized for five minutes. Thank you chairwoman and thank you for your friendship and leadership and your presence is not the first time we have testified to gather add exhibition park whenever Maxine Waters is there i am there. This is the most important of all subjects coming before you im so grateful to be here. Thank you to representatives green and garcia for your perspective and my dear friend brad sherman thank you for being a part of this. I come before you as a parent, mayor, Foster Parent and volunteer and organizer and longterm activist talking about skid row when i was 14 i saw something that even predated my birth by a decades where we deposit social ills and trauma and the 14 yearold talking about Eric Garcetti how far we have come. I am asked about homelessness all the time i am the last panel of one there probably a little tired and hungry and depressed hearing the things you have heard today but i hope to give you a perspective to give you hope and belief this is a human caused problem and also a human solved problem as well no issue i work more on than this i brought together mayors across the country they have few of the direct power of the causes and cures we have police forces, sanitation but you cannot clean oral rest your way out when it comes to building housing or evictions a simple way to explain where it comes from his unAffordable Housing meets trauma that is the manifestation of veterans coming home from war. Women are the survivors of sexual or domestic violence. Children out of foster care. Mental health and treated Substance Abuse. Low wages. These things are different in each person they are shared by everybody it could be economic trauma. But the good news in los angeles we dont say we have a crisis please figure it out for us. We come from a place with a coalition has brought together that we have this conversation a lot so the plan isnt working because it went up 12 percent or city 16 percent on average 35 percent this last year alone. But i point out this isnt about if the model is working but if we have the resources to fuel the model to success. I served in the navy 12 and a half years you can have the best trained people and equipment but if you dont have scale you will be defeated eventually even if they have less. Its interesting to say today people demand when they see the streets of america where homelessness they want us to have dday to conquer europe and the Marshall Plan all overnight. We have to extinguish the belief or the fantasy that there is a magic formula that within a few weeks or months that this will disappear and we can shift people aloft into the desert or on the beach with a massive tent and move them away thats not how this gets done. On the other extreme i want you to hear it isnt the hopelessness that we cannot solve this problem. And i have the faith in my bones. In just four years we have doubled the success that we have and the number of people that we house statistics can cut both ways but those are the narratives of the real people spending a lot of time on the streets yesterday i was walking the Los Angeles River talking to those who live in the tens saying this is the day you should come home we went from 9000 people now at 21000 if you told me that four years ago i would say we were on our way home. Its rare to get that success in a short period of time on top of that 21,027,000 found their own way out. But 54000 new people were in need. So we see an increase is not that it isnt working but we dont have the scale or preventing it from happening in the first place. Second federal government has to be a part of this. The back in the eighties when the federal government started to step up, it made a difference we calculated our responsibility that getting rid of the redevelopment dollars in cuts to Affordable Housing 20 billion over Affordable Housing over the last decade disappeared so for you just to get that level of funding from ten years ago 20000 would have put into l. A. County the red light is on so i will wrap up but this is a Public Health crisis so those that are not housed versus those in the shelter those are 25 times more likely with Substance Abuse mental and physical health. If we think this is the only housing problem that is the issue and second when the federal government steps up we have more Homeless Veterans than anyone in the country reduced by 80 percent the number of veterans more than what we started with. And we have to look at prevention we have to act now. [applause] and i will say the last thing because you invoked the commanderinchief he is not in my chain of command militarily anymore but when he was in japan recently he said a few words about San Francisco that the streets are so clean nobody was homeless he said it was disgusting you might have to do something about it my response i said any day he talks about homelessness is an opportunity i said if hes really willing to come to skid row and walk the walk or have us come to the white house on a coalition independent of those city struggling with this issue we will call his bluff and save lives together six years ago when i became mayor this is a legacy washington dc must and will be a part of that. Thank you. Thank you mister mayor. [applause] i will now recognize myself for five minutes. I am very pleased about your support and we developed this legislation understanding 13 billion would raise eyebrows but we believe if we are to end homelessness we have to put the resources to apply to the problem. Having said that, i want to ask you about your budget. In addition to the federal money that you receive from washington dc and the grants we give to all states and cities, there was an initiative past where you received Additional Resources and i know you put those resources to work for quite interested in transitional housing which is extremely exciting and you showed an example on the screen i want to know how many have you developed . How many are you going to develop cracks does that include southcentral quick. Absolutely. Its interesting you talk about the 13 billion that should not raise eyebrows thats a sad commentary if we think that would raise eyebrows when city county together have raised four. 5 billion in housing money and services and 3 percent of the nations population with the math we should have 120 billion just to match what we raised locally. So your ambition is not only impressive but is just the start because if you match what l. A. Has done it would be putting 120 billion not everybody has homeless that community so it could be 40 or 50. Hhs for los angeles the largest housing measure passed by the voters leverages 5 million worth of housing. Shipping containers and innovative ways to do it cheaper and faster and traditionally beautiful built apartments and those that need to have services the rest of the lives 110 projects of permanent housing on transitional side we have 25 transitional housing shelters looking up in the next 12 month months. South los angeles almost a preponderance including the former yard next to where we have an unused dog park that will be opening in a month with a group of engineers and architects and builders get them up in 60 days its a new model to bring their pets and property thats why they get kicked out of the shelter but now we want to double the number that would give us around three or 4000 beds to turnover every six months so almost nine or 10000 people per year being served and within a few years that wouldnt only make it dent but could end street homelessness. Thank you very much i was interviewed the day before yesterday and dominique had an idea and i told her i would share it with her with you. She thinks you should buy up some of the motels that are problematic in the community. [applause] and convert those into housing whether its transitional or permanent but i thought that was a good idea particularly if they are presenting us with the problem because you have to use resources to respond to complaints. Is that something you have thought about . Or what would you tell dominiqu dominique . Spinach is one of the smartest people i know. We need some state help to change the residency so there is an existing 29 day rule why we look for the money we have had problematic ones few and far between are they ready to seize with tens of millions of dollars lined up and then the money falls through but we will not be deterred. We can get rid of light at the same time have a great place for housing so we do expect a number of those are San Fernando Valley to come online. You definitely have a friend in the government. With that i recognize representative sherman for five minutes. Thank you for being here and for your dedication to this problem. We pass a lot of laws we repeal some but we cannot on demand we need more units and more rental units its best if we could get construction of affordable units even if luxury units are built somebodys moving in there that would not be in the non luxury unit with that landuse planning so if you want to build an auto dealership i have a dozen cities that will give you healing end and the mayor will come not just cut the ribbon but help you build. On the other hand, if you want to build housing you get the impact counties charge high fees. So what do we do that we finance government on ability to pay the state income tax is a good way to measure that instead we finance based upon whether you are building something the City Government has to provide fire protection. Leading on tax policy thats a great question. A couple of things but between impact fees i do believe we pass that the fee that does allow housing you do have to put money aside for Affordable Housing as much as 100 million of support of subsidized housing out of that but you are right we cannot keep putting everything on the developers we get nothing done by having no fees but enough cities dont use the power of zoning it can produce more housing. I hope that you would join me to get the sales tax that is generated by buildings and Building Materials allocated to the city where the building takes place rather than the warehouse and the Building Supplies is located. I do want to point out we are focused on this but the rents are too damn high and not just for the homeless. The homeless is the tip of the iceberg that is the tip of that iceberg but for every homeless person there are so many that could be evicted tomorrow maybe they never get but they could be there cutting back on medicines or payday lenders or one month delinquent but stay in their unit and they do Everything Possible to build more housing and we will be together in chatsworth the old l. A. Times plant and now in part it will be housing and you had to sweep aside some problems with that to happen because the land was so industrial so what can we do on a systemic level to make sure that if you want to build Affordable Housing you can do it regardless of zoning restrictions . I could see you wouldnt want one unit and among others but what have you done to say yes quick. Without the mayor having to intervene. Of course it shouldnt. Mayors and Council Changes so we are investing in rail lines also thanks to the measure m but when we started to do already. In other parts of the city the grade separated rail and then call that transit because there is a bus stop. We made sure the valley was not written out this last time so we look forward to treatment their. But you can go higher around transit if you build Affordable Housing on your own dime. It is additional opportunity and benefit. Los angeles is building half for 40 percent of the population talk about those neighboring cities and towns so if youre not willing to build housing into your rent fees as well i hope the state legislature will pass i know the government will sign that you and rent gouging. We may or may not get split but if we do it has to be tied to the ending subjective rental housing. Thank you very much recognize a gentleman from texas for five minutes. Thank you madam chair thank you for appearing simply for educational purposes, while you may appear to be alone it is happening in houston and washington dc. And the numbers are growing for various reasons. One question for me to take to my constituents for those that are interested in this, what could we do to prevent . We are headed in your direction so what can we do now quick. Three things. And to pass that measure and to put up assistance we are doing that with dollars we dont even have that unscrupulous ones on neighborhoods to have Legal Assistance to those are threatened with eviction those that face language and poverty barriers. Have and those that can become on the street if the four of us came into the emergency room that subsidy issue we would see of us may be one with a broken leg we would be treated as reprehensible we have to wait to be stage iv people are dying on the streets who have right to Mental Health care yesterday night out of ten people i spoke to one spoke to you could see of Mental Health that is going untreated. Whether Police Officers or sanitation workers thats not gonna happen that has to be at the same time of housing and i found this out homelessness does not exist in japan but it did a few years ago a lot of people were homeless they were ashamed of it the federal government put Forward Housing and assistance now theres no homeless anymore. So with Mental Health and to treat these. Thank you mayor. I dont want you to put yourself at risk to answer this but if you have the resources and over what period of time . How much it over what period of time . Those that are veterans with all that complexity so the resources you could end street homelessness but if they have the will to do that it with the Marshall Plan to rebuild so when we see that day were homelessness comes down in the Mental Health indicator but is there a plan for these people because here in california but theres nobody to meet them and greet them because they had 1 gram too much and went go away for 20 years. So then to put that in place what were talking about. This is probably add a different level we have a circumstance 1 percent of the people hold 40 percent of the wealth the top 20 has the top 90 percent we have been conditioned to believe this is the way it should be that people at the very top should have enough wealth that they alone alone could find solutions. With that distribution of wealth with the top 20 percent holding 90 percent and with that homelessness problem. It would take the biggest wealth gap since the great depression. And that second gilded age is never been a better time but even that successful city have a deep underclass that is not what the country is or who we are people get scared about redistribution what is the cost to you to drive to your own city . 50000 a person do something to control rent. And then do they can make the rent but i appreciate your voice to make sure we dont forget the structural reason we have a homeless problem in los angeles. I yelled back. The gentle lady from texas. A strong indicator but several of the other speakers talk about and to address it but there is a real concern of homelessness from a colleague and i hear at the table in the lower Jurisdiction Courts i see a lot of what i call of criminalized behavior and then those ordinances against camping or sleeping in cars and or being in public spaces for taking their property with them but i could go on and on. I dont see where that gets us and i dont like these at all. It just creates more youre just incarcerating them then they go back to the same situation program was raised catholic and told very early we are all gods children and then we follow the golden rule do unto others as you want them to do unto you. But if you lost your job today and house and became homeless would this be the way you would want to be treated . That you could not live in your car or not have your own space somewhere to call your own quick. No. Of course not. It is a double heartbreak going on. [inaudible] please refrain from interfering with the testimony. The double heartbreak that brothers and sisters are on the streets and in cars but the sheer number of People Living in streets and cars in shelters. But the second is the death of public space in many communities and that is on the sidewalk. I do agree with the amnesty and with those past years of those infractions. If you give them amnesty. C would repeal . When would that be done . And with those elected individuals but i want for me it cannot happen soon enough. We are ready to go. And with that ordinance with that property but do you keep track . We invite you to the Storage Centers that we have a meanie for many more downtown and for those who are experiencing homelessness. And then they dont have to worry about that getting stolen on the street. And then they can go and have that to know it is safe and secure. You cannot take their property. Talk about due process. They are right. Are that everybody is even perfect talking about tens of thousands of interactions. Because thats a standard we need to have. Just to say no to shelters or Storage Centers but the difficulty when there is no funding to figure out a way to fund it is very expensive to run in the millions of dollars per year just to do storage. Ideally so the new model so to have shelters in the communities where they are homeless but the second piece is critical. So we all have to say there is the unlimited amount no space ever and then sometimes the single individuals that we have to make Data Services led of interaction to reduce the space somebody has with the services they need to have and one last thing for serious but those encampments for those that it should not ever shield you from accountability of serious crime. And then to back off to protect this very same people who are going to the deepest of trauma. And then not to be seen so the concern and then that is significant so those that we barely counted or didnt even count something thats happening to or by in the coming years. So are any Services Provided to help them transition quick. In my opinion no. That is the responsibility absolutely not enough if we want to solve homelessness part of that small sliver of criminal activity happens because people come out of the jails with the savings promised by criminal Justice Reform by local government thats what we dont see. If we could put a package together to address to see what even does it but to make sure you do not have to criminalize homelessness. We need storage. If it has the power to do whatever they want. And then training for Law Enforcement officials. And then that sanitation that was dramatic for people in the street with those Health Professionals and those that are given those are experiencing homelessness and then to empower them with job experience and let us have the training so i dont know if that doesnt come without money for any of them thank you to the mayor for his valuable time and all witnesses for todays hearing for their testimony today. You can have five legislative days in which to submit additional questions we asked the witnesses to please respond as promptly as you are able. We will have five legislative days to submit extraneous materials are to include in the record. And the executive director thank you for being here. Also reverend Reginald Pope he is one of the leaders give him a big round of applause even though he had to leave early. [applause] someone that we all know as an advocate on everything. [applause] the hearing is adjourned. [applause] the hearing is adjourned. Hi everybody. Im glad to see you, thank you. Thank you so much for coming to tonights Program Featuring robert caro and conan obrien. [applause] i am andrea grossman, the founder of Writers Block now sailing to the end of our 30 third year