About 100 people attended a May 31 invitation-only event outside the PATH (People Assisting the Homeless) offices at 340 N. Madison Avenue where the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority released the results of its 2018 Los Angeles homeless count. Some 8,500 volunteers over three days in January covered every census tract in the county. The results, along with thousands of interviews with homeless people, have been under analysis by statisticians at USC.

For the first time in four years the numbers went down instead of up. The gains were modest - 3% fewer homeless in the county, 5% fewer in the city - but at least the motion was in the right direction.

By now everyone has seen the gross numbers. For the county, the homeless are down from 55,048 in January 2017 to 53,195 in January 2018; for the city, it was a little better, dropping from 38,138 to 31,516. We will dig into the details further on.

MEMO DATED APRIL 2, 2018:

SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS TO ASSIST HOMELESS PEOPLE LIVING IN RECREATIONAL VEHICLES; OPTIONS TO CREATE “SAFE PARKING” LOTS FOR CARS AND RECREATIONAL VEHICLES (ITEM NUMBER 32, AGENDA OF JANUARY 30, 2018)

The February 12 Los Angeles Times ran a long article on measures before the City Council to rapidly secure housing for the homeless. A major part of their report focused on a measure to make it easier to convert motels into shared rooms or small apartments. The case they featured as a successful example was a motel on Figueroa in South Los Angeles, in Service Planning Area 6 (SPA6), leased to the First To Serve homeless service agency:

“The onetime motel on Figueroa Street houses dozens of formerly homeless women and children, who sleep in simple rooms furnished with dressers and televisions and eat dinners of chicken enchiladas and chili downstairs.

The SPA6 Homeless Coalition meets usually on the second Friday of every month. Our regular meetings are held from 10:00 to 12:00 pm at the St. Joseph Center/First To Serve offices at 8525 S. Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90003. Quarterly the meetings are held jointly with the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm. at a location to be announced. 

Our next meeting will be on Friday, October 11, 2019,  It is a regular meeting, from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm at the St. Joseph Center/First To Serve offices at 8525 S. Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90003. There is parking in the lot just to the north on the same side of the street.

Below are links to two documents in PDF form issued by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority regarding important changes in HUD’s funding for Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (VASH). The first is a three-page letter  dated October 23, 2017, from Peter Lynn, LAHSA’s Executive Director.

The second is a one-page fact sheet on veteran homelessness dated October 2017.

The Violence Against Women Act of 2013 (VAWA) and subsequent guidance issued by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) establish new housing protections for individuals participating in HUD-funded housing programs who are survivors of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and/or stalking. In response, LAHSA is in the process of developing a policy for the Los Angeles Continuum of Care, to include protections for survivors of violence in all LAHSA-funded housing programs.