The results of the homeless count are in – and the biggest reduction in LA is in Council District 11.
It shows housing and services -- not enforcement and criminalization -- end homelessness.
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According to @LAHomeless, homelessness ticked up citywide (2%) and countywide (4%). But the Westside as a whole (including CD11, SaMo, Culver City, etc) is down 23%.
The data shows homelessness in District 11 has dropped 38.5%, more than in any other part of the City of LA.
How did it happen? By focusing intently on housing and services to help people transition off the streets permanently.
And by firmly rejecting failed, expensive policies that criminalize homelessness and move tents from block to block.
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Between the last count in 2020 and the count in February 2022, we focused on finding places where unhoused people could go, rather than passing laws telling them where they could not go.
We opened bridge housing in Venice and at the VA in Brentwood.
la.curbed.com/2020/2/25/2115…
We converted motels in Westchester and Venice into housing;
11thdistrict.com/news/city-purc…
We funded a program to provide 100 people with shared housing - a quick, nimble solution to homelessness;
11thdistrict.com/news/sharedhou…
We conducted the largest and most successful place-based homelessness intervention programs in Los Angeles, moving nearly 300 people indoors from tents on Venice Beach and in Westchester Park.
As long as thousands of our neighbors sleep on the streets, we can’t let up.
We know what works, and we intend to keep doing more of it.
Since the 2022 homeless count, we have opened, approved, purchased or started building even more homeless housing and shelter.
We’ve opened supportive or affordable housing in Venice, West LA and Mar Vista.
We’ve approved more in Westchester and Venice.
Even more is already under construction in West LA, at the VA, and in Venice.
And we’re in the process of purchasing a 133-room motel on the Westchester/Del Rey/Playa Vista border to provide even more homeless housing. That’s thanks to Project Homekey, funded by the city and the state.
And we’re opening more Safe Parking near LAX soon.
There is another key tool we have used to confront homelessness – renter protections -- and they are at risk of ending, if we don’t take action.
COVID-era tenant protections and rent relief helped keep people housed, slowing and reducing the number of people falling into homelessness. There's a growing movement to repeal those protections, and it would create a tsunami of evictions, reversing any progress on homelessness.
We can’t let that happen. Before the City Council repeals any COVID-era tenant protections, we need to approve new, tough permanent protections.
keeplahoused.org
We need things like a fully-funded right to counsel, universal “just cause” eviction rules, increased relocation assistance, limits on rent increases, and removal of discriminatory barriers to rental housing.
11thdistrict.com/news/efforts-t…
Confronting homelessness is not easy, but we know how to do it. Provide housing and services, as quickly and cost-effectively as possible, to people who are currently homeless. And stop people from becoming homeless in the first place.
I’ve got 3 months left in office, and my team and I are going to continue that work every single day.
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