Thread by @meghanncuniff

Ok I’m here at the Downtown Women’s Center on Skid Row for the 10 am hearing with Judge Carter. It looks like we’ll be in this tent. Tight limits on attendance, apparently. I’ll tweet updates on this thread right here. 🧵

We’ve got a couple federal marshals here making their presence known, but everything is very calm right now. The gate to the lot is closed and Judge Carter and special master @Michele714 are getting ready.

Judge Carter visiting with several people including @abales, plaintiff’s attorney Elizabeth Mitchell and @HughHewitt, who goes so far back with Carter he remembers being thrown out of his courtroom 25 years ago.

Just claimed my seat in the tent. I count 21 chairs spaced at least six feet apart, with a little bottle of hand sanitizer on each seat. Orange County Department of Education (@OCDeptofEd) enjoying heightened relevancy today in Los Angeles.

The calm has dissipated into a bit of a frenzy as @Michele714 (seriously none of this stuff could happen w/o Michele) regulates tent population. Only two press allowed! But anyone standing outside the tent can still hear everything. We’re about to start as Carter takes the mic.

Carter says anyone not complying with social distancing orders will be escorted to the gate by US marshals.

Carter says today’s hearing as “little to do” with the June settlement regarding 6,700 beds by April. “This agreement has now prompted much larger questions” He hopes in April the court will be receiving “very good news.”

The much larger question looming regarding the disproportionate number of racial minorities who are homeless, and the vulnerability of homeless women “who are subject to abuse and rape and violence," Carter says.

The mic was cutting out and screeching, but @Michele714 just fixed everything, of course.

Carter touches on his order for briefing and his desire to explore the court’s “structural equitable remedy power.” What can he do if politicians fail to act and use their powers to address the homeless crisis?

Carter is calling on @goskidrowgo to speak now, along with other members of the Skid Row Advisory Council. General Jeff just welcomed us all to Skid Row and described himself as a proud resident.

Jeff said for some this a joyous Occassion, just to have this kind of court hearing in Skid Row. He thanks @kdeleon, Judge Carter for acting quickly and hearing the cries of people on Skid Row.

There are women 20 feet from Jeff right now who need help, he says. Majority of Skid Row population is Black women, and there's an irony to the fact that so many are outside the Women's Center, Jeff says.

General Jeff criticizes @MayorOfLA @ericgarcetti. "It's very unfortunate that we have a lame duck mayor that's not even here to talk to the people and be a part of these proceedings. We are highly disappointed, and we can go on and on."

General Jeff calls for the disbanding of @LAHomeless. He says he doesn't see unified action throughout the city, but he does the coroner's trucks that pull into the neighborhood. "The solutions need to spread out."

Carter welcomes @kdeleon, whose district includes Skid Row. Music is playing outside the tent somewhere, which Carter acknowledges and says he may need more of in court. "By the way, the court appreciates for the record the music," the judge says.

LA Councilman and possible mayoral hopeful Kevin DeLeon begins by citing his work six days ago with Carter, here on Skid Row. "There are no neighborhoods" or residents who know the homeless crisis better than District 14, DeLeon says. Skid Row is Ground Zero.

.@kdeleon says his district "has more unhoused individuals than Phoenix, Houston and Chicago, the number 5, 4 and 3 most populous cities in America."

DeLeon references "an incident last Friday" (which ended with Carter and him putting a few homeless women up in hotel rooms) but doesn't give the dirty details. But he says that incident transcends Skid Row and highlights the bigger problem.

DeLeon says ending Los Angeles' homeless crisis involves rapid rehousing, and rapid rehousing requires property and land. "We need value for volume and we need it now. Not a decade down the road," @kdeleon says.

DeLeon: Families are living on the streets, and LA's institutions have normalized this. "People are dying every single day." A lot of artful rehashing of the crisis that brought us all here.

DeLeon says he's doesn't "believe that a consent decree is necessary. Yet." "We need a North Star to provide a direction and a path forward."

One thing to keep in mind is that while a lot of people act like a consent decree or settlement will rid LA of any and all conflict regarding homelessness, that hasn't been the case in Orange County. Read my Times OC story about what's happening there: latimes.com/socal/daily-pi…

Carter, talking to @kdeleon, is discussing pushback he's heard from prominent LA people over shelter locations. He cites Brown v. Plata again, where the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed a trial judge's bold order that California reduce its prison population. This is a key, key case.

Carter asks - if he sees an "inability to muster that kind of difficult decision-making" and a willingness "to allow any kind of special interest or people of, say, more privilege" obstruct efforts, what should the court's response be to that?

.@kdeleon is saying something about "micro projects" and their relation to "macro" and global projects. 🤔 Regarding court power, "Obviously you have those cards, and you will use them" as you see fit, he tells Carter.

Carter: Is there a recognition that women are particularly vulnerable, and is there a plan to address that inequality? Carter says he consistently hears on the streets that "those with access and power have a greater voice" in government than the impoverished.

.@HildaSolis on the mic now. "We're at a very historic moment in our time and to be here right now today at the Downtown Women's Center, I think, is provocative. It's a provocative conversation that we have to have, not just today" but every single day.

In the last minute or so Supervisor Solis has said the word 'provocative' at least three more times. The Women's Center does provocative work. But still, a lot of women are overlooked, Solis says.

"We can't just look at going through the bureaucracy" You find councilmembers you can work with, and you come up with concepts and ideas. "I think that's where we have to go today," Solis says. (I'm just spitballing here, but I think Carter wants action, not concepts and ideas.)

Notable that this is the view to my right as I sit in this hearing. Unhoused people living in tents not even 10 feet from us right now.

Solis has a lot to say about current efforts. Affordable housing, housing for the formerly incarcerated are all important. She looks forward to partnerships with the court. "The treatment part is so how can I say provocative?"

Solis: "I think LA can be a bigger petri dish and really provide the kind of substance and credibility to really show we can do things here." #petridish @HildaSolis

"Care first. Jail last. That's our motto," Solis says. She says she has a lot more to say but also is wiling to wrap it up. Oh here's the buried lede: She thinks we don't need a consent decree right now.

One thing all this underscores is that the city attorneys don't brief Garcetti and the councilmembers very well about any of this stuff. Carter's briefing is NOT about consent decrees. The consent decrees in the OC case came through negotiation and settlement.

Carter's briefing is about what he should do if the city and the LA Alliance plaintiff can't reach an agreement and no consent decree forms. What does Carter do then?

Carter asks how many homeless people have died on Skid Row? Does city track that? Doesn't sound like it. Now he's back to the Friday incident with the tents. "All of that good faith I have in local government has to be measured against" past broken promises and actions.

Uh oh Carter just called on Mayor Garcetti! Who of course is not here. He goes to the mayor's staff, and two guys walk into the tent.

Judge Carter just hilariously acknowledged all this micro and macro government gobbledygook talk. "Everything the court is doing on a micro basis, this is leading to macro action."

Carter just threatened the marshals on anyone who photographs the photos he's showing of distressed homeless women on Skid Row. "The first camera I see, I own it, and I crush it."

.@Michele714 is going through the pictures, which are blown up on posterboard and from the rainstorm last Friday. "7:30 in the morning. Thank God they've got raincoats."

"It's a vibrant wonderful community with a heart." Carter mentions three women in their 70s who Michele named her grandmas. They were so thrilled to get rooms.

Carter is asking Garcetti's guys if there are more people experiencing homelessness on Skid Row now then before. And he's not getting good answers. He's repeating the questions, which were issued yesterday in an official court order.

This is kind of painful to watch as Carter goes over every question (he probably already knows the answers here, of course) and Garcetti's guy gives this quick short scared answers based on reports or no answers at all.

"I don't have that data in front of me, sir." That's a common quote right now.

Carter asks about the tents last Friday. Have those provided relief? "I would have to follow with providers, but I would imagine so," Garcetti's guy says. Can more be erected?

Garcetti's guy says we need to be mindful of how things are done so they can be longterm and not just for a weekend. He also says Garcetti announced last night the authorization of more rooms through Project Roomkey.

Garcetti's guy says 70 to 80 percent of homeless population is Black or Latino, and says he personally has experienced homelessness as a Latino man.

Carter asks of any active plan on city's part to remedy this inequity? Garcetti's guy mentions interventionists and new Roomkey rooms. Carter says include that in 16th briefing. "Is there a plan the court can look at and see" regarding the inequity of women on the streets

"I would strongly suggest to you that today is not a sound byte day," Carter tells Garcetti's guys, one of whom is Deputy Chief of Staff Matt Szabo.

Now @CityAttorneyLA is up. Says we can all agree as long as people are unhoused, we need to act with urgency. "I'm merely here to be a conduit for that information that the court very wants to get."

But driving over here, @CityAttorneyLA Mike Feuer says he decided to speak personally. He's now talking about a personal interaction he had with an unhoused woman in his neighborhood.

“Her name is Ann, she told me she was born and raised in Nigeria,” Feuer says. She was a licensed attorney in Texas but ended up in LA after an abusive relationship. He said Ann told him, “If your help is sending me to Skid Row, that’s not help.”

Feuer said he realized there was no place for miles around his neighborhood where the woman could go. “To condense many conversations into one, I said I wanted to help her,” Feuer said.

He got Ann an appointment with a caseworker who helped get her a place to live. Ann later emailed Feuer to say she was reactivating her Texas law license. “She wanted to be a lawyer again,” Feuer said. She's still working on passing the California bar, Feuer says.

All of this seriously leads to Feuer just pointblank telling Judge Carter the court has no business running the city’s homeless services.
“My own view is that elected officials should own that responsibility." That was quite a lead-in for that pushback!

Feuer says elected officials are elected to deal with problems like homelessness, and he pushes back against idea of a court mandate. He'll be filing brief that lays this all out, of course.

Feuer introduced Meg Barclay, the city's homeless coordinator. She's still got the floor. Carter asks if she heard @GoSkidRowGo's comments about services not getting to the streets. Asks if she's willing to get out on the streets and see this herself, and Barclay says yes.

"This isn't going to be a sound byte day," Carter says. (Uh, too late?) Carter says he's interested in "this horrific start" we've gotten this year, regarding unhoused deaths and services.

Now @MikeBoninLA is up. He just said something about the "micro of Skid Row" and the macro of the city. (People, stop this micro macro talk! It's not helping, I promise.)

Bonin says the real measure of success if how many unhoused have moved into housing and how quickly. He also wants to look at how the city consults with unhoused people about stuff like this that affects them so directly.

Contradicting @CityAttorneyLA, Bonin says it "is urgently important for the court to assume the maximum role that it can. I would encourage the court to" take a much larger role, Bonin says. He references his piece yesterday calling for a consent decree.

Current system "is just fundamentally not designed to meet the level of crisis that we're in," Bonin says. He says action is happening, but it too often feels like an exception to the system instead of a product of it.

"Nobody can force within government that level of cooperation," Bonin says. Mayor can't force the council to do anything and vice versa. Carter just called Garcetti's guys back into the tent.

Bonin says "there really are no bad actors or really very few bad actors in this situation." Here comes Bonin's defense of @lahomeless.

"The problem is there's no one choir director...not everyone's singing the same song or even the same language," Bonin says, and they're not even told to show up to practice at the same time. @MikeBoninLA

Bonin says we can't fault @LAHomeless etc for not providing services when politicians haven't allowed for the services as needed. But he also says if LA doesn't get a consent decree, we're going to end up in a receivership with Carter anyway.

Keep in mind all this consent decree talk isn't just a unilateral thing Carter will do (that's the receivership). There is a very active plaintiff, and any settlement is negotiated with them. And I don't think simply saying "I want a consent decree" is going to do it for them.

Bonin says a consent decree is a way to preserve some control but also acknowledge the city needs help. Says city shouldn't view a decree as a failure at all. Acknowledging need for help is a right step in leadership, Bonin says.

Meg Barclay is back on the mic. She broke away for a few, apparently to contact a fire official about stats Carter is seeking. Now she's back discussing ongoing housing efforts etc.

Next up is Pete White, founder of @LACANetwork. unequalcities.org/pete-white/ White says it's important for people to understand "what birthed" Skid Row. He said he was struck by Carter's reference to Brown v. Board of Education.

"Skid Row is a place grown out of redlining," White says. Industrialization. The war on Black people. The rise of the prison industrial complex, NAFTA, political decisions. "Race is a powerful determinate of who is literally on the streets and who is inside," Pete White says.

This is stirring stuff. Pete is a great speaker and he's really going passionately right now. I can hear a few whoops of support from the back.

Pete White: "Throughout the entire conversation, no Black women have been present." Says they need a place here. Pete turns to a woman who's joining him via phone. I didn't get her full name but I think it's Monique. (If anyone knows please @ me.)

It's a little hard to hear her, but I did hear her ask everyone to please stop congratulating themselves. (Maybe that can be a standing invitation at all these things? Please?)

A pastor now has the mic. Sorry to say I didn't get his name, but he's a pastor around Skid Row. He said they declared an emergency here several years ago. "It's been a state of emergency to us for a long time."

Pastor gives example of broad inequality. "If you can get lettuce from farmworkers, how come you can't get the vaccine and prioritize farmworkers? Is it because they're brown?"

The pastor says all the talk about shelters is troubling. "I get triggered, because a shelter is a downgrade from a housing project."

"To whom much is given much is expected...Where is the money? Where are the resources? We need the court to step in and take action?" the pastor says.

The woman who spoke through Pete White's phone is Monique Noel, just FYI. Next up is Elizabeth Mitchell, who represents the plaintiff LA Alliance.

Mitchell appreciates what she's heard, but "for 11 months we have been hearing platitude and eloquent speeches" with not enough action. spertuslaw.com/our-attorneys/…

Key point in Mitchell's comments --- everyone says LA needs more resources, but part of this lawsuit is about how LA has wasted the resources it does have. Taxpayers have dolled out billions to fix the homelessness crisis.

Music has been playing all around us throughout this hearing, but right now it's the loudest it's been, I think. I'm driving myself nuts trying to place this song. One of those 90s jams.

(It was Pony by Ginuwine, thanks @libdenk!)

.@Michele714 is asking Barclay about what money was used for temporary and emergency shelter and what was reallocated for long-term housing. Mitchell says how they used the money is not in accordance with what the public was told.

Hilariously (or sadly), one of Garcetti's guy started to duck out of tent right when this discussion started, and Judge Carter called him back in because maybe he might want to hear this?

Mitchell is discussing the outrageous cost of LA's housing projects for the unhoused, and says if the issue is resources, let's do additional briefing on how much money is left, and the city's ability to cancel other endeavors to free up money for shelters.

Mitchell reminds us that Measure H specifically allotted money for mental health outreach, substance abuse and basically everything everyone on the streets says just isn't there. Again asks for further briefing about specific allotments, amounts and direction.

Judge Carter approves the briefing order, says it's "very well taken." Now @shaylamyers is up. She's a lawyer with Legal Aid Foundation of LA, and she represents @LACANetwork in this lawsuit.

Shayla says rarely does she agree with the plaintiff attorneys here, but she does agree with Mitchell that a more holistic approach is needed. But she strongly disagrees on what that approach should be.

Shayla says the shelter system the city has built has contributed to racial inequality, and we can't pretend we're going to address any of this if the city continues to push emergency services that give unhoused people no real path forward.

"We cannot create emergency shelter beds that we purport to be the solution...That is creating separate systems with no path forward" for the tens of thousands people of color who are unhoused in Los Angeles."

In an obvious reply to Judge Carter and Mitchell's discussions on emergency shelters, Shayla says it would be "devastating to end today by focusing on emergency shelters." Warehousing is not the answer!

Sure, congregate shelters might solve the problems the plaintiff LA Alliance wants solved, such as visibility of unhoused, Shayla says. But it won't help longterm the people who need it, and it won't keep them off the streets long term.

Shayla says unhoused people didn't die from a rainstorm. "They died because of decades of disengagement" and inequality and systemic racism. Shayla ends with big cheers from the back.

Next up is Heidi Marston of @LAHomeless. She said she knows of a lot of available hotel units that could be used if we can just bring everyone together and make it happen. Says she wants swift action and knows this has gone on too long.

Judge Carter: @MayorOfLA has emergency powers, and a choice on whether to use them. This is again getting into the heart of his briefing order.

Carter references Judge Johnson's work in Alabama, and says he's wondering if we've reached a place in the LA homelessness crisis that warrants far-reaching action on his part. He's going over the briefing order now. Again.

Carter says he gets the impression LAHSA has the will but not the power to get things done. Maybe you should have a lot more power, Carter says, "or maybe you just shouldn't exist." Cheers from the back for that one!

Carter says he's "walking a very difficult road." If he's going to do anything major, he of course wants briefing. And he knows he needs to mull this over closely.

Marston says she doesn't know what the answer is, either, but she's eager to work with Carter and be a resource for him. Carter says there are so many years of ligation and and bad feelings, but if you listen to people, a lot of them are in agreement.

Carter read a couple death stats. "It's gotta stop now." Marston is done, and @abales is up now. We're getting close to the end.

Andy's mic is screeching horribly but Carter assures him "don't worry about that." 😒 Andy puts the mic down and says he's glad we're here, but he wishes we could have used this space last week when he and Carter were trying to get those tents up.

Andy wants drastic action from Judge Carter. "It's time to declare war on homelessness and take immediate urgent FEMA-like action." He said he cried all the way home last Friday because he knew none of the women would be getting out of the rain.

"This is beyond belief. We're living in the Twilight Zone, and none of us are realizing what is going on on our streets. We need you, judge, and we need you to act now," @abales tells Judge Carter.

.@kdeleon introduces Susie Shannon, executive director of Poverty Matters and a health commissioner in Los Angeles. She said what happened Friday with the tent debacle shows "the politics of who gets helps and who doesn't."

Shannon is reading her account of what happened Friday with the tents, because she wants it on the record and wants accountability.

Shannon says the Downtown Women's Center made it clear they weren't happy with the takeover of their parking lot last Friday for the tent endeavor. @kdeleon tried to explain the urgency. They thought lot could hold 60 women, but DWC wanted to limit it to 20.

Shannon compared the DWC's 20 limit to the allotment of lifeboats on the Titanic. As this fight was playing out, DeLeon got word that LAHSA had 120 rooms and would move people in that day. But as it turned out, the rooms weren't available.

After 16 hours of work, they were back to square 1. Judge Carter had promised eight women they'd be in hotel rooms that night, but Shannon says it was clear that wasn't going to happen through LAHSA. So DeLeon and Pastor Don agreed to split the cost of hotels for the women.

Shannon says she helped get the women to the hotel, and the total cost between DeLeon and Pastor Don was about $1,200.

"What happened on Friday is a microcosm" of the problem that permeates the entire system, Shannon said. She supports DeLeon, but "our city is not capable of governing itself" when it comes to homelessness.

Now Carter is asking @LAFD Medical Director Marc Eckstein about death rates among unhoused people, specifically Skid Row. How many died on Skid Row in January? Eckstein says he has yearly data but not monthly data.

Asking about causes, "I see an ever-increasing spiral of death," Carter says. "Uh, yes sir," Eckstein begins. He says cause of death is left to coroner's office.

Eckstein says "more often than not, the cause of death is undetermined." They see a lot of cardiac arrests who are beyond help when paramedics arrive, because no bystanders are helping them. My God, what a depressingly grim point.

Ok we're almost done. Judge Carter just called in Amy Turk, CEO of the Downtown Women's Center, to thank her. Turk has the mic and notes that they've been enjoying this space and parking lot for a good 10 years. (This is obviously responding to the Friday spat.)

Turk says Kevin DeLeon is supporting plans to turn the parking lot into supportive housing units. But regarding the tent spat, "With all due respect Judge Carter, you surprised us last Friday," Turk says.

Turk says she'd never met Judge Carter but read about him in @latimes (@boreskes on the beat!). She was taken aback by the push to use their parking lot, but she says she very much is here to help with the homelessness crisis.

.@kdeleon is the last speaker. More mirco/macro talk? Not yet. DeLeon mentions 94-unit project planned for this lot, which Turk also mentioned. DeLeon just said "granular detail."

DeLeon again says the city needs a "North Star" in its approach to the homelessness crisis. Calls for 25,000 units by 2025. Mentions the 17 housing-related motions he's brought forward since taking office a few months ago.

DeLeon says Heidi Marston of @lahomeless is in a very tough, unenviable position. (Yep, what a burden to have a high-paying government job with amazing benefits and apparently little actual expectations etc.)

Judge Carter: "We're going to conclude this session humbly thanking all of you." He says we're starting down an exploratory road that starts with the briefs due 16th. Now a "Who's streets? Our streets?" chant has broken out behind us.

This is the scene outside the gate.

“Whose streets? Our streets!” (Not who’s.) 😇 😉

Judge Carter making the rounds with Pastor Don and General Jeff (@GoSkidRowGo) and a few photographers.

Someone shouts from the crowd outside the fence “What’s the verdict? Are they guilty?” Carter says they’ll have to talk to @GoSkidRowGo about that! He’s talking with @kdeleon now.

“Housing is a human right!”

A couple photojournalists from @AP and @latimes documenting Judge Carter’s discussion with LA Councilman Kevin DeLeon. “We’re documenting history,” one says.

For the record, the pastor who spoke and is referenced in earlier tweets is the one and only Pastor Cue of the Row Church: therowchurch.com Big thanks to @shaylarmyers for the ID. Shayla describes Pastor Cue as "an incredibly important leader on Skid Row."

Thanks to everyone for following along. I'll be writing more about this for @lamag, so stay tuned. At the risk of sounding schmaltzy, it was an incredibly humbling experience to sit and listen to all this today, and I always learn so much about LA every time. Until next time!