POLITICIAN WATCH : Cease Fire

Things are looking slightly up for the homeless in Los Angeles County, in no small measure because of a new cooperation between the Board of Supervisors and homeless advocates.

The board is scheduled today to vote to settle two longstanding disputes over the amount of general relief benefits to the homeless and to straighten out Byzantine county application procedures that kept about 5,000 people a month from receiving a mere $312 a month on which to survive. Instead, the county chose, incredibly, to resist improving benefits or procedures by fighting lawsuits in court, paying lawyers up to $325 an hour. As it wound up, the supervisors were spending more taxpayer money in legal fees than it would have cost to change the system.

That nonsense appears to be coming to an end. After months of negotiation with lawyers for the homeless and for the City of Los Angeles, the county board today is expected to boost monthly general relief payments. Just as important, the county is expected to remove unreasonable barriers that keep the homeless from receiving benefits that help them survive.

In some cases the change will actually save the county money; in its intransigence, for example, the county had been failing to identify people who would qualify for existing federal programs, such as Social Security.

The board should end the battle against the homeless not only because it would be compassionate. Considering the more than $5 million in legal costs already incurred, it would be a vote for fiscal responsibility.