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)
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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.
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The SPA6 Homeless Coalition meets usually on the second Friday of every month. Our regular meetings are held from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm.
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SPA 6 Homeless Coalition is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting. |
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.
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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.
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On February 9, 2016, the Board of Supervisors (Board) approved the Los Angeles County Homeless Initiative (HI) recommendations, which included 47 Strategies to combat homelessness, and instructed the Chief Executive Office (CEO) to report back to the Board on a quarterly basis regarding the implementation status and outcomes of each Strategy. On December 6, 2016, the Board approved four new strategies as part of the Measure H ordinance. These Strategies are now also included in the CEO’s quarterly reports. This is the seventh quarterly report that the CEO has provided to the Board. The report addresses the implementation status of the 51 Homeless Initiative Strategies with highlights and impact stories, status of Board directives and motions, and other key HI activities.
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.