Read on Twitter
I had only been working for LAHSA for 3 mos when I was assigned to supervise CARE teams in CD13 and CD4. The program launched on Oct 1, 2019. I was assured by LAHSA leadership that this program was going to be "outreach led and services focused." [thread]
I was told that LAHSA outreach teams should take up leadership, model positive relationships with clients, teach @LACitySAN staff how to work with unhoused people with compassion. [see training slides we received here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1n2CU__wvKljmPvni1ROifggGOqa9mDGJ/view?usp=sharing]
By November @LACityCouncil had complaints about the program because enforcement of LAMC 56.11 was not producing desired results aka encampments did not disappear. LASAN and LAHSA supervisors and LAPD officers involved in the program were called to a meeting at the UHRC...
In that meeting Jamie Keene presented training slides designed to clarify the roles of CARE team members and the expectations of enforcement of LAMC 56.11. She started by claiming the success of the program by describing the number of pounds of "garbage" aka people's belongings..
tents, makeshifts had been discarded by the teams. To this point I asked if housing placements and service connections were also being recorded as indicators of success. After all, this is a "services focused" program. She did not have an answer.
Instead, we received the following info to establish that LASAN staff have full authority to enforce the law, that compliance with LAMC 56.11 was not voluntary, and that LAPD officers play an integral role in these clean ups. [ https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/16SBMBsc7k5DFWOGGt8IlyVgyYVDXSURw?usp=sharing]
After the meeting I was reprimanded by Jamie Keene for being disrespectful to the police and leading a team of outreach workers that regularly defied the city's orders. Then Associate Director (now acting director) of my department did not counter her reprimand. I asked him...
after that meeting "Who will be responsible legally when the confiscation of living saving belongings like blankets and tents results in the death of one of our clients due to exposure? That seems to me like negligent homicide if you know that an action you are taking could...
result in the death or serious injury of a vulnerable person." He said he hadn't thought about it in those terms before. He did not have an answer to my question. I was clear with him and all leadership at LAHSA from then on that I was morally opposed to our involvement in CARE.
I took it upon myself to create a documentation system for my teams to use so that we could track all items taken by @LACitySAN. I created a proposal for outreach teams to create emergency requests for life saving items to replace those taken by LASAN so that we could at least
reduce the harm of this program. My director praised the documentation system. He supported the essential supply request process. However, my proposals were eventually forgotten and never came to fruition. (I know that some tents are now being distributed by LAHSA but that only..
happened because of the Covid 19 shelter in place order. Not because these items were being taken by the city.) As a supervisor of CARE teams in CD13 and CD including the team that regularly conducted clean ups in the Special Enforcement Zone around the Schrader A Bridge Home...
facility, most hours of my work day were spent repairing the damage done by these clean ups - finding replacements for live saving items, de-escalating retraumatized clients, comforting my team members that called in tears over their participation in a program that was causing...
harm to the people they were supposed to be helping. "How do we keep doing this? Aren't we supposed to be fixing this?" My teams are good hearted, loving folks that come into this work because they care about people. They work hard. They felt they were being asked to ignore their
ethics by participating in a law enforcement project. I share their concerns. The bottom line:
I am not accountable to or afraid of my employer. I do not care about my so-called "career." My commitment is to the people I work alongside, in solidarity.
My duty is to believe the people most harmed by systemic racism and poverty. It is my job to use my skills to bring change as it is named by those most at risk.
The CARE program must end. LAHSA must end its participation in law enforcement strategies that are designed to harm, displace, and further victimize unhoused people. #homesnotzones
