Maxine Waters tells homeless people to "go home".
L.A.’s homelessness crisis boils over: Pain, confusion, anger and a congressional F-bombThe nonprofit advocacy group had planned 3 events at a South Los Angeles office to help unhoused people obtain emergency shelter.
At the Friday event, heated arguments broke out among the hundreds of people who turned out for assistance, more evidence of the brutal Los Angeles housing market and the desperation felt by the tens of thousands of Angelenos who are unable to secure permanent places to lay their heads.
The crowd overwhelmed Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority workers, who were unable to meet more than a small fraction of the need and left while throngs of people were still waiting for help.
The housing authority was there at the behest of Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles), who delivered emotionally charged remarks to the crowd Friday, at one point using an expletive to defend her efforts to relieve the city’s housing and homelessness crisis.Joyce Burnett, a 77-year-old disabled woman, said she had attended the Friday event and returned at 6:15 a.m. Tuesday in hopes of securing permanent housing.
“I’m homeless. I’m living wherever I can. And when I heard about this, I came down here on Friday,” she said.
“Maxine Waters was here, and she said to come back Tuesday with our paperwork filled out,” Burnett said. “I have it, everything they asked for. But every time we get near the front of the line, they shut the door. They opened the door about 20 minutes ago and said they’re not servicing anyone else today.”
Waters told the gathering of mostly homeless people Friday that “you cannot get Section 8 vouchers here.” And later, “I want everybody to go home.”
The response was fast and angry, a voice from the crowd yelling, “We don’t got no home, that’s why we’re here. What home we gonna go to?”https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-03-30/l-a-s-homeless-crisis-pain-confusion-and-a-congressional-f-bomb-as-hundreds-seek-help
