Business Confronted with Homelessness

True or false?: The business community in the San Fernando Valley supports the city’s idea to house the homeless temporarily in specified areas in each council district. I would have guessed “false.” But I would have been wrong. Big time. According to a recent survey of its members by the Valley Industry and Commerce Association, only 10 percent disagreed with the proposal to house the homeless in temporary shelters nearby. Close to 66 percent said they agree or strongly agree with the plan. (The rest said they have questions or that they were neutral.) To me, that’s a surprisingly huge majority. It’s difficult to get two-thirds of a business community anywhere to agree on much of anything, other than lower taxes and less regulation. Why are Valley businesses willing to allow the homeless to settle, at least temporarily, in defined areas close to them? The survey gives us a big hint: Homelessness is now seen as a huge problem by Valley business people. When asked to rank the seriousness of the homeless problem on a scale of 1 to 10, an astounding 62 percent said it was a “10.” Furthermore, it has hurt business; 70 percent of the respondents ranked it 7 or higher when asked how much homelessness has impacted doing business here. Homelessness, at least anecdotally, has increased dramatically in the Valley, especially in the last year or two. Everyone has a story. A couple of Saturdays ago, I was a guest at the North Hollywood Police Station and five officers made brief presentations about what’s going in their particular zone in the district. Four of the five immediately said homelessness has increased a great deal and it is now the officers’ biggest problem. The comment section of the VICA survey was interesting. When asked what the business community should do to help, one respondent said “Why is this the problem of business? They don’t create homelessness. The more burden you place on business the fewer jobs you get.” Frankly, I expected a lot of answers like that, and that’s why I would have guessed “false” to the question above. But, in fact, that kind of answer was fairly rare. Some of the more common answers: Businesses should lend a hand by helping the homeless become employable, funding homeless programs, and partnering with the city and other agencies to help build affordable housing. Here’s one response that kind of summed up the mood: “Address and accept that you have a problem and then get all stakeholders together to get workable solutions.” Judging from the survey, business people in the Valley believe homelessness is a huge problem and it is hitting home by hurting business. What’s more, they stand ready to help. But here’s the thing: They don’t know exactly what to do. Best I can tell, no one is organizing them. No one is mobilizing this potentially effective group. Yet. • • • The Walt Disney Co. sure has made some smart business moves. Over the years, it wisely bought such brands as Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars and Indiana Jones, to name a few. It’s opened category-killer theme parks around the world and it absolutely dominates the world of animated entertainment. But for my money, its smartest move came on Aug. 6. That’s when the Burbank company started a free telephone call-in line to help get your kids to bed. It’s easy. You dial 877-7-MICKEY and pick which character you want to deliver a message to your child. If you tap “1” you get Mickey Mouse. He talks for about half a minute, saying that he and Pluto have brushed their teeth and he is about to read Pluto a bedtime story and it’s time for you to get to bed now, too. Of course, you must listen to a pitch for the company’s online “sleep shop,” where you can buy Disney-themed pajamas and other bedtime stuff, but that’s a cheap price for such a valuable service. When my children were young and I told them it was nighty-night time, their beds suddenly became trampolines and the hall a raceway. But in their young lives they would have absolutely obeyed Mickey. If he told them it was time for bed, I’m sure they would have jumped under the covers and instructed me to turn out the lights. Now, dad. Parents and grandparents of tykes have cause to be grateful to Disney in greater measure than ever before. After all, parents of youngsters – more than anything else in the world – just need their kids to go to bed so they can get precious hours of sleep, few though those hours may be. Finally, someone did something to advance the cause of peace in our time. This is Disney’s finest hour. But alas. I’m sad to say that Disney has announced this call-in line is only temporary and it will stop on Aug. 31. Why? The announcement doesn’t say. It makes no sense to me. I mean, the cost to continue providing this bedtime service must be less than a pittance, like a spit in the ocean, to a multi-billion dollar corporation like Disney. And after delivering blissful relief to child-bearing households from sea to shining sea, why would Disney suddenly stop, reversing all that goodwill? Parents will have to go back to corralling their spirited and unwilling youngsters at bedtime with no help from Mickey. It’s mystifying to me. For a company that’s made so many smart moves, this will be a really a dumb one. Charles Crumpley is editor and publisher of the Business Journal. He can be reached at [email protected].