By Rick Garvey
I know that many people in Venice feel that we are over burdened by the number of homeless youth (defined as under 25 years old) in our neighborhood but LAHSA released the results of the 2016 homeless youth count yesterday, and the findings are interesting.
SPA 5 (West LA including Venice) had 397 homeless youth, less than was counted in the Antelope Valley, the San Fernando Valley, and only one third the number in SPA 4 (Hollywood, Downtown, and parts of East LA). You can check the link to see demographic breakdowns.
Kudos to the folks at Safe Place For Youth, OPCC and the Teen PAD who work with this population every day. Hopefully we can get that number down even further next year. https://www.lahsa.org/homeless-count/youth-service-planning-area