Homeless Initiative

About the Program

Category: Human Services (Best in Category)

Year: 2017

On August 17, 2015, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors (Board) launched the Homeless Initiative (HI) to combat the homeless crisis that pervades the region. The initial objective of the HI was to develop and present to the Board a comprehensive set of County strategies to effectively combat homelessness. To develop the comprehensive set of strategies, the HI conducted 18 policy summits on nine topics from October 1 to December 3, 2015, which brought together 25 County departments, 30 cities and other public agencies, and over 100 community stakeholders. To support the discussions in the policy summits, detailed policy and strategy briefs were developed for each summit, and are available at: www.homeless.lacounty.gov These policy summits resulted in 47 strategies, approved by the Board on February 9, 2016, which are divided into six areas, each key to combating homelessness: • Prevent Homelessness • Subsidize Housing • Increase Income • Provide Case Management and Services • Create a Coordinated System • Increase Affordable/Homeless Housing Overall, these recommended strategies reflect the following key principles: • Homelessness is an extraordinarily complex problem which necessitates active, sustained collaboration amongst the County, cities and other public agencies, and a wide array of community partners. • The web of established collaborative relationships in Los Angeles County provides a very strong foundation for the implementation of these strategies. • These recommended strategies must strengthen and build upon current County efforts by: (1) directing more resources to proven strategies; (2) integrating existing programs and services more effectively; (3) enabling cities to join the County in combating homelessness; and (4) identifying opportunities to leverage mainstream criminal justice; health and social services. In addition to overseeing the implementation of the approved strategies, the HI has been instrumental in highlighting the need and supporting the pursuit of an ongoing, flexible, revenue source of funding earmarked specifically for combating homelessness.