Los Angeles city leaders have voted to pass a resolution called the Community Assistance Parking Program to help the homeless pay off their parking fines, reports laweekly.com. The program allows people who are homeless, but who live in their cars, to perform community service when their cars/homes are ticketed.
The reason these homeless people need a program to help them pay off their tickets is that if they get too many tickets, their cars/homes are towed and then they have to move into the nearest alley. Nobody wants that.
Yesterday’s unanimous council vote means that the department can establish the Community Assistance Parking Program, which will allow homeless folks with as many as 10 citations in a single year (worth up to $1,500) to work off the fines by doing community service.
It’s a generous offer to a group of people who couldn’t pay their fines anyway, seeing as how they can’t afford actual housing, and I say that with 100 pounds of sarcasm.
Los Angeles City Councilman Mike Bonin created the program, and he probably thinks he’s done a great thing helping the homeless maintain access to the cars they live in. And it does seem like a good approach because even though they are homeless, these individuals shouldn’t also be carless. If they can keep their cars, they can be homeless without living on the streets.
I’m just wondering if that’s the best that can be done.
Read the article here.
