Almost 47,000 individuals and families are homeless in Los Angeles County, according to the 2016 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count, which was conducted by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) and released on May 4. That count shows a 6 percent rise in the county’s homeless population from 2015.
The total in 2015 – 44,359 – showed a 12 percent surge from just two years prior. The 2015 results played a major role in pushing Los Angeles County to create a plan to address the intensifying crisis. The county’s homeless initiative will be broken into three phases, the first of which is slated to start on June 30.
The county started its homeless initiative in August 2015, when it brought together different departments across all sectors in an effort to develop a set of strategies. Those recommendations were presented to the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors on February 9, and the board unanimously voted to approve the 47 recommended strategies, setting the county on a multi-year, hundred-million-dollar fight against homelessness.
The goal of phase one is to ensure that 3,500 people will no longer be homeless and 2,000 more will be prevented from becoming homeless, according to the county plan.
Phase one of the homeless initiative will focus on homelessness prevention programs for families, subsidized housing to homeless disabled individuals pursuing Social Security Insurance, training for first responders in the decriminalization of homelessness and enhancing the emergency shelter system, among other strategies.
“The homeless initiative provided an opportunity to listen,” said Leticia Colchado, an administrator in the Chief Executive Office of Los Angeles County who helped lead the formation of the plan. “We listened to the experts in the field and we listened to the those who had previously experienced homelessness, and together, we were able to develop the most comprehensive set of strategies to combat homelessness.”
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