Figures were released last week and they show that the homeless population in Los Angeles, both county and city, has grown considerably compared to the 2013 figures tallied by Los Angeles Housing Service Agency (LAHSA).

Figures were released for 2015 and site also shows counts for previous years.

LA Times article analyzing the counts.

Former County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich who worked to get homeless off the streets and was successful with a chronically-homeless project addressed an LA Times editorial as “red herring.”

Council district 11, which includes Venice, ranks third in number of homeless and jumped 16.6 percent in totals from 2013 to 2015.

Bonin Makes Housing No.1 Priority
Councilman Mike Bonin has made getting the homeless housed his No. 1 priority.

Counciman’s weekly newsletter this week is devoted to the “Homeless Crisis.”

Makes Motions to Effect Such
He has made several motions, all addressed to bridge the gap between the supply of housing for the homeless, and the enormous demand. The salient points of his motions are repeated here.

Sidewalks v. Housing and Shelter
For nearly a decade, the City of Los Angeles has been bound by the Jones Settlement, the result of a lawsuit contending it is cruel and unusual punishment to forbid people from sleeping on the street if there not enough housing or shelter. As part of the legal agreement, the City has effectively allowed sidewalk homeless encampments to spring up throughout the City. The Bonin motion asks city officials to explore whether the constitutional mandate could be better met by providing alternatives to sleeping on the sidewalk — such as shared housing, bridge housing, or transitional shelters.

“It is unconscionable that our default policy is to tell 29,000 people to sleep on the sidewalk,” Mike said. “We have effectively created a city of encampments, and we have focused our policy discussion on the right to sleep on the street. That does a disservice to people who are homeless, and it does a disservice to our neighborhoods. We need to raise the bar of our policy and of our humanity and spend more time, energy and money accommodating the right to sleep in housing, and the right to shelter.”

Units for the Coordinated Entry System
In recent years, government agencies, philanthropic organizations, businesses and individuals have rallied behind the principle of “Housing First,” and have worked together to develop a “Coordinated Entry System (CES)” to help move people from the streets and into housing and proper services. Huizar and Bonin introduced an earlier motion to make CES an official City policy. The strategy is smart and promising, but relies on an adequate supply of available housing, which does not yet exist. Bonin’s second motion asks officials to determine if the City can require or incentivize that affordable housing units being built as a result of state “density bonuses” can be used for the placement of homeless people via CES.

Flexible Housing Program
The County of Los Angeles has a successful program, granting rapid housing to homeless people who are frequent users of the County’s Department of Health Services. The program saves the County money, and helps house the chronically homeless. With some Los Angeles Fire Department and Los Angeles Police Department units facing significant call loads to respond to homeless people in distress, Bonin’s third motion asks the City Administrative Officer to negotiate with the County to determine if the City can buy into the “Flexible Housing Subsidy Pool,” or start a pilot program in certain neighborhoods with large chronic homeless populations.

Starts Homeless Working Group for Venice
In January, Councilman Bonin started “Venice Forward,” a gathering of dozens of government agencies, social service providers, local businesses, neighborhood leaders, and elected officials to form an organization to focus specifically on ending homelessness in Venice. Inspired by organizations such as Hollywood 4WRD and Home for Good, the organization’s mission statement and goals are simple:

VENICE FORWARD is a collaborative effort to end homelessness in Venice by:

Creating a functional Venice-centric casework collaborative, supportive of and integrated with the SPA 5 Coordinated Entry System (CES) and a Housing First philosophy, that rapidly moves the Venice homeless population into housing and supportive services.

Creating a network of willing community partners to support such a collaborative and secure additional resources, such as housing vouchers and affordable housing.

Sharing success stories publicly to create community awareness of progress and engage more people in problem solving.

Venice Forward has been meeting monthly, focusing attention on the quickest and most efficient ways to get people off the street and into housing.

See some of the success stories from agencies participating in Venice Forward.