Los Angeles City Councilman Mike Bonin and others joined together on Tuesday to announce a $100 million proposal to combat homelessness.
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The City Council’s action is a critical down payment on the Mayor’s comprehensive homelessness plan, which is being developed jointly by City, County, Home for Good and other partners. Fox News reported the mayor said, “These are our fellow Angelinos”.
Almost 29,000 people are now living on the streets in LA – almost double the number of those living in the city’s shelters, according to the LAHSA.
While it remains unclear how the city intends to pay for the proposal, lawmakers have asserted they will ease restrictions on churches and nonprofits that provide shelter, and speed up getting permits to those who build affordable housing. To address the issue, the Garcetti is asking for an annual $100 million to fund a foundation to fight homelessness and establish permanent housing options, in addition to the immediate one-time $100 million funding proposed by the council.
Huizar spokesman Rick Coca said afterward that officials anticipate it will come from the city’s general fund, adding “a more robust financial forecast for the city” is anticipated in the months ahead.
Since I heard his smart thoughts at a KPCC panel on homelessness earlier in the summer, I have been visiting with Pasadena Housing Director Bill Huang about what we can do in the crisis.
Homelessness in Los Angeles has risen 12 percent since 2013.
While making a statement, Callaghan said “One hundred million dollars can not buy pillows for all the homeless people”.
And city officials may have an ulterior motive, to “reduce the visibility” of the homeless in preparation for a potential Olympic hosting in 2024 suggests Ms. Callaghan. Those events have combined to push the homeless population steadily higher since 2013, to a figure now estimated at 20,000.
The reaction by services who work with homeless people has been measured.
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While signaling growing alarm over the problem, the announcement by Mayor Eric Garcetti and seven City Council members offered few details on how the money would be spent or where it would come from. Without clear guidelines, departments instead tend to rely on ad hoc responses, according to the report by City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana. The bulk of that funding, $10 million, will be allocated to veterans and non-chronically homeless people in the form of housing subsidies – to rapidly re-house individuals who need short-term assistance to get off the street and on with their lives. “So what I experienced, a lot of the vulnerable people on the sidewalk are experiencing because of the conditions that are out there right now”.
