By: Marvin McCoy
At some point in time we all need to have a collective, “Coming to Jesus” moment that those charged with the arduous task of fixing homelessness are exasperating the problem out of financial or political gain and until we as the electorate revolt with passion, purpose and unwavering desire to correct a flagrantly flawed political system, despite its best or worst intentions as designed as some argue always produces the lesser of two evils in which the masses, resigned to a sense of helplessness and void of hope are left to wander about like sheep among wolves, fighting for our own survival and existence.
I don’t know if you or your readers are aware of the dire financial straits of the Skid Row Housing Trust and their attempt to transfer property to avoid foreclosure on multiple properties within its vast portfolio, seemingly with no credible explanation why they are at this point but according to the Los Angeles Times and the fact that the Skid Row Trust has slightly over 20 percent of its units remain unoccupied due to inhabitable conditions is a recipe for disaster that a freshman college business student could detect
WHOA! Missing from the L.A. Times’ sparse reporting on the collapse of Skid Row Housing Trust is their attempt to raise $75 Million in a direct sale stock offering tied to distressed mortgages. Who is behind it? https://t.co/IdW75uh6Lv pic.twitter.com/FHfnOTZqpr
— Esotouric’s Secret Los Angeles (@esotouric) February 9, 2023
I’m sorry but I need answers from the Skid Row Trust because allowing over 20 percent of your units to remain vacant because you can’t or won’t spend the money to make necessary repairs in essence deprives a needy person and or family low to moderate housing options when that’s your organization so-called “mission” smells of hypocrisy and gross fraud and mismanagement all the way around.
Didn’t former Sheriff Alex Villanueva point out the grossly inflated CEO salaries and bloated “administrative costs” associated with these nonprofit affordable housing providers?
It lines up with the LA Times calling out all the “mega-donors” trying to infuse cash into the Skid Row Housing Trust not to make repairs but to cover SALARIES. Why do they need such high salaries when their very customers (tenants) are languishing in substandard housing?
Interim chief executive Joanne Cordero sought to assure the 165 employees that other philanthropic and housing organizations are stepping in to ensure that their work will continue and that no one will lose their home.
“Everybody is coming together to help figure this out and to support the residents,” Cordero told The Times in an interview.
“They’re not coming to support the trust, they’re coming to support the residents. Nobody has any desire to see any of our housed people become unhoused.
Several philanthropic groups — including the Weingart Foundation, the Hilton Foundation and Cedars-Sinai — have committed hundreds of thousands of dollars to keep the agency afloat while it works to divest its properties.
One of skid row’s largest housing providers faces financial implosion
165 people on the payroll and they run a $14 million deficit annually? Did they get their degrees the same way Mark Ridley-Thomas was tryna get one for his son? I’m kidding…am I?
Where is the city of LA Building and Safety on this? The same department charged with ensuring the safety of buildings in the City is M.I.A. If you need further proof, look at the challenges the residents are having that live in the SB Loft properties. They post daily on their Instagram page.
Oh. That’s right. The former Building & Safety General Manager Raymond Chan was indicted alongside former LA Councilman José Huizar? I mean you can’t make this s*** up.
The LA Times piece was basically an advertorial that put the word out that the properties under the Skid Row Housing Trust are up for sale to the highest bidder.
At this point in time I wish I could generate the appropriate anger to express my anger and frustration of yet another clear example of a failed “social experiment” also commonly referred to as the homeless industrial complex where those who are empowered and entrusted to be a “safety net” for the most vulnerable members of our
society.
Hopefully, the housing trust Damien Goodman has assembled fares better but hey, they aren’t on the scale of the Skid Row housing folks in building new properties while neglecting the ones they already have. That would be too much like right. Right?
To put it simply, fixing our housing problem isn’t complicated but it seems like we’re stuck in a “Twilight Zone” episode stuck between two virtual realities, where politicians and community activists alike who with complicity contributed to our homeless problem and now by default, and political pressure are being forced to address an issue before if it hasn’t already spiraled into an unmanageable crisis that will manifest into an unforgivable stain and sin on our society.
Need further proof? Look at the inconsistent numbers in the bogus homeless count numbers that they put Wendy Gruehl in charge of. Yeah that Wendy Gruehl who was the former Los Angeles City Controller between 2009 and 2013. Remember how hard they fought to get her elected mayor and we got Eric Garcetti instead?
In closing, we the taxpayers deserve better and although convenient we cannot afford to return to the status quo where homeless people are dying daily, largely due to ineptitude and outright greed, and malfeasance.
Marvin McCoy is an opinion writer and lifelong resident of Inglewood, Ca. He can be reached at therealmccoymarketinggroup@gmail.com and on Twitter @MarvinMccoy32
