Guest Opinion | Katie Hill and Rabbi Joshua Levine Grater: How Many More People Must Die on Our Streets?

We can’t wait and watch our community members die on the streets.

For the second time in as many weeks, an elderly person experiencing homelessness has died alone on a bench on our streets.

We cannot accept this as an ordinary part of life in our city. And we cannot keep expressing sorrow without acting on what we already know. Street homelessness is the most visible, most inhumane, and yet the most solvable part of our housing crisis.

As the leaders of Union Station Homeless Services and Friends In Deed, we are asking our city leaders to partner with us and fund the work of bringing our neighbors indoors. Both of our organizations began providing shelter decades ago because people died outside. The community was outraged. Now, it seems we barely notice, and that is simply unacceptable.

Union Station and Friends In Deed both have existing relationships with local motels to bring people indoors. There are at least 100 beds available at motels that are ready to provide shelter right now. Our organizations can offer the services people need once they are inside, and our staff have the knowledge and experience to help them navigate the next steps toward a permanent home.

What we need is funding. And it should come from our city.

A motel room is a beginning. But this powerfully simple first step is a necessary intervention that will save lives, and honestly, could have averted these two tragedies. Lives should never end this way. No one should die alone on our streets. Not ever. We need more interim and permanent housing – now. Our neighbors deserve shelter from the elements, a safe place to sleep, and access to services. For an older adult, this could be the difference between life and death.

We should explore all avenues to bring people indoors, but we shouldn’t wait for the perfect answer. Motels are the most immediately available opportunity and the city could act quickly to bring people inside before the winter storms ahead.

The problem cannot remain unsolved, and the solution cannot wait. We call on our elected officials to find and release the funding. Not after months or years of discussion and debate, but now.

How many more people need to die alone on a bench before we act? How amazing would it be if instead of reading about another senseless death, the headline could read, “Pasadena Joins Other Cities in Ending Street Homelessness”?

Katie Hill is CEO of Union Station Homeless Services, and Rabbi Joshua Levine Grater is CEO of Friends In Deed.