Homeless High-Rise Costs Taxpayers $600K A Unit

We finally have an idea as to how the California government is spending taxpayer’s dollars!

A skyline high-rise costing taxpayers $600K per unit that will house homeless persons living on Skid Row.

The $165 million complex features a soundproof music room, computer room, a cafe, well-stocked gym, art room and amongst other amenities, it has a library and a view of the Los Angeles skyline.

Executive Director of a Skid Row advocacy group called Los Angeles Community Action Network, Pete White, spoke with the LA Times about the project saying:

“We 100% need more housing in Skid Row … I see the tower as providing a great need, a great housing need in Skid Row and a design that says poor residents are worthy.”

Who is paying for these projects?

Taxpayers, of course, and through what avenue?

According to the Los Angeles Housing Department, financing is being pushed through a supportive-housing program known as Proposition HHH which was approved back in 2016 by voters, as well as $56 million is state tax credits and state housing funds.

Kevin Murray, President and chief executive of the Weingart Center Association, told the LA Times:

“We’re trying to make our little corner of the world look and feel a little better” with “high-quality apartment living in downtown Los Angeles.”

“Residents of Weingart Tower 1 will benefit from Weingart Center’s on-site comprehensive support services,” Weingart stated.

“These services are specially developed to help maintain housing stability and attend to residents’ health and wellness requirements.”

The Times reported that upon completion of the first tower, it will serve as the largest permanent supportive-housing project in LA.

“We aren’t in it for the developer fee, so we said let’s just build the biggest thing we can,” Murray told the paper.

“You just can’t fix the problem at 50 units a pop.”

Upon completion of the three building project, nearly 700 residents will be able to move from the streets of Skid Row into these dwellings.

Perspective

If our desire is to truly help the poor and needy, then we must begin by recognizing that the greatest need any person has is Jesus Christ and not the alleviation of their material poverty.

Understanding this truth will help in the formation of thought and our involvement with those who are indeed poor as we point them to their Creator as their need is for reconciliation to God.

Here are two ways that we, as citizens of heaven, can help the poor:

Present them with the Gospel:

Yes, we are to feed the hungry but this level of assistance only goes so far, and in the scope of eternity, a sandwich doesn’t bring security.

Presenting the good news of the Gospel whilst representing our Savior who welcomes the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame (Luke 14:21) is of utmost importance.

Humanity’s greatest need, from the wealthiest to the poorest among us is salvation.

Connect them with a local body of believers:

Reconciliation to God brings about reconciliation to one another.

And this applies to every person, as we are plugged into the body (the local church), there is an equipping of the saints that takes place, and in addition to this, there is a family that forms. (Ephesians 4:12)

Ephesians 2:10 teaches, “We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

It is essential for every believer to learn how to be obedient to (Matthew 28:20) and to also fulfill the great commission – to make disciples!

Discipleship happens within the local church and is key to personal growth.

Help with economic opportunities:

“But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?” 1 John 3:17

Gary Haugen, president of the International Justice Mission, once wrote, “God’s people are his plan to respond to the needs of the oppressed in our world.”

It is one thing to be in need, it is another to be in need with no avenue of working to meet that need.

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” Matthew 25:40

There is a great deal of lack when it comes to opportunities and resources needed to improve the situation of the poor, as such, being generous with our resources is one way we can address the issue of poverty after we have followed through on the previous two points.

God’s love towards us and our love for God compels us to use our resources to help those in need.

It is not only a privilege to care for those in need but it is also a responsibility (1 Timothy 6:18).

As we seek to meet the needs of the vulnerable in our communities, may we be ever mindful of what they are in dire need of first and foremost – let’s give them Christ.
Matthew 25:34-46

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