Homeless

The Community Redevelopment Agency’s claim that there are no more than 1,000 people sleeping on the streets of Skid Row is absurd on the face of it. One could easily count 1,000 homeless people simply by driving the downtown streets, assuming one were up to such a depressing project.

The CRA estimate becomes even more nonsensical when you remember that four homeless people died in the recent cold snap. For four people to die out of a homeless population of tens of thousands is a misfortune. For four out of 1,000 to die would be a calamity, equivalent to 50,000 Angelenos going to sleep and not waking up in the morning.

What is appalling is that the CRA “study” came not from some crackpot, but from a city agency funded by taxpayer dollars. The exhortation “throw the bums out” seems peculiarly appropriate in this case.

OTIS MAXWELL

Los Angeles