Thread by @StreetWatchLA

If we’re gonna talk about Tiny Homes, we need to talk about Special Enforcement Zones (thread)

Here’s a throwback to last year when Ken Craft, President and CEO of Hope of the Valley, spoke in a public meeting about how the presence of shelters increases policing of unhoused people and why that’s a great thing

Let that sink in. A leader in the LA homeless industry who is responsible for housing people is also pro-enforcement, pro-police, and pro-sweeps.

HiLA has a long history of selling the narrative that unhoused people are responsible for being unhoused. It’s easier for the city to blame the poor for their individual failures than address the fact that our city punishes people who can’t afford to live here.

This is how the city of LA sold their “A Bridge Home” shelters and how the city has historically addressed homelessness, via criminalization and special enforcement. They built shelters with the promise to remove and arrest anyone that refused.

This was a solution to appease homeowners, not actual unhoused people. This only makes the problem worse. We don’t need the City of LA or LAPD to criminalize people in order to house them. This is how you sow distrust and fear in our communities. They. Do. Not. Work.

Stop separating people. Unhoused people are a a part of our communities!!!

Special Enforcement Zones were built for one reason: to remove people by force and to make it appear that the shelters were getting people off the streets. This program was designed with punishment and banishment of the people they claim to help.

Tiny homes are the size of prison cells and look like the back of an ambulance. It’s not a coincidence. Unhoused people deserve what everyone deserves- real housing and stability.

Stop building cages and start housing people. Start asking unhoused people what they need. It’s no different than what we all need.

#HouseKeysNotHandcuffs
#HomesNotZones