Transcripts For CSPAN3 House Financial Services Hearing On H

On, and in the beginning of the services program, but we are starting to do that with some of the recognition, and noticing the increases that have come out for women who are homeless, and the trauma is a big part of it, and in recognizing the safety issues, related to their discussion of their past histories with the Domestic Violence and interpartner relationships. Thank you, and i yield back, madam chair. Thank you very much. I would like to thank the second panel of witnesses for their testimony here today. I would like to say a very special thanks to ms. Vizcaino and mr. Hanes for coming here to tell your story and the panel of the witnesses here today, it is your work that causes a mr. Hanes and ms. Vizcaino to be here today to talk about how their lives have been changed. So everybody, give a big round of applause for the second panel. Mr. Mayor, we welcome you. I thank you for the opportunity that you have afforded to me and other members of congress to visit with you recently while you helped us to understand what you are doing, and what other assistance could be helpful in what you are attempting to do. With that, mr. Mayor, you are now recognized for five minutes to present your oral testimony. Great. Thank you so much chairwoman, and thank you for your friendship and your leadership. Thank you for the presence here. It is not the first time that we have testified together. But when Maxine Waters is there at exposition park, i am there. This is the most important subjects to come before you to talk about, and im grateful to be before you, and two tejanos here, representative green for your experience and lived, and mr. Brad sherman who represents my hometown of the San Fernando Valley, thank you for being a part of this. I come before you as a mayor, a parent, a foster parent, a volunteer and organizer and long time activist on the issue of homelessness. I started, representative green, you were talking about skid row. I started when i was 14 on skid row, and something that predated my birth by decades as a place where we deposited the social ills and trauma. Think of what the 14yearold Eric Garcetti would tell the 48yearold Eric Garcetti and what was to come. And so i am the panel of one, and the last panel, and a little bit tired and a little bit hungry, and probably a little bit depressed hearing some of the things that you is heard today. I hope to give you a perspective to kind of give you some hope and some belief that it is a humancaused problem that is obviously a humansolved problem as well there. Is no issue that i work on more than that, and the mayors i have brought together across the country on this issue. Mayors ironically have the little direct powers into and out of cures of homelessness. We have Police Forces and sanitation demts, but you cant clean your way or police through homelessness. So when you try to explain how it comes from it is unAffordable Housing meeting trauma, and that trauma may be the manifestation of the veterans coming home from war, and women who are 91 of the women on skid row are the survivors of Domestic Violence and children who emancipate out of the foster care issue, and Mental Health gone untreated, Substance Abuse issues and low wages, and so unlocked by all of the pieces of trauma is shared by everybody. Maybe it is economic trauma for some. And the good news in los angeles, we dont come to the conversation saying, wow, we have a crisis, and please, figure it out for us. We come as i heard today from the place of the recent National Conference for the coalition to end homelessness is that l. A. Is now seen as the model. I have this conversation with a lot of people a lot, and the plan is not working because homelessness went up 15 or 16 , and in the place where the state and the counties have seen up 35 alone. So one of the things that i point out is that it is not about whether the model is working or not, but it is whether we have the resources to fuel that model to success. In military terms and i served in the navy for 12 1 2 year, and you can have the best trained people and equipment, but if you dont have scale, you will be defeated eventually even by the folks who have less than you do. And it is an interesting thing to stay with the metaphor. Today, people are demanding and impatiently so when they see the horrors on the streets where folks are homeless, and folks who want the dday and the conquering of europe and the Marshall Plan all at once. So we have to get rid of the belief and the fantasy that there is a magic formula that in a few weeks or months it will disappear, and we can ship the people over to the desert or on the beach, and create a massive tent and move them away. That is not how it gets done. But on the other extreme, it is time to get rid of the cynical hopelessness that we cannot solve this problem. I will give you a couple of cases of how i have that faith in my bones. In just four years of addressing the problem here in los angeles, we have doubled the success in the number of people that we house. Statistics are tough, because they can cut both ways, but statistics are really stories. The numbers are narratives of real people. I have spent a lot of time on the streets with outreach team. Yesterday i was walking the Los Angeles River and talking to the folks living in the tents and hearing their experiences, and taking the power of mayor that this is the day to go home and out of homelessness. And so we went from the 29,000 to 9,000. So it is rare to have a short period of time to put on top of the 21,000, the 27,000 who found their own way out of homelessness. So 48,000 people in the real county of los angeles moved from homelessness into homes. But 54,000 new people went into homelessness. So when we are seeing an increase, it is not that the success is not working, but it is that we dont have the scale and we are not preventing it from happening in first place. Second point, the federal government has to be a part of this, and i know that i am preaching to the converted with the four of you, but in the 1980s when the federal government stepped up to homelessness and afirst became a activist, it made a difference. We calculated the state cuts which are not the responsibility of the folks from texas here or the state folks here, but it is the federal housing dollars we calculated here 28 billion Affordable Housing in the last decade disappeared. So if we had left the level of funding from ten years ago, about 20,000 people worth of housing would have been put in l. A. County and not enough to go up, but to have reduced homelessness. I can see the red light is on and i will try to wrap it up. But let me leave you on with two thing, and this is a Public Health crisis and this is new data, unhoused versus those in the streets. It is 25 times more likely to have triple morbidity of the Substance Abuse, Mental Health and physical health problems. And if we think it is only a housing problem, we have to make sure that the Health Issues are there. And second, when the federal government stepped up for the veterans here in los angeles, we housed more Homeless Veterans than anywhere in the country, and we reduced by 80 and housed double the number than we started with, but the 20 left of the new folks coming out on the streets every single day. And third, we have to look at the prevention. It is time to pass Maxine Waters ending homelessness act now. Now. I will say it the last thing to the president , because you invoked the commander in chief, and i retired from the navy and he is not in my chain of command militarily anymore, but when he was in japan recently, he said a few words about this city and san francisco, and he said that the streets were so clean in tokyo, and homeless, and he said it is disgust org whatever he said about my city and san francisco, and he said that he might have to do something about it. He said that problem started two years ago. In my response and i know that we are supposed to punch them back, but i said any day that the commander in chief is talking about homelessness, that is a good day, and if he is willing to go to skid row and walk that walk and maybe not spend tonight or have us come to the white house with a coalition of the independent and democratic and republican groups, and he really wants to save lives, we will call his bluff and say that we can save lives together. I said that the problem did not start two years ago when he was president or six years ago when i was mayor. This is the legacy of too many decades of legacy of negligent, but this needs to be a part of stop to it. And we need federal help with that legacy. I would like to have my last few minutes i can say that i am pleased about your support of my legislation. We developed this legislation understanding that 13 billion would raise some eyebrow, but if we are to end homelessness, we have to put the resources to apply to the problem. And so, i wanted to ask you a little bit about the budget, and in addition to the federal money that you received from washington, d. C. , and the grants that we give to all of the states and cities, there was an initiative that was passed and i believe it was hhh. Correct. Where you received the additional resources, and i know that you have put the resources to work. I am interested in one aspect of that right now and that is the transitional housing. Yes. Which i think is extremely exciting and you showed us an example of it on the screen. And i wanted to know how many have you developed . How many are you going to develop . Is that is going to include South Central or South Los Angeles . Absolutely it will, and including in your district, congresswoman. So it is interesting that you talk about the 13 billion which should not raise eyebrows and it is a sad commentary when 13 billion going the raise eyebrows and the city through hhh and h, have raised 4. 5 billion in housing money and services money, and we are 3 of the nations population. If you do the math, we should have 120 billion just to match what we have raised locally. So your ambition is not only impressive, but it should be looked at as a start, because if you are matching just what l. A. Has done, the federal government would put in 120 billion. Not every city has homelessness population of ours, so maybe, 40 or 50. And so the hhh is the largest measure to be passed in the house by the voters and it is leveraging 5 billion of housing from people looking at shipping containers and innovative ways to do it cheaper and faster to new apartments for the folks who have the deepest need and the triple diagnosis that i have mentioned before and need services for the rest of their lives. We have 110 permanent sites for housing, and we have 25 transitional housing shelters to open up in the next 12 months and four are open. In South Los Angeles, and i would say that we have a preponderance of those including the former Animal Services yard next to where we had a unused kind of dog park. It is going to be opening n g i a month, a month and a half, and we had a group of engineers and architects and builders who can get up in a war room and get nup 60 days span tents for people to have a cubables, iclcubicles, a bring their pets and partners, and so even though this should pass is to double the number to 50. That would give us at that point somewhere around 3,000 to 4,000 beds which would turn over every say six months and every year 9,000 to 10,000 people being served and in a few years, we could not only make a dent in the homelessness, but a chance of ending street homelessness in l. A. Thank you very much. I was interviewed on ktlh the other day and Dominika Dupre had an idea and i told her that i would share it with you. Great. And she thinks that you should buy up some of the motels that are problematic in the community and convert those into housing, and she didnt identify whether this is tran dissisitio the permanent housing, but i thought that it was a good idea especially if the motels are presenting with us a problem that is causing you to have to use the resources to respond to complaints and violence or any of that. Is that something that you have thought about or you could do or what would you tell dominika . Well, she is one of the smartest people i know and all of her ideas are good. We are moving on the motels. We need a little bit of the state help to change the residency that there is a maximum of 29 days to take the existing motels today and do the leases on them while we are looking for the money to buy the motels. Now we have to get the owners to do that and where we have had problematic ones, there are far and few to be seized and however, we have had other folks from the Salvation Army and other folks to do that and unfortunately the money fell through for the developer, and we will not be deterred. Those hotels are a twofor, getting rid of blight and providing housing. So we will see some in south l. A. And elsewhere to come on line. Well, you have a friend in governor newsome who is doing everything to be of help. Yes. And with that, i will recognize representative sherman for five minutes for questions. Representative. Mayor, thank you for being here, and thank you for your dedication to this problem. We pass a lot of laws in congress, and repeal some, but we cant repeal supply and demand. We especially need more rental dwrun units, and it is best to get the construction of the affordable units, because even luxury, somebody is moving in that would otherwise in a nonluxury unit. And so i wanted to focus on the system of financing government, and the government needs money, but it is important how you raise the money. If you wanted to build an auto dealership, i have a dozen cities who will give you free land and the mayor will come in to help you not just cut the ribbon, but help you build. Yep. And so, on the other hand, if you want to build housing, you pay an impact fee. And you may have seen the headline in the los angeles times, and one reason that housing is so expensive in california is that the cities and the counties charge a high developer fees. So, what do we do to finance the ability of government to pay, the state income tax being a good way to measure that. Yep. And instead, we finance based on whether you are building something that the government has to provide police and Fire Protection for. Well, as somebody who led and the tax policy of the board of equalization, and it is a great question for me, representative. A couple of things. Between the impact fees and i do believe and we have passed after 40 years that tom bradley passed a linkage fee, and if you are building luxury housing and just like parks and other things that you have to puts a side for Affordable Housing, and raising 100 million of subsidized housing out of the boom that we are having, but you are right, you cant put everything on the developers, but between nothing done on them, and fees and that there is something in between that cities dont use which is the power of zoning. It does not cost you anything, but it can produce more housing and ask for anything to change. So at a minimum, i would ask you as a state matter to try to get the sales tax that is generated by the building yes, of course. The Building Materials allocated to the city where the building takes place rather than where the amen. The warehouse for where the Building Supplies are located. So i wanted to point out that we are focused and the homelessness, and there is general agreement that the rents are too damn high and not just for the homeless, but the homeless is the tip of the iceberg, and that is the tip of that iceberg, but for every homeless person, there are so many who could be evicted tomorrow and maybe they wont be evicted, but they are using the stomach lining today because they could be evict and people cutting back on the medicine, and others going to payday lenders, and so there are others who are wanting to focus on the Affordable Housing. And so tomorrow, you and i will be in chatsworth where there is the old l. A. Times plant. Yes. And it is going to be housing, and you had to sweep aside some problems for that to happen, because the land was zoned industrial, and what can we do on the systemic level to make sure that if you want affordable or rentable housing you can do it regardless of the zoning restriction, and i can see that you would not want one unit in amongst a number of factories, but what can be done to say yes for those who want to build the rental house . That is where i was headed without the mayor having to intervene. And it should not provide mayoral leadership, because leadership change, so we are investing in 15 new rail lines and the biggest in any city in history and thanks for the voters on measure m, and al lon the transit lines and one in the northwest San Fernando Valley and near csun, and if you are close to the transit stops well, let me point out that you are close to the grade separated rail and only in the San Fernando Valley do you call it transit, because you have a bus stop. And we will talk about that more. You and i have, and we will make sure that the valley i am from is not written out of it this time, and we will look forward to equable treatment there. But you can go higher and denser around the transit if you build it on your dime. So it is not a linkage fee, but it is additional opportunity and benefit and half of the housing now in Los Angeles City is coming through the one change. Fully half of it. And los angeles is building 75 of all of the housing in l. A. County and we are 40 of the population, and so your point of the neighboring cities and towns, and nobody can afford the say no, and then say, where does homelessness come from the you are not willing to build the housing in your neighborhoods and Domestic Violence<\/a> and interpartner relationships. Thank you, and i yield back, madam chair. Thank you very much. I would like to thank the second panel of witnesses for their testimony here today. I would like to say a very special thanks to ms. Vizcaino and mr. Hanes for coming here to tell your story and the panel of the witnesses here today, it is your work that causes a mr. Hanes and ms. Vizcaino to be here today to talk about how their lives have been changed. So everybody, give a big round of applause for the second panel. Mr. Mayor, we welcome you. I thank you for the opportunity that you have afforded to me and other members of congress to visit with you recently while you helped us to understand what you are doing, and what other assistance could be helpful in what you are attempting to do. With that, mr. Mayor, you are now recognized for five minutes to present your oral testimony. Great. Thank you so much chairwoman, and thank you for your friendship and your leadership. Thank you for the presence here. It is not the first time that we have testified together. But when Maxine Waters<\/a> is there at exposition park, i am there. This is the most important subjects to come before you to talk about, and im grateful to be before you, and two tejanos here, representative green for your experience and lived, and mr. Brad sherman who represents my hometown of the San Fernando Valley<\/a>, thank you for being a part of this. I come before you as a mayor, a parent, a foster parent, a volunteer and organizer and long time activist on the issue of homelessness. I started, representative green, you were talking about skid row. I started when i was 14 on skid row, and something that predated my birth by decades as a place where we deposited the social ills and trauma. Think of what the 14yearold Eric Garcetti<\/a> would tell the 48yearold Eric Garcetti<\/a> and what was to come. And so i am the panel of one, and the last panel, and a little bit tired and a little bit hungry, and probably a little bit depressed hearing some of the things that you is heard today. I hope to give you a perspective to kind of give you some hope and some belief that it is a humancaused problem that is obviously a humansolved problem as well there. Is no issue that i work on more than that, and the mayors i have brought together across the country on this issue. Mayors ironically have the little direct powers into and out of cures of homelessness. We have Police Forces<\/a> and sanitation demts, but you cant clean your way or police through homelessness. So when you try to explain how it comes from it is unAffordable Housing<\/a> meeting trauma, and that trauma may be the manifestation of the veterans coming home from war, and women who are 91 of the women on skid row are the survivors of Domestic Violence<\/a> and children who emancipate out of the foster care issue, and Mental Health<\/a> gone untreated, Substance Abuse<\/a> issues and low wages, and so unlocked by all of the pieces of trauma is shared by everybody. Maybe it is economic trauma for some. And the good news in los angeles, we dont come to the conversation saying, wow, we have a crisis, and please, figure it out for us. We come as i heard today from the place of the recent National Conference<\/a> for the coalition to end homelessness is that l. A. Is now seen as the model. I have this conversation with a lot of people a lot, and the plan is not working because homelessness went up 15 or 16 , and in the place where the state and the counties have seen up 35 alone. So one of the things that i point out is that it is not about whether the model is working or not, but it is whether we have the resources to fuel that model to success. In military terms and i served in the navy for 12 1 2 year, and you can have the best trained people and equipment, but if you dont have scale, you will be defeated eventually even by the folks who have less than you do. And it is an interesting thing to stay with the metaphor. Today, people are demanding and impatiently so when they see the horrors on the streets where folks are homeless, and folks who want the dday and the conquering of europe and the Marshall Plan<\/a> all at once. So we have to get rid of the belief and the fantasy that there is a magic formula that in a few weeks or months it will disappear, and we can ship the people over to the desert or on the beach, and create a massive tent and move them away. That is not how it gets done. But on the other extreme, it is time to get rid of the cynical hopelessness that we cannot solve this problem. I will give you a couple of cases of how i have that faith in my bones. In just four years of addressing the problem here in los angeles, we have doubled the success in the number of people that we house. Statistics are tough, because they can cut both ways, but statistics are really stories. The numbers are narratives of real people. I have spent a lot of time on the streets with outreach team. Yesterday i was walking the Los Angeles River<\/a> and talking to the folks living in the tents and hearing their experiences, and taking the power of mayor that this is the day to go home and out of homelessness. And so we went from the 29,000 to 9,000. So it is rare to have a short period of time to put on top of the 21,000, the 27,000 who found their own way out of homelessness. So 48,000 people in the real county of los angeles moved from homelessness into homes. But 54,000 new people went into homelessness. So when we are seeing an increase, it is not that the success is not working, but it is that we dont have the scale and we are not preventing it from happening in first place. Second point, the federal government has to be a part of this, and i know that i am preaching to the converted with the four of you, but in the 1980s when the federal government stepped up to homelessness and afirst became a activist, it made a difference. We calculated the state cuts which are not the responsibility of the folks from texas here or the state folks here, but it is the federal housing dollars we calculated here 28 billion Affordable Housing<\/a> in the last decade disappeared. So if we had left the level of funding from ten years ago, about 20,000 people worth of housing would have been put in l. A. County and not enough to go up, but to have reduced homelessness. I can see the red light is on and i will try to wrap it up. But let me leave you on with two thing, and this is a Public Health<\/a> crisis and this is new data, unhoused versus those in the streets. It is 25 times more likely to have triple morbidity of the Substance Abuse<\/a>, Mental Health<\/a> and physical health problems. And if we think it is only a housing problem, we have to make sure that the Health Issues<\/a> are there. And second, when the federal government stepped up for the veterans here in los angeles, we housed more Homeless Veterans<\/a> than anywhere in the country, and we reduced by 80 and housed double the number than we started with, but the 20 left of the new folks coming out on the streets every single day. And third, we have to look at the prevention. It is time to pass Maxine Waters<\/a> ending homelessness act now. Now. I will say it the last thing to the president , because you invoked the commander in chief, and i retired from the navy and he is not in my chain of command militarily anymore, but when he was in japan recently, he said a few words about this city and san francisco, and he said that the streets were so clean in tokyo, and homeless, and he said it is disgust org whatever he said about my city and san francisco, and he said that he might have to do something about it. He said that problem started two years ago. In my response and i know that we are supposed to punch them back, but i said any day that the commander in chief is talking about homelessness, that is a good day, and if he is willing to go to skid row and walk that walk and maybe not spend tonight or have us come to the white house with a coalition of the independent and democratic and republican groups, and he really wants to save lives, we will call his bluff and say that we can save lives together. I said that the problem did not start two years ago when he was president or six years ago when i was mayor. This is the legacy of too many decades of legacy of negligent, but this needs to be a part of stop to it. And we need federal help with that legacy. I would like to have my last few minutes i can say that i am pleased about your support of my legislation. We developed this legislation understanding that 13 billion would raise some eyebrow, but if we are to end homelessness, we have to put the resources to apply to the problem. And so, i wanted to ask you a little bit about the budget, and in addition to the federal money that you received from washington, d. C. , and the grants that we give to all of the states and cities, there was an initiative that was passed and i believe it was hhh. Correct. Where you received the additional resources, and i know that you have put the resources to work. I am interested in one aspect of that right now and that is the transitional housing. Yes. Which i think is extremely exciting and you showed us an example of it on the screen. And i wanted to know how many have you developed . How many are you going to develop . Is that is going to include South Central<\/a> or South Los Angeles<\/a> . Absolutely it will, and including in your district, congresswoman. So it is interesting that you talk about the 13 billion which should not raise eyebrows and it is a sad commentary when 13 billion going the raise eyebrows and the city through hhh and h, have raised 4. 5 billion in housing money and services money, and we are 3 of the nations population. If you do the math, we should have 120 billion just to match what we have raised locally. So your ambition is not only impressive, but it should be looked at as a start, because if you are matching just what l. A. Has done, the federal government would put in 120 billion. Not every city has homelessness population of ours, so maybe, 40 or 50. And so the hhh is the largest measure to be passed in the house by the voters and it is leveraging 5 billion of housing from people looking at shipping containers and innovative ways to do it cheaper and faster to new apartments for the folks who have the deepest need and the triple diagnosis that i have mentioned before and need services for the rest of their lives. We have 110 permanent sites for housing, and we have 25 transitional housing shelters to open up in the next 12 months and four are open. In South Los Angeles<\/a>, and i would say that we have a preponderance of those including the former Animal Services<\/a> yard next to where we had a unused kind of dog park. It is going to be opening n g i a month, a month and a half, and we had a group of engineers and architects and builders who can get up in a war room and get nup 60 days span tents for people to have a cubables, iclcubicles, a bring their pets and partners, and so even though this should pass is to double the number to 50. That would give us at that point somewhere around 3,000 to 4,000 beds which would turn over every say six months and every year 9,000 to 10,000 people being served and in a few years, we could not only make a dent in the homelessness, but a chance of ending street homelessness in l. A. Thank you very much. I was interviewed on ktlh the other day and Dominika Dupre<\/a> had an idea and i told her that i would share it with you. Great. And she thinks that you should buy up some of the motels that are problematic in the community and convert those into housing, and she didnt identify whether this is tran dissisitio the permanent housing, but i thought that it was a good idea especially if the motels are presenting with us a problem that is causing you to have to use the resources to respond to complaints and violence or any of that. Is that something that you have thought about or you could do or what would you tell dominika . Well, she is one of the smartest people i know and all of her ideas are good. We are moving on the motels. We need a little bit of the state help to change the residency that there is a maximum of 29 days to take the existing motels today and do the leases on them while we are looking for the money to buy the motels. Now we have to get the owners to do that and where we have had problematic ones, there are far and few to be seized and however, we have had other folks from the Salvation Army<\/a> and other folks to do that and unfortunately the money fell through for the developer, and we will not be deterred. Those hotels are a twofor, getting rid of blight and providing housing. So we will see some in south l. A. And elsewhere to come on line. Well, you have a friend in governor newsome who is doing everything to be of help. Yes. And with that, i will recognize representative sherman for five minutes for questions. Representative. Mayor, thank you for being here, and thank you for your dedication to this problem. We pass a lot of laws in congress, and repeal some, but we cant repeal supply and demand. We especially need more rental dwrun units, and it is best to get the construction of the affordable units, because even luxury, somebody is moving in that would otherwise in a nonluxury unit. And so i wanted to focus on the system of financing government, and the government needs money, but it is important how you raise the money. If you wanted to build an auto dealership, i have a dozen cities who will give you free land and the mayor will come in to help you not just cut the ribbon, but help you build. Yep. And so, on the other hand, if you want to build housing, you pay an impact fee. And you may have seen the headline in the los angeles times, and one reason that housing is so expensive in california is that the cities and the counties charge a high developer fees. So, what do we do to finance the ability of government to pay, the state income tax being a good way to measure that. Yep. And instead, we finance based on whether you are building something that the government has to provide police and Fire Protection<\/a> for. Well, as somebody who led and the tax policy of the board of equalization, and it is a great question for me, representative. A couple of things. Between the impact fees and i do believe and we have passed after 40 years that tom bradley passed a linkage fee, and if you are building luxury housing and just like parks and other things that you have to puts a side for Affordable Housing<\/a>, and raising 100 million of subsidized housing out of the boom that we are having, but you are right, you cant put everything on the developers, but between nothing done on them, and fees and that there is something in between that cities dont use which is the power of zoning. It does not cost you anything, but it can produce more housing and ask for anything to change. So at a minimum, i would ask you as a state matter to try to get the sales tax that is generated by the building yes, of course. The Building Materials<\/a> allocated to the city where the building takes place rather than where the amen. The warehouse for where the Building Supplies<\/a> are located. So i wanted to point out that we are focused and the homelessness, and there is general agreement that the rents are too damn high and not just for the homeless, but the homeless is the tip of the iceberg, and that is the tip of that iceberg, but for every homeless person, there are so many who could be evicted tomorrow and maybe they wont be evicted, but they are using the stomach lining today because they could be evict and people cutting back on the medicine, and others going to payday lenders, and so there are others who are wanting to focus on the Affordable Housing<\/a>. And so tomorrow, you and i will be in chatsworth where there is the old l. A. Times plant. Yes. And it is going to be housing, and you had to sweep aside some problems for that to happen, because the land was zoned industrial, and what can we do on the systemic level to make sure that if you want affordable or rentable housing you can do it regardless of the zoning restriction, and i can see that you would not want one unit in amongst a number of factories, but what can be done to say yes for those who want to build the rental house . That is where i was headed without the mayor having to intervene. And it should not provide mayoral leadership, because leadership change, so we are investing in 15 new rail lines and the biggest in any city in history and thanks for the voters on measure m, and al lon the transit lines and one in the northwest San Fernando Valley<\/a> and near csun, and if you are close to the transit stops well, let me point out that you are close to the grade separated rail and only in the San Fernando Valley<\/a> do you call it transit, because you have a bus stop. And we will talk about that more. You and i have, and we will make sure that the valley i am from is not written out of it this time, and we will look forward to equable treatment there. But you can go higher and denser around the transit if you build it on your dime. So it is not a linkage fee, but it is additional opportunity and benefit and half of the housing now in Los Angeles City<\/a> is coming through the one change. Fully half of it. And los angeles is building 75 of all of the housing in l. A. County and we are 40 of the population, and so your point of the neighboring cities and towns, and nobody can afford the say no, and then say, where does homelessness come from the you are not willing to build the housing in your neighborhoods and Affordable Housing<\/a> as well. To the rent piece as well at the state level, i hope that the state legislature will pass and i know that the governor going to sign 1482 which is antirent gouging. Well, we may not get split roll, but it has to be tied to the fees of the rental houses. Absolutely. Thank you very much. I now recognize the gentleman from texas, mr. Green, for five minutes for questions. Thank you, madam chair. I thank the mayor for appearing. Thank you. Mayor, for simply edification purposes, while you may appear to be alone, it is happening in houston. It is in washington, d. C. And the numbers are growing. For various and asundry reasons, and one question for me to take to my constituents and the persons who are interested in this in an acute way would be what can we do to prevent, and we are not where you are, but we are headed in your direction, and what should we do now to prevent, take preventive measures . Three things, and thank you for that question. Restore at least to previous levels the housing funding from the federal government, and pass this measure that the chairwoman waters put forward and second, put up assistance for the eviction, and Legal Assistance<\/a> and fund it. We are doing it out of dollars that we dont v. And you spoke about being a legal aid lawyer, and so, we are giving Legal Assistance<\/a> to folks threatened with eviction and often facing the language barriers and the poverty barriers and other thing, and three, a Mental Health<\/a> system that is not stage four intervention. If you want to understand the folks on the street, and not the people in the cars or the shelters who are equally struggling and become those folks on the street, but with the deep Mental Health<\/a> need, and we wait for stage four. If we came into the emergency room with a deep Substance Abuse<\/a> into the emergency room, maybe none of would be seen. But if we come with broken legs, we will be treated in america and so it is reprehensible that we wait for stage four for people to intervene. People are dying in this city. When i walked the river, 9 of 10 people that i spoke to, you could just see they have Mental Health<\/a> problems not treated. If you expect it to be cleaned up by the Police Officers<\/a> or the sanitation workers, so it is not going to happen. It has to be at the same time we put the housing in. And i did not finish with the president , but in japan, with where he said that homelessness does not exist, it did. Homeless seniors were on the streets and they were treated terribly in japan, and shuttled away, and the japanese government put Forward Housing<\/a> assistance and Income Assistance<\/a> and there are not Homeless People<\/a> on the streets of japan anymore. And this is about putting the resources in place and Mental Health<\/a> on the income and treating them earlier. Thank you ver, mayor. Additional question. I dont want you to just put yourself at risk by answering this question, but if you had the resources, and you have mentioned the resources, what are we talk about . And over what period of time if you had the necessary resources, how much and then over what period of time before you would give us what results . Look, in four years, and i remind people that those of us who are veterans are not different from the nonveterans and we are as diverse as the nonveteran population, and in four years we could reduce 80 of the veteran population, and all of the complexity shows that if we had the resources, you could make a dent in five years and end street homelessness in ten. But do people have the will . Back to the Marshall Plan<\/a>, do we build something to never let it happen again, and so when we see the day in los angeles and houston and other places that have a homeless issue, we catch them early, and the Mental Health<\/a> indicators and people released from prison, and there is a great federal change, but is there a plan for these people . And i say it is seriousness, because here in california, those who supported the criminal justice reform, we saw them come out of the jails and nobody was there to meet and greet them and train them norfor a job. So if they were in prison for a gram of something too much, they have never had the problem dealt with for the three years they were in jail, and now they are dealing with it again, and sleeping on the street and breaking into cars to feed that habit. So we can do better and put it in place, but a decade is what we are talking about. Finally, this is probably at a different level for us to take up perhaps at a later time, but we have a circumstance wherein 60 hold the wealth. And the top 20 , hold 90 of the wealth, and i am marveling at how we are conditioned to believe that this is normal, and this is the way it should be. That people at the very top should have enough wealth such that they alone could fund solutions. Mayor, i will not ask you if get into distribution of wealth. I am always happy to do that. And with the top 20 holding 90 of the wealth, is this a factor in this homelessness problem and many others as well, but in the homelessness problem . Unquestionably. This is the biggest income gap and wealth gap that we have had since the great depression. I say that as often as i can, because this second gilded age feels like a lot of fun if you are doing well, and never a bet time to be in the cities in terms of the culture and the museums and the food and everything else, but even the successful cities have a deep underclass, and also, the other cities are left behind, and that is not what this country is, and it is not who we are. When people are scared about redistribution, i always say, forget about what is being taken away, but what is the cost to you to drive through your own city and to see People Living<\/a> on the sidewalks and in tents . What is the cost to you when you tell me, your mayor to clean it up . 50,000 a person at a time, and we wont do something to control the rents or give somebody assistance for six months to make that rent. That is what is perversely wrong in the moment, but i appreciate your voice, and the voice of the members to make sure that we dont forget that there are structural reasons in los angeles and across this nation. Thank you, madam chair. Thank you. I now represent the gentle lady from texas, ms. Garcia. Thank you, madam chair and mr. Mayor and your presence here today is a strong indicator of your concerns and the sentiments on this issue. I wanted to focus on something that several of the other speakers talked about, but no question really has come up that really directly addresses it. I have had concerns in my own city about the criminalization of homelessness. In addition to being from the same city and in both being lawyer, my colleague and i here at the table both are former judges. In lower jurisdiction courts, and you know, he saw a lot of the landlord tenant case, and i saw lot of what i call, you know, the tickets that are criminalizing behavior that need to be addressed with proper treatment and care. When i am looking at what some cities have done in having the ordinances of being against sleeping in the cars or taking their property with them, and i could go on and on, but i dont see where that gets us. Quite frankly, i dont like hardly any of these at all. I dont think it solves anything, because you are creating more work and incarcerating them for a while and back to the same situation. I was raised catholic and told very early on in my growing ages, that we are all gods children. I was always taught to follow the golden rule, do unto others as you would have them do unto you, and i ask the question candidly, and i hope that you dont take offense. Sure. But if you lost your house a became homeless, would this be the way you would want to be treated to get a ticket because youre sleeping in a car . Or not be able to just have your own space somewhere that you can call your own . No. Of course not. Thank you representative garcia. Welcome to la. Theres a double heartbreak going on. Theres a double heartbreak thats going on right now. One is the number of people please refrain from interfering with the testimony. The double heartbreak is one, seeing so many people of our brothers and sisters in cars and shelters. The second im sorry, could you get theres a double heartbreak thats going on in Many American<\/a> cities and i think los angeles is one. First and foremost its the sheer number of people that are now living on the streets, in cars and in shelters. But second is also but how does giving them a ticket im going to get to that. I hear you loud and clear. The second one is the death of public space in many communities. Every time somebody comes off a off ramp or is on the sidewalk. I do agree with you. We are looking at an amnesty of all those low offenses that have been built up through past administrations and past years of those infractions here in los angeles. If you give them amnesty, that means they still stay on the books. And to expunge. You would actually repeal all the ordinances . Correct. Thats what id like to see be done. Excuse me, mayor, but when would that we done . Our City Attorney<\/a> is an independently elected individual. So were working with the City Attorney<\/a>s office. But to me, it cant happen soon enough. On our police chief has announced that as well. It has the backing of our police department, which i think with the largest city in america to have said that and done that. Were ready to go as soon as our City Attorney<\/a> and the court system is ready to go, too. Right. Youre in the city that had the ordinance also on taking property i guess somebody decided people dont need to have with them. Property was taken, do yall keep track of that and yes. What time . Wed invite you to the Storage Centers<\/a> we have and the need we have for many more. Downtown we have the largest Storage Center<\/a> in america. They get a ticket. Thats their property. We keep it for them. They dont have to worry about it getting stolen on the street. They can take it out any time of day or night. Theyre able to go and have that and know its safe and secure. We cannot begin to do that the courts have agreed with us. You cant take peoples property. You can never take their critical property do you process i might note behind you theres a couple of people that are shaking their heads that thats not true. Theyre right. I would not say there have not been mistakes in the past or everybody is perfect even today when you talk about the tens of thousands of interactions that happen. My goal is to bring that as close to zero as possible. A lot of communities, just like they say no to shelters, say no to even Storage Centers<\/a>. The difficulty of finding the sheer number of places to do that and the expense to do it when theres no funding for this and you have to figure out a way to fund it, theyre very expensive to run. In the millions of dollars as year just to do the storage. Ideally you have the storage where people are. The new model of where were having shelters in the communities where peoples are homeless. Bring your pets and your property and your partners. Its the second piece that are critical. People arent going to come off the street if they cant bring their stuff. We have to say there isnt an unlimited amount of space ever. That when we have homelessness workers complaining they cant go to and from work because the single individuals belongings are as wide as they entire table, we have to be able to make that a services led, not Law Enforcement<\/a> interaction to reduce the amount of space somebody has so folks can get to and from the services they need to have so people dont become cocooned. One last thing, for serious crimes, if you want to get deep into this, for the encampments that happen, there are people that prey on the folks that are there who are the serious drug dealers, folk whose are raping people in tents and peoples unhoused status should not shield you from accountability for serious crimes. So we cant go so far also that we back off completely of any Police Presence<\/a> to protect the very same people who are themselves going through the deepest of trauma. Im not talking about any serious crimes. Im talking about the things that a lot of cities are doing to target the homeless to get them off the street and thought be seen, especially in downtown areas. Ive seen that in my own city. My concern was when i read the memo that the Committee Gave<\/a> us, was seen that in this city at an increased by 31 since 2011. Thats really significant. That number is because for the first time we tracked those. Its not comparing apples to apples. Its the first time we counted them. The first years we barely counted. I wanted to know code every single time. Theres something thats happening to or by someone who is experiencing homelessness so we can have the numbers. But its not gun one up. Any Services Provided<\/a> while theyre in jail to kind of help them transition . In my opinion, no. The cities dont we do have a small lockup facilities. The jails are the county and state,th absolutely not enough. If we want to solve homelessness, i think a big part of that small sliver of criminal activity thats happening on people who are unhoused, is happening because people are coming out of the jails and prisons without a plan. The savings we were promised by the criminal justice reforms that would go to local government and instead of putting folks in a prison system, we dont see. One final question. If we could put a package together or to add to address this specific issue to again, i fail to see why cities even do it t. But to help you to make sure that you didnt have to criminalize homelessness, what would that one thing be other than funding . We need storage for sure. I dont know other than funding there is anything the federal government has the power to do or we want. We need money to be able to create the systems where people can store their goods. Training for Law Enforcement<\/a> officials and city officials who do this. We think we have now some of the best practice. Weve been meet ing with advocate and have a different regime. It used to be led by six or seven Police Officers<\/a> and sanitation officers. It was traumatic for people on the streets. Now its led by people who have lived experience, Mental Health<\/a> experience and people who are given trash bags. We Just Launched<\/a> 20 people who are experiencing homelessness with jobs to clean up around the areas where theyre housed. To empower them with job experience, income. They want to clean up. They say give us the trash bags. Let us have the training. Those sorts of things help, but y i dont know if it doesnt come without money. Thank you. I yield back. Thank you, madam chair. Thank you, very much. Id like to thank ythe mayor fo his valuable time and all of our witnesses from todays hearing for their testimony today. All members will have five legislative days within which to submit additional written questions for the witnesses to the chair, which will be forwarded today the witnesses for their response. I ask our witnesses to please respond as promptly as youre able. All members will have five legislative days within which to submit extraneous materials to the chair for inclusion in the record. And before adjourning, id like to recognize from what century Latino Organization<\/a> the executive director. Thank you for being here. Also reverend pope. Hes one of the leaders in the watts ministers. Give him a big round of applause. And, of course, last but not least, someone that we all know as an advocate on everything, big money grip is here. This hearing is adjourned. Later today the irish ambassador to the u. S. Talked about brexit. From the Johns Hopkins<\/a> school of advanced International Studies<\/a> in washington live at 3 40 p. M. Eastern over on cspan 2. Online at cspan. Org or listen live on the free cspan radio app. Weeknight this week were featuring American History<\/a> tv programs as a preview of whats available every weekend on cspan 3. Tonight well so you a university of Pennsylvania Class<\/a> on 18th Century Power<\/a> struggles among native american, colonial settlers and european empires. Its part of a seminar for high school teachers. That begins at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan 3. Were show casing whats available every weekend on cspan 2. Tonight the theme is science and technology with authors gary marcus, Thomas Malone<\/a> and kelly harding. Watch that tonight beginning at 8 00 on cspan 2. Thinking about participating in cspans student cam 2020 competition but youve never made a documentary film before . No problem. We have resources on our website to help you get started. Check out our Getting Started<\/a> and downloads pages on studentcam. Org for producing information and video links to footage in the cspan library. Teachers will also find resources on the teachers materials page. To help you introduce student cam to your students. My advice to anyone who wants to compete this year is to find a topic youre truly passionate about and pursue it as much as you can. Were asking middle and High School Students<\/a> to create a Short Documentary<\/a> on the issue youd like the president ial candidates to address during the 2020 campaign. Cspan will award 100,000 in total cash prizes, plus a 5,000 grand prize. Get camera, a microphone and go Start Building<\/a> and produce the best video you can possibly produce. Visit studentcam. Org for more information today. 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