People are good

Sometimes I forget that's mostly true. My faith in people has been restored in the past two days. Many readers of Wednesday's column took it upon themselves to call or write housing authority officials, the HUD office, U.S. Attorney's office, congress men and our two U.S. Senators to register their outrage over the treatment of Karla Gomez. All for someone they never met.

Here's part of what a reader name Ken wrote to me:
I called the Housing Authority this afternoon and the only one who seemed to be available was your friend Hugo Garcia. I told him how outrageous I thought that their actions were. His response was that they are "looking at it." I told him that was not good enough and asked him pointedly what his agency is doing to put these people back where they belong. He was quite evasive, but ultimately said that it was not up to him, but up to people higher than him. When I asked who had to authority to fix this, he would not name anyone specific. Finally, I asked for Rudolph Montel, who is apparently the Director, but was told that he was not in.Someone really needs to get on these people. Their indifference at how they disrupt people's lives is mind boggling. As one who worked for a governmental agency for almost 28 years I have seen a lot of this, but this one is more egregious, as well as more disruptive, than most. I finally told him that I was going to call the Attorney General.

Another reader in Mid-Wilshire area, Geneva Johnson called to tell me that she was a Section 8 landlord and had dealt with the same Housing Authority caseworker, Araceli Meza. Geneva found her to be rude, flippant and prone to mistakes. "You can quote me,'' she said. I am.