Thread by @KtownforAll

Today, City Council will discuss a measure creating a partnership with St. Vincent’s Medical Center to provide services to low-income and unhoused Angelenos. This feels like a great measure and we support expanded services, but we can't ignore the troubling connections behind it.

St. Vincent is owned by LA Times owner, Patrick Soon-Shiong who bought it in 2018. As it went bankrupt in 2020, the LA Times provided significant coverage of the hospital’s closure, including a column by Lopez calling on the City to turn the facility into homeless housing. 2/9

Next up, Steve Lopez. Lopez writes frequently on issues of homelessness in Los Angeles. Too often however, his depictions of homelessness tend towards the sensational and dehumanizes the unhoused. 3/9 la.streetsblog.org/2019/11/23/hom…

Steve Lopez published an article at nearly the same time this council motion went through the Homelessness & Poverty committee, highlighting the same anecdote Mitch O’Farrell used to push the motion: an exploitative story about an unhoused woman with mental health disabilities. 4

It’s also notable that Steve Lopez is a big fan of the “Trieste model” of mental healthcare, particularly as it relates to homelessness. You’ll hear this term frequently in LA homelessness circles and also see it connected to Kerry Morrison, former BID director. 5/9

Morrison is a frequent source for Lopez and took him and many LA politicians to Trieste to learn more. We like that the Trieste model expands mental health services and reduces many barriers to access. However, involuntary commitment and treatment are also part of this model. 6/9

This brings us back to O’Farrell, who represents the area St. Vincent is in and who wrote the above motion. O’Farrell has an extremely poor record on homelessness, including a history of favoring criminalization and an adversarial relationship with unhoused constituents. 7/9

We absolutely want more mental and other healthcare, especially for people experiencing homelessness in LA.
However, we have good reason to be cynical about Mitch O'Farrell's intentions and we are concerned about LA Times' owner, Soon-Shiong's profit motives. 8/9

There are several other homelessness motions on the agenda today. Call in and remind Councilmember O’Farrell that the solution to homelessness is housing and services, not criminalization and forced treatment.
Agenda: ens.lacity.org/clk/councilage…
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