iAUDIT! – As I mentioned in an earlier column, on August 5, the Westside Current published an interview with Union Rescue Mission CEO Mark Hood. During that interview, Mr. Hood used an excellent visual model to describe just how small a reduction has been made in LA’s population, if LAHSA’s latest PIT count is to be believed. He said, “If you had this big open field, and you put 75,000 people in that field, and you told everybody to close their eyes, and you changed it to 72,000, would anybody notice? Any improvement is a good improvement. But what I would say is that we as a community should expect more.” That is a superb analogy for LA’s homeless program performance.
I’d like to expand on Mr. Hood’s model a bit and add some context. The LA Coliseum holds about 77,000 people. Pretend you are standing at the top of the arch where the Olympic torch was lit. Looking down, you can see the stadium is nearly full. In keeping with Mr. Hood’s analogy, you turn around and close your eyes for a few minutes. When you look down again, 3,000 people have left. Would you notice? Now suppose:
· It costs between $2 billion and $4 billion to get those 3,000 people to leave…