Los Angeles County’s recent Pathway Home encampment resolution operation, which took place on June 4, brought 15 people experiencing homelessness in Hawthorne into safe interim housing, where they are receiving supportive services and other resources to help them transition out of homelessness and into permanent housing.
This latest operation is part of the County’s multi-year initiative funded by a $51 million state Encampment Resolution Fund (ERF) grant. To date, ten ERF-funded Pathway Home operations have led to interim housing placements for nearly 300 people who had been living in makeshift encampments in or alongside the Los Angeles and San Gabriel rivers in the cities of Inglewood; Downey; South Gate; Norwalk; Bellflower; Santa Fe Springs; and in unincorporated areas of Willowbrook and West Athens.
The Hawthorne operation is the 54th Pathway Home encampment resolution since the Los Angeles County Homeless Initiative launched the program in August 2023. More than 1,550 Los Angeles County residents have come off the streets through Pathway Home, over 300 of whom are now permanently housed. These operations have also removed more than 850 RVs from the streets and returned community spaces to their intended use.
Pathway Home is a critical component of the County’s comprehensive response to the local emergency on homelessness adopted by the Board of Supervisors in 2023. By leveraging emergency powers and partnerships with local jurisdictions, Pathway Home is a full-circle solution designed to bring people off the streets, into immediately available interim housing accompanied by a comprehensive suite of supportive services and, ultimately, into permanent homes while returning community spaces such as public streets, waterways and other facilities to their intended use.
Leading up to each operation are weeks of outreach efforts by trained teams to build trust and prepare people experiencing homelessness for a transition to living indoors. Either during this pre-operation period or once in interim housing, teams connect people transitioning out of homelessness with a range of services designed to put them on a path to housing stability. This can include helping people secure identification, access healthcare and disability payments, enroll in job-training programs, and obtain rental subsidies.
Since the program’s inception in August 2023, Pathway Home has been funded primarily through Measure H, a ¼-cent sales tax approved by County voters in 2017 to prevent and address homelessness. Starting July 1, 2025, Pathway Home will be partially funded by Measure A, a ½-cent sales tax approved by voters in November 2024 to repeal and replace Measure H. Funding also pays for removal of any non-operational RVs, trash, and other debris that accumulates at encampments. It also covers costs associated with securing interim housing sites such as motels and site security.
Los Angeles County departments involved in these operations include Sheriff’s, Public Works, Public Health, Fire, Mental Health, Health Services, Animal Care and Control, and the newly created Emergency Centralized Response Center (ECRC). Outreach teams and service providers included the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) and City of Hawthorne Homeless Services team.