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Esotouric's Secret Los Angeles

@esotouric.bsky.social

2.1K followers 1K following 4.1K posts

Just a couple of lifers looking out for Los Angeles. Join us for architecture, crime, literature & history tours, preservation battles. Newsletter: http://esotouric.substack.com

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Esotouric's Secret Los Angeles @esotouric.bsky.social · Nov 22

Los Angeles is confounding, by design, but it is not unknowable. These folks are telling real L.A. stories if you want to listen.
go.bsky.app/zi1abc

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Esotouric's Secret Los Angeles @esotouric.bsky.social · 51m

The most powerful force for good in the world is smart citizens who give a damn and keep showing up. If we would just listen to them, everything would be different.

Read the rest of it, with a cameo from Aldous Huxley, at esotouric.substack.com/p/soulhousing

Why Gardena said "no" to Soul Housing, and a possible reason their recuperative care facilities have shuttered in L.A. and Fresno

Plus red alert and opportunities to speak out for MacArthur Park (fenced?) and Beaulyland (demolished?)

esotouric.substack.com

Esotouric's Secret Los Angeles @esotouric.bsky.social · 51m

The most powerful force for good in the world is smart citizens who give a damn and keep showing up. If we would just listen to them, everything would be different.

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Esotouric's Secret Los Angeles @esotouric.bsky.social · 51m

why so many elected and appointed officials are in such a hurry to meet with those who profit from homelessness, while shunning caring, loudmouthed, informed and righteously angry citizen advocates who want to see people get the help they need?

Esotouric's Secret Los Angeles @esotouric.bsky.social · 51m

How will California ever solve its intertwined homelessness, addiction and housing crises without an honest accounting of what is really happening, who the bad actors are, how the system is failing our most vulnerable and...

Esotouric's Secret Los Angeles @esotouric.bsky.social · 51m

We are grateful for Dez Martinez' advocacy—scroll 7 minutes into the 10/8 livestream for a shocker www.facebook.com/HIF559/video... the sudden shut down of Soul Housing’s recuperative care facility in her community, & troubled that no public official or journalist spotted it first.

6K views · 75 reactions | Homeless In Fresno on Reels

https://www.facebook.com/HIF559/videos/2279316629160803/—into

Esotouric's Secret Los Angeles @esotouric.bsky.social · 51m

Grounds for immediate termination of the agreement are described on page 10. Could this clause be the reason for the sudden closure of the Soul Housing facilities?

Esotouric's Secret Los Angeles @esotouric.bsky.social · 51m

Among the supporting documents included as part of the agenda packet for the Gardena appeal hearing are Soul Housing’s 2022 CalAIM Community Supports Provider Participation Agreement with Health Net of California, the insurer that formally cut ties with Soul Housing last week.

Esotouric's Secret Los Angeles @esotouric.bsky.social · 51m

(A new State law was signed three months later to streamline use of motels as homeless shelters, and locals report that Gardena Terrace Inn is now operating in that capacity. We do not know if Soul Housing is the operator.)

Esotouric's Secret Los Angeles @esotouric.bsky.social · 51m

After discussion, the council voted to deny the appeal and directed Soul Housing to seek a Conditional Use Permit for a group care facility.

Esotouric's Secret Los Angeles @esotouric.bsky.social · 51m

Schames asserted that Soul Housing operated just like a motel and had no license from the State. And he attempted to present the City with a $5,192 check for first quarter Transit Occupancy Taxes (reflecting 11% of $47,200 in revenue).

Esotouric's Secret Los Angeles @esotouric.bsky.social · 51m

use which was apparently already happening, despite the lack of a business license.https://www.youtube.com/live/X691tvQevLY?si=HbYiiuCtk7tgBQDm&t=5432

Esotouric's Secret Los Angeles @esotouric.bsky.social · 51m

Soul Housing filed an appeal, and a hearing was held before City Council on 5/14/24. Eric Schames testified on behalf of Soul Housing, explaining the business model, which had up to three strangers sharing each of the 48 motel rooms, and asking the city to approve this use—

Esotouric's Secret Los Angeles @esotouric.bsky.social · 51m

the Gardena Terrace Inn was permitted as a motel serving travelers—albeit a pretty nasty one. www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review...

www.tripadvisor.com

Esotouric's Secret Los Angeles @esotouric.bsky.social · 51m

(intended to provide state-authorized residential facilities for medical or non-medical care to individuals facing chronic illness, developmental disabilities or other handicaps, which can include alcohol and drug abuse recovery), and that

Esotouric's Secret Los Angeles @esotouric.bsky.social · 51m

City staff reviewed and then denied Soul Housing’s request for a business license on the grounds that the applicants intended use of the property would fall under Gardena’s definition of a group care facility

Esotouric's Secret Los Angeles @esotouric.bsky.social · 51m

In early 2024, Socially Oriented United Living, Inc. dba Soul Housing sought to take over operations of the Gardena Terrace Inn at 15902 South Western Avenue, and to use the facility to provide recuperative care services to be paid for by the taxpayers under Medi-Cal’s CalAIM program.

Esotouric's Secret Los Angeles @esotouric.bsky.social · 51m

So what happened in Gardena that was different? Something rare and refreshing: local officials simply did their jobs, asked the right questions and looked out for their community’s interests.

Esotouric's Secret Los Angeles @esotouric.bsky.social · 51m

And in Los Angeles and in Fresno, hundreds of vulnerable residents and low wage workers are now struggling to pick up the pieces.

Esotouric's Secret Los Angeles @esotouric.bsky.social · 51m

So if Soul Housing’s Eric J(ay) Schames is, as Dez Martinez asserts in her Facebook livestream video, the same person named in Operation Backlash, this suggests a failure by State and insurance regulators to impose timely restrictions, and of local officials to provide oversight.

Esotouric's Secret Los Angeles @esotouric.bsky.social · 51m

But according to this 2020 report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General, states “could do more” to prevent terminated providers from serving Medicaid beneficiaries, with California having the highest number of those still in the business.

Esotouric's Secret Los Angeles @esotouric.bsky.social · 51m

One would assume that being indicted for and then pleading guilty to a healthcare insurance related felony would disqualify someone from resuming that kind of work in any management capacity.

Esotouric's Secret Los Angeles @esotouric.bsky.social · 51m

• Plea of Guilty/No Contest – Felony: People vs. Eric Jay Schames, Superior Court of the State of California, County of San Diego, CT No. SCD255522, DA No. ADY535, dated 2/09/2021

Esotouric's Secret Los Angeles @esotouric.bsky.social · 51m

• Indictment: The People of the State of California v. Eric Jay Schames, et al., Superior Court of the State of California, County of San Diego, CT No. SCD255522, DA No. ADY535. Filed 12/09/2015

Esotouric's Secret Los Angeles @esotouric.bsky.social · 51m

The letter states that attached are items of supporting evidence, although none of these documents are part of the online record. These include:

Esotouric's Secret Los Angeles @esotouric.bsky.social · 51m

a notice of provider suspension, “because you have been convicted of a crime described in Labor Code section 139.21(a)(1)(A).”