Letters to the Editor: Did Project Roomkey really just end without a permanent housing plan?

Los Angeles Times Opinion
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Downey, CA - June 30: Mario Blanco, walks down steps carrying his dog, "Leo the Lion," at Chateau Inn & Suites on Thursday, June 30, 2022, in Downey, CA. It was Thursday morning, June 30, moving day for 53-year-old Blanco and other unhoused tenants of the Chateau Inn & Suites in Downey, the place they've called home for a year. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
Mario Blanco walks down the steps at the hotel in Downey where he had been living under Project Roomkey. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

To the editor: While I greatly appreciate The Times' coverage of homelessness issues, the real headline for the Column One piece "Homeless and hoarding" is something entirely different: Project Roomkey — a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, a voucher program that funded Mario Blanco's stay indoors — ended.

And he ended up living on the streets again! This is clearly not a satisfactory outcome for any program purportedly addressing homelessness.

Whenever government provides funding for temporary programs to house people experiencing homelessness with no ongoing funding and pathways to keep people permanently housed, we are failing our entire community. And we are not solving the complex problems that have created so much suffering in our midst.

Laura Kaiser, Los Angeles

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.