Los Angeles County’s Pathway Home program brought 35 people experiencing homelessness in the unincorporated communities of Walnut Park and Firestone Park to safe interim housing, where they will receive supportive services and other resources to help them transition out of homelessness and into permanent housing. The operation also removed dozens of RVs or recreational vehicles being used as makeshift places to live.
Pathway Home is an encampment resolution program that is a critical component of the County’s comprehensive response to the local emergency on homelessness adopted by the Board of Supervisors early this year. By leveraging emergency powers and partnerships with local jurisdictions, Pathway Home brings people living in encampments off the streets and into immediately available interim housing accompanied by a comprehensive suite of supportive services enabling them to ultimately move into permanent housing.
Partners in this Pathway Home operation included the Office of LA County Supervisors Holly Mitchell and Janice Hahn. The effort also included the LA County Chief Executive Office; LA County Departments of Health Services (DHS), Mental Health (DMH), Public Works, Animal Care and Control, Military and Veterans Affairs; the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA), and the nonprofit service providers PATH and HOPICS.
About Pathway Home
After declaring a state of emergency on homelessness in January 2023, the Board of Supervisors authorized efforts to streamline hiring, contracting, purchasing, grants, and real estate processes. This has – and continues to – enable the County to expand, enhance and expedite elements of its homeless services system, giving rise to Pathway Home. Partnerships with local jurisdictions further grow capacity and bring in valuable additional resources.
Leveraging powers under the state of emergency on homelessness declared by the Board of Supervisors in January 2023, Los Angeles County has launched Pathway Home, a major expansion of its ongoing efforts to resolve encampments countywide, including recreational vehicles, in partnership with local jurisdictions and unincorporated communities.
With Pathway Home, the County will reduce unsheltered homelessness in specific communities by helping people living on the streets come indoors, receive supportive services they need to achieve housing stability, and ultimately move into permanent housing.
LA County Supervisor Holly J. Mitchell with LA County Sheriff Deputy George Suarez and LA County Fire Capt. Rich Ruelas, right, talk with Katrina Camarena Zaragoza at her RV she agreed to give up and move into interim housing during a Pathway Home operation in Huntington Park, Dec. 14, 2023. (Photo by Michael Owen Baker)