Los Angeles County’s Pathway Home program brought 43 people experiencing homelessness in Pomona to safe interim housing, where they will receive supportive services and other resources to help them transition out of homelessness and into permanent housing.
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 Supervisor Hilda Solis and the City of Pomona, including the Pomona Police Department’s Homeless Encampment Action Response Team (HEART) and the Pomona Public Works Department. The effort also included the LA County Chief Executive Office; LA County Departments of Health Services (DHS) and Mental Health (DMH); the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA), and the nonprofit service providers Volunteers of America and Union Station Homeless Services.
Tawanna Terry, left, with the nonprofit service provider Volunteers of America, welcomes Karen Anthony, who transitioned from living in her car to interim housing during the Pathway Home operation in Pomona, Nov. 13, 2023. (Photo/Michael Owen Baker)
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.
Pathway Home is made possible through funding administered through the LA County Homeless Initiative, including Measure H, a voter-approved ¼-cent sales tax that has enabled the County’s homeless services system to grow exponentially over the last six years. Since Measure H passed in 2017, the County has placed 98,905 people in permanent housing, and provided interim housing to 137,656 people.
Pomona Mayor Tim Sandoval, right, listens to LA County Homeless Initiative division lead for municipal relations Onnié Williams III, during a visit to a Pathway Home operation at a motel in Pomona, Nov. 13, 2023. . (Photo/Michael Owen Baker)