In the one year since the Board of Supervisors unanimously declared a state of emergency on homelessness, Los Angeles County reported that nearly 38,000 people came indoors to interim housing while outreach and treatment dramatically increased for those living on the streets with physical and behavioral health challenges countywide. LA County also placed more than 23,600 people into permanent housing – ending their homelessness – and prevented over 11,000 people from becoming homeless in the first place.
The emergency declaration has enabled LA County to accelerate service delivery, cut red tape, and jumpstart process changes that are scaling and fast-tracking the ongoing work to prevent and end homelessness. This includes strengthening partnerships with and supporting local jurisdictions and unincorporated areas; hiring additional frontline staff such as outreach workers, housing navigators, mental health clinicians and substance use counselors; and investing in innovative strategies to increase our housing stock such as unit acquisition and Homekey. In 2023, the County continued steps to prevent people from falling into homelessness in the first place by expanding rent relief efforts to pay back rent to avoid evictions and by expanding successful programs to keep people in their homes, such as Stay Housed LA.
The emergency declaration also enabled LA County to launch its encampment resolution program, Pathway Home, for 87 of the County’s cities and unincorporated areas. LA County also provides support to the City of Los Angeles, which administers its own encampment resolution program, Inside Safe.
Pathway Home is a full-circle solution that brings people off the streets into immediately available interim housing accompanied by a comprehensive suite of supportive services and, ultimately, into safe, permanent homes. Launched in August 2023, Pathway Home has already brought more than 400 people safely indoors, more than 50 of whom have moved into permanent housing. In 2024, the County plans to complete 38 Pathway Home operations, putting approximately 1,800 people experiencing unsheltered homelessness on a path to housing stability.
“Los Angeles County is using the powers of the emergency declaration to accelerate and scale homelessness solutions countywide,” said Board Chair Lindsey P. Horvath, who co-authored the motion to proclaim a state of emergency on homelessness on January 10, 2023. “Our crisis response will continue as we focus on homelessness prevention and further dismantling bureaucracy to deliver lasting solutions to homelessness. Everyone can contribute to ending this crisis by supporting affordable housing development, connecting a vulnerable neighbor to eviction protections, or considering a career in the homeless services system.”
“Proclaiming a local emergency was an essential step that has helped our County accelerate its response to homelessness and corral its resources to focus on achieving one mission,” added Supervisor Kathryn Barger, co-author of the emergency motion. “By applying our emergency powers, we’ve also created more urgency and a coordinated response that is helping more people experiencing homelessness get off our streets and onto a path towards housing stability. While our results from this first year are encouraging, there is still a lot of work ahead.”
EMERGENCY RESPONSE
“Emergency powers enabled LA County to more effectively coordinate, align, and steer the complex network of local jurisdictions, departments, and programs that constitute our region’s homeless services system,” said Chief Executive Officer Fesia Davenport. “We have built a strong foundation over the past year. Today, we’re better positioned to deploy solutions at the scale that is urgently needed.”
Among the highlights of the emergency response in 2023:
- 37,505 new placements in interim housing, a 15% increase from 2022
- 23,664 new placements in permanent housing, an 18% increase from 2022
- 60 specialized outreach teams now deployed to work with people facing physical and behavioral health challenges, a 70% increase from 2022.
- More than 1,000 new shelter beds for mental health and substance use disorder treatment and intensive case management.
- On average, LA County departments accelerated hiring by 77% to an average of 2 months. In the last two months of 2023 alone, more than three new staff were hired each day.
- Since it launched in 2020, Stay Housed LA has provided legal services to nearly 22,000 households, tenant navigation services to over 9,800 households and public awareness to over 1 million people.
- 10 Pathway Home operations brought 443 people into interim housing, 56 of whom have been permanently housed. It also removed 206 RVs.
For more information on the emergency response, click on this Fact Sheet or watch this Video.