Opinion: How the law enables homelessness

To the editor: Steve Lopez wrote, “It couldn’t be any more obvious that [Rachel Phillips is] too incapacitated to act in her own best interest, and if the law doesn’t put her welfare and our duty first, it has to be changed.” (“‘It’s almost like a death watch’: Severely ill homeless people are at risk of dying on the streets of Hollywood,” Oct. 29)

Please include some background in stories like this so that readers understand how changes in the law inadvertently protected personal rights at the expense of personal health and safety. Most people don’t understand that Phillips and others like her are victims of laws designed to do good that ultimately created these conditions. She is a perfect example of the law of unintended consequences.

People need to be educated and constantly reminded not only about the problems of homelessness, but also about the laws that give people like Phillips the right to choose to be homeless and to refuse treatment even in the most dire circumstances. This is the first step toward getting laws changed.

Catherine C. Cate, Irvine

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook