A recent editorial in LA Downtown News illustrates how far off the mark governments and well-meaning citizens can get when it comes to helping homeless people. Downtown L.A.'s vast, depressing, violent and drug-ridden Skid Row, with the largest concentration of homeless people in the United States, has been targeted for some hefty redevelopment projects through which old rundown hotels will be spruced up and turned into low-income single-room-only (SRO) hotels. But what’s needed more than cheap hotel rooms are alcohol and drug rehab facilities.



Unfortunately, as the editorial points out, homeless people are "dying on the streets because treatment beds are not readily available."

The seven Community Redevelopment Act (CRA) projects for SRO hotels – with as many as 30 planned – are not a bad idea, although few people realize that most homeless people congregate in the streets at night because they like it that way. A single room for a single person is neither what is desired nor needed.

"Society's solutions do not address the stunning allure of the Row to the people who are there," the editorial explains. "To most of us bopping through our lives – fat, dumb and happy – it seems obvious that people would want to flee the harshness of the menacing streets. Not so."

What's urgently needed far more than hotel rooms are many more drug rehab beds, ready and waiting when outreach workers manage to convince one of the addicted street souls to make the move now into drug rehab. This decision is a big one, and it doesn't last long – the window of opportunity is very short – and when there's no alcohol or drug rehab bed available at that moment, the opportunity can be lost – sometimes forever.

In cities all across the country, the story is the same: thousands of homeless people living vicariously on the streets constantly confronted by crime, prostitution, hunger, disease, alcohol and drug addiction, and death. Fulfilling one's sense of community spirit by providing necessities for the homeless is always a good idea. Blankets, food, a little money, low-income housing – every little bit helps.

But there's something we're not providing, and it's about time we did. Long-term, better integrated recovery programs are needed to help our lost, homeless citizens reintegrate with society. We've needed to do it for decades. And it's not because we can't afford to. This is America, the richest country in the world.

For those who don't require treatment for addictions, we need an army of bright, skilled and caring people and clean, modern facilities for them to sit down with them, listen and help them try to find a better way to live. Each one has a unique story and a unique set of problems that need to be individually addressed. There's no one-size-fits-all solution to the problem of America's homeless people.

And let's not forget, they are not "the homeless"— they are people. While our Hollywood media darlings dally in palatial $50,000-a-month drug rehab spas and treat drug rehab like a holiday, real American people are dying on the streets because treatment beds are not available.

For those with real addiction problems, we need to start with that. We need thousands of new treatment centers and another army of alcohol and drug rehab specialists. We need to get the millions of addicted homeless Americans off the streets and on the road to recovery by getting them into treatment for alcoholism or into a successful drug rehab program.