Friday, February 09, 2007

Homeless Dumping in LA


The Associated Press and MSNBC have reported that the Metropolitan Medical Center in LA has been seen dropping patients off to homeless shelters in poor neighorhoods against their will. This reminds me of the early days of Breakthrough when we used to see white vans from state funded mental hospitals pull up in Uptown and drop people off in front of the churches that host shelters. The present trend of defunding emergency housing will only escalate the problem. Thankfully, God's people are stepping up to provide care for these precious ones.

1 comment:

Erika Haub said...

The stories here are indeed dreadful. We have a mentally ill gentleman that lives on our street and he frequently has encounters with law enforcement (the local gang uses him as a watchdog or courier). The police will sometimes drive him to the other side of town (which, in L.A. is some serious distance) and just drop him off on the street somewhere in someone else's hood. They have also taken him to skid row and dropped him off there as well. In a city so strapped for services, and with such a seeming lack of moral outrage (though that has been changing after the Times did their big expose), the suffering is vast and tragic.