Police Aren’t Equipped to Deal With Homelessness

Scott Caswell

Real estate owners throughout the greater Los Angeles area are grappling with the homeless issue, and there aren’t a lot of places to turn for solutions. Earlier this month, Scott Caswell, a principal at Lee & Associates, gathered more than 600 signatures from property owners when local leadership wouldn’t respond to complaints about the increase of homelessness in Chatsworth. Caswell said that there is a dearth of options for citizens to turn to for solutions or help.

Local leadership responded after the petition circulated, and the police department isn’t equipped to deal with the homeless problem. “The directive of the police department is not to touch it unless they absolutely have to,” Caswell tells GlobeSt.com. “That is because they don’t have the resources and they don’t want to get into litigation over an issue. They can’t afford the potential lawsuit or issue over something like homelessness when they have bigger issues to deal with.”