LAHSA is excited to offer service providers the opportunity to assess, prioritize, and strengthen their organizational capacity with the Core Capacity Assessment Tool (CCAT) , developed by TCC Group . This opportunity is offered AT NO COST to service providers!
Here are links to 2 documents from Sacramento on the California State budget. Both are downloadable PDFs. The first is the State Assembly Budget Committee's recommended budget for the coming fiscal year. The second is the State government’s summary of the requested budget for the state’s Home and Community Based Services.
Home- and Community-Based Services (HCBS) are types of person-centered care delivered in the home and community. A variety of health and human services can be provided in this way. HCBS programs address the needs of people with functional limitations who need assistance with everyday activities.
CONTINUE READINGOn November 3, 2020, the voters of Los Angeles County approved Measure J which dedicated no less than ten percent of the County’s locally generated unrestricted funding to address the disproportionate impact of racial injustice through community investments such as youth development, job training, small business development, supportive housing services and alternatives to incarceration.
Measure J Year One Spend Plan (pdf)
Since these spending recommendations were issued a Los Angeles court has rule Measure J unconstitutional on the grounds that it preempts the budget authority of the County Board of Supervisors and the decision is being appealed:
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.
CONTINUE READINGOn 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.
CONTINUE READINGThere is still time to give input on the future of Measure H strategies. At the direction of the Board of Supervisors, the County Homeless Initiative is reassessing its strategies for addressing and preventing homelessness. It is also inviting public input on the updated strategies.
Updates on the strategy reassessment process may be found at https://homeless.lacounty.gov/community-strategies/ .
Both the city and county of Los Angeles in January 2016 produced extensive plans for long-term dealing with homelessness. This is the county's final plan, issued in February 2016. Click on the link below to view the document, a 130-page PDF.
The link below is to the Comprehensive Homeless Strategy plan completed in January 2016, on Mayor Eric Garcetti's website. The link goes to the Mayor's brief summary page. The link on that page goes to the full 237 page document. The download for that can be slow and not practical for a smartphone.
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Homelessness in South Los Angeles
The primary purpose of this paper is to provide a thorough understanding of homelessness in Los Angeles as it pertains to the Eighth City Council District and South Los Angeles more broadly. On January 13, 2016, the City of Los Angeles released a Comprehensive Homeless Strategy detailing over 60 strategies to combat homelessness. The citywide view is sweeping, expansive, and comprehensive, but falls short when detailing the geographic and demographic particularities of South Los Angeles. While I support implementation of all strategies within the Comprehensive Homeless
City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana released his office's first quarterly report November 7 on Los Angeles' ambitious new agenda to end homelessness. The most optimistic achievement was the passage of Proposition HHH the next day, committing the city to issue $1.2 billion in bonds to qualified developers to construct 10,000 units of permanent supportive housing over ten years.
For the rest, there are many promising accomplishments, but a few serious warning signs of trouble to come. Santana concedes at the outset that until this year, the city's main investment has been in crisis intervention, "largely relying on funding emergency shelter beds, with no clear path to long-term recovery."
In the short-term, this must still be the government's focus until new housing units begin to come online some years from now. The immediate priorities are to increase storage facilities, and create mobile showers and safe parking locations. It is just here, however, that the first quarter has been least successful.
At this time, there is only one location in the city to store homeless people's possessions. It is downtown in Skid Row. Three new ones were under consideration. The one in San Pedro was soon abandoned due to community opposition. One in CD9 on east Washington Blvd. was dropped because rehab costs were too high. And the third, a city-owned, long-vacant senior center in Venice, was approved, but that led to an uproar from the community. The city is considering some kind of mobile storage as an alternative.