ABSTRACT
In addition to the physical shelter, this chapter proposes an implementing vehicle—a Special Purpose Organization that will develop and manage emergency housing throughout the county. The Special Purpose Organization will be a business designed to circumvent the costly and ineffective bureaucracy that is now struggling with the crisis of homelessness. Decentralized processing of homeless people through direct contracts with the shelter on a beds-filled basis. In all of Los Angeles County there are 217 publicly funded shelter beds. A subset of the homeless population is severely mentally ill, put out of State mental hospitals because of budget cuts and given no recourse but the streets. Eventually the corporation must explore creative options for developing and building truly low-cost housing and thereby addressing the root cause of homelessness. The most common strategy for housing the homeless is the conversion of existing, usually commercial or industrial, buildings to dormatory-type facilities with basic shower and dining facilities.
