The 2019 Report and Recommendations of The Ad Hoc Committee on Black People Experiencing Homelessness detailed the necessary actions to advance equity and eliminate racial disparities impacting Black people experiencing homelessness across Los Angeles County. Included in the report was a call to action for Los Angeles Homeless Service Authority (LAHSA) to thoughtfully examine the drivers of inequitable outcomes (including practices and policies) within the homeless system and to set a course as an agency in advancing racial equity.

On April 20, 2021, Judge David Carter issued a Decision and Order in LA Alliance for Human Rights et al. v. City of Los Angeles, LA County, et al.[1], the case challenging the city and county’s failure to adequately address homelessness in LA.  The judge issued a preliminary injunction, ordering the city and county of LA to both report back to the Court on numerous financial issues and to take a range of actions, especially to offer either shelter or housing to currently unhoused individuals living in Skid Row.

Editorial: Service providers get homeless people off the streets and into housing. Pay them what they need

By The Times Editorial Board, May 10, 2021

In the struggle to help homeless people move off the street, service providers — the entities that supply them food, guidance and other crucial forms of support — are the ones on the front lines. Their staff are the outreach workers who go to encampments and underpasses, and who seek out people slumped on sidewalks in plain view, huddled in the brush out of sight or living in cars. It can take days, weeks, even months to earn the trust of homeless individuals inured to street life and suspicious of anyone who wants to move them to an unfamiliar locale. Even as the pandemic raged in the past year, outreach workers were the ones who never stopped toiling in the streets.

The Back Home Initiative will build you a free small backyard house (an Auxiliary Dwelling Unit) if you will sign a 10-year contract to rent it to people who are homeless or about to become homeless. You have your choice of a studio, a one bedroom, or a two bedroom. Details below.