County Takes Unprecedented Step to Tackle Homeless Problem

By Jorge Casuso

June 27 -- In an unprecedented move that will boost Santa Monica’s call for a regional homeless plan, the County Board of Supervisors last week unanimously approved nearly $25 million to build and upgrade shelters and administer homeless services.

Last Monday’s motion -- co-sponsored by Supervisors Zev Yaroslavsky and Gloria Molina -- came the same week that the Santa Monica City Council added $370,000 to its 2005-06 fiscal year budget to hire a homeless liaison and boost services.

It also comes on the heals of a report by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) that found there are 91,000 homeless individuals on any given night in the County, 35,000 of whom are chronically homeless. (see related story)

"We want to depart from the norm and demonstrate that the County is stepping up to the plate in a serious way to take homeless services to a new level," Yaroslavsky told The Lookout. "My intent is to ratchet up the level of capacity to transition homeless individuals off the streets.

"This is the first time the County of LA has appropriated this amount of money for shelter,” Yaroslavsky said. “We are not going to do it for one year. This is an ongoing commitment."

Under the plan, the board appropriated $20 million to construct and renovate year-round emergency shelters, ideally in areas with significant homeless populations.

The board also earmarked $2 million to build a Respite Center for homeless families, of which there are 7,500 in the County, and $600,000 in one-time funds for the Salavation Army’s Booth Memorial Center to operate its Los Angeles shelter for homeless families.

The $22.6 million will help increase the County’s 5,240 emergency shelter beds, but will still fall far short of the temporary housing needed, Yaroslavsky said.

“It's no doubt it's only scratching the surface,” said the supervisor, whose jurisdiction includes the Westside. “The homeless problem in the country and LA is just huge. We are not going to turn the homeless problem around overnight."

The location of the shelters will be based in large part on need, determined by a final analysis of the homeless census, which will break up the County figures by city, Yaroslavsky said.

"The shelters will be built where the need is,” he said. “We will coordinate with cities with significant homeless populations.

"We don't want to warehouse people,” Yaroslavesky added. “We need to deal with them one by one. They are not a statistic. If we deal with this as a statistic, we will just put it on the shelf. We need to humanize this issue and also finance it.”

If the sites are well-chosen, there should be little or no community opposition to the new shelters, Yaroslavsky said.

"We have to be intelligent on how we approach this,” he said. “If you do it right and you plan appropriately, nobody knows" the shelter is there. "If you do it right and level with people, you can do it."

One potential site could be the Veteran’s Administration (VA) grounds in Westwood, Yaroslavsky said. "There's a tremendous capacity at the VA, not just for veterans,” he said.

In addition to funding the shelters, the supervisors directed the County’s Chief Administrative Officer to help “develop options for more effective administration of homeless service and programs in Los Angeles County,” according to the motion.

Staff must present the options -- “including funding strategies and governance structures” -- to the board within 60 days, the motion stated.

The board also appropriated $2 million to “adequately fund the ongoing administration of these homeless services,” according to the motion.

Staff will also “research and evaluate dedicated revenue sources for homeless programs such as rental assistance, outreach, and operating expenses for supportive and transitional housing and emergency shelters,” according to the motion.

The County could turn to Santa Monica -- which provides a continuum of care to help get the homeless permanently off the streets -- as a model, Yaroslavsky said.

"We're aware of the Santa Monica model,” he said. “We certainly want to see cities like LA, Pasadena and Long Beach use the best practices in this field, many of which have been developed in the City of Santa Monica.

"The Santa Monica model has worked, but it may not work in Compton," Yaroslavsky added.

The County’s “new approach” will include cities, such as Santa Monica, which are not a part of LAHSA, the supervisor said.

"We are looking for partners,” Yaroslavsky said. “We are eager to have partners. We can't do it alone."

Santa Monica officials welcomed the County’s move, recognizing that it comes at a time when it is strapped for money.

“What’s important here is that something is being done on a regional level that needed to be addressed, and that is that the County recognizes that Bring LA Home needs new governance structure,” said Councilman Richard Bloom, a member of Bring LA Home, a regional plan to end homelessness in ten years.

“This is an opportunity to create a new governance structure with a strong leadership component and clear governance,” Bloom said.

Olin Ericksen contributed to this report.