WHO WE ARE

Los Angeles County government divides the county into 8 Service Planning Areas (SPAs), most of which encompass more than one city. SPA6 is the service area for South Los Angeles. It runs roughly from the 10 Freeway in the north to include Compton and Paramount in the south, and from Baldwin Hills and Willowbrook in the west, to stop at the borders of Vernon, Huntington Park, and South Gate in the east.

The SPA 6 Homeless Coalition originated in December 2012 and January 2013 meetings of homeless service providers and stakeholders from South LA and the cities of Compton and Lynwood. Its original goal was to improve the accuracy for SPA 6 for the January 2013 Semi-Annual Point In Time Homeless Count administered by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA). The group of providers and faith based organizations reconvened in February 2013 to discuss the details and debrief about the count. Subsequently, homeless stakeholders continued to meet monthly and eventually adopted the name  SPA 6 Homeless Coalition.

 Over the next year the Coalition participants decided to become an ongoing membership organization, to share information on city, county, and federal homeless policy, funding sources, and anything that might affect the lives of the homeless in South Los Angeles. At the same time, it positioned itself to directly weigh-in and influence important decisions related to LA County policies, and prioritization of HUD dollars.

In the years that followed, the SPA6 Homeless Coalition established stable participation by more than 20 homeless service agencies, church-based groups, and city and county government representatives, as well as concerned individuals. It meets monthly, where updates are made on a wide variety of issues that affect the homeless in South Los Angeles, and new initiatives are planned.

In 2015 the Coalition successfully contracted with LAHSA to coordinate the SPA 6 Point In Time Count. The group continues to be committed to strengthening SPA 6 through open dialogue; transparency; team-trust building; community decision making, when appropriate; and meaningful two-way communication.