Not in My Back Yard, Hell No

On screen:  How about housing some homeless in your backyard?

Since the good people of California don't seem to have a problem with them camping on the sidewalk and shitting in the streets, I can't see that they would have any issues with this:

But this is California and more specifically, Los Angeles. So, local government is moving ahead with a plan to move some of the county’s exploding homeless populations off the streets and — wait for it — into your backyard.

The idea is to build little homes or large huts, depending on your scale, in the backyard of willing homeowners. A kind of YIMBY — Yes In My Backyard.

According to the county’s pilot program, rents to homeowners would be covered by government low-income housing vouchers with homeless tenants contributing 30 percent of their income, assuming they have some. If they don’t, well, who are you to question the wisdom of well-intentioned government spending more of your money to fix an intractable problem?

 How big of a mess is this? This big:

They’re already launching design competitions and exploring low-cost construction materials and financing options. LA voters previously okayed taxing themselves $4.6 billion (as in $4,600,000,000) to build homeless housing.

While the newest proposed solution is very la-la-land, the county’s homeless predicament is very real — an estimated 58,000 people living on the streets, in cars, tents and lean-to’s. Downtown residents walk out of their high-priced condos to wade through garbage, cardboard beds and human waste.

For a while some mayors placed portable toilets downtown, but they were removed after becoming sites for stand-up prostitution.

Emphasis mine. Also, Eww eww eww....

Hey, look, I don't have a solution for this, aside from reinstating a mental hospital system and rounding them up (most of them are druggies or crazy). Personally, I'll take a hard pass on the homeless hut in the back yard. Apparently most Angelinos feel the same:

To gauge interest in the idea, the county reached out to 500 homeowners. Less than one-in-five expressed interest. County officials pronounced that overwhelming. So, as you can see, the program is moving ahead, whether it’s realistic or not.

California always sets an example for the country. Whether it's a good example is open to debate.