Los Angeles County’s encampment resolution program, Pathway Home, has housed its first client: Dawn Toftee, who had been homeless for 19 years.
Dawn and her beloved dog, Fatty, moved into their own apartment just eight weeks after Pathway Home brought them and nearly five dozen other people into interim housing following an encampment resolution in unincorporated Lennox.
Pathway Home partners St. Margaret’s Center, part of Catholic Charities of Los Angeles, and PATH, were instrumental in helping Dawn transition from interim to permanent housing.
Pathway Home is a component of the ongoing, multi-pronged response to the homelessness crisis launched under the emergency declared by the Board of Supervisors in January. The operation in unincorporated Lennox took place from August 9 through August 11 and was conducted in collaboration with the Office of Supervisor Holly Mitchell along with officials serving Lennox and the Cities of Inglewood and Hawthorne.
The operation focused on a cluster of longstanding encampments —including one dubbed “The Dead End”— beside or beneath the 405 Freeway, near Los Angeles International Airport. In all, 59 people were supported to come indoors, 50 of whom chose to move into a hotel administered through Pathway Home, while nine others entered other forms of interim housing. Pathway Home also supported housing 26 pets, the removal of seven RVs, and the cleanup and removal of tents, trash and other items from the site.