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GUESTS: Mitchell Netburn, Executive Director of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, Becky Dennison, Director of the Downtown Women’s Action Coalition

A recent Los Angeles ordinance targeting the homeless has been under fire. The ordinance subjects homeless people to arrest if they are caught “sitting, lying or sleeping on public sidewalks.” But the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in a 2-1 decision last Friday ruled that it violates the prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. Noting that there was “substantial and undisputed evidence” that the homeless population in the city far outnumbers the number of beds available in homeless shelters in the city, the court said the disputed ordinance violated homeless people’s Eighth Amendment rights “by criminalizing the unavoidable act of sitting, lying or sleeping at night while being involuntarily homeless.” Los Angeles is known as the US capital of homelessness with a countywide count of 88,000 homeless each night. Most are concentrated in downtown’s Skid Row. Earlier this month, LA County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky announced approval of a $100 million plan that would address downtown homeless concentrations by setting up five regional centers intended only for temporary shelter. Meanwhile, world-renowned architect Frank Gehry on Monday unveiled his concept for the first phase of a massive downtown redevelopment project near his Disney Concert Hall.