MOTION-- The City of Los Angeles is facing a humanitarian crisis. Homelessness has continued to rise despite efforts to build more shelters and more housing solutions. Our neighbors are forced to live on the street in unsafe and unhealthy conditions. Offering these individuals a pathway into housing and into a better life is of critical importance. The City understands this and is committed to solving the homelessness crisis, but as was acknowledged in our Comprehensive Homeless Strategy, it cannot be done unilaterally. It requires collaboration with partners at the County, the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA),and our existing service provider network. To highlight the efforts of these various agencies and departments, the City Council has had a series of discussions around homelessness.
On February 3, the City Council heard a report from the City Administrative Officer and Housing and Community Investment Department to discuss the status of the Homelessness Roadmap (CF#20-0841), interim housing. .Permanent supportive housing, and Prop HHH. Together these housing solutions have created thousands of new units to house our homeless neighbors and should be utilized, which is why outreach is a critical component to solving the crisis.
The following month, LAHSA reported to the City Council with a presentation on Street Outreach and Engagement in response to Motion Raman-Martinez (CF# 20-1603) and Koretz-Buscaino (CF#20-1013). The presentation provided information on the approximately 200 outreach teams that are focused on connecting unhoused individuals to housing and services. Multi-Disciplinary Teams, which are overseen by the County, also play a key role in connecting people experiencing homelessness to services and housing. This same presentation also brought to light some of the gaps that exist in our outreach efforts and highlighted how the various agencies could improve on collaboration. For example, having a direct line of contact between outreach workers and the County Department of Mental Health (DMH) when an individual is encountered who is in need of additional services. As well as having a system that allows for data sharing between outreach workers and service providers so that individuals do not have to fill out multiple intake forms.
The Council, understanding the critical component that outreach plays in the success of ending the homelessness crisis, provided funding for LAHSA through the Homelessness Roadmap to create 15additional outreach teams, one for each Council District. The City's hope is that combining the consistent City staff who work with the unhoused in a particular geography, along with the consistent LAHSA staff who work with the unhoused in the same geography, relationships of trust can be developed that will lead to better outcomes for unhoused people.
It is imperative that all interactions performed by LAHSA, service providers, County and City staff be integrated and coordinated with the new outreach engagement teams, as we work to place individuals into the 6700 new beds coming online throughout the City, so that we create a more seamless transition process for homeless individuals and ensure that they have their best chance of success. The Council should therefore provide some guidance in regard to the outreach strategy.
I THEREFORE MOVE that the Council instruct the CLA, with assistance of CAO and LAHSA, to develop a citywide framework on how its existing outreach teams and new outreach teams will coordinate to ensure a person experiencing homelessness has the best chance of a successful housing placement.
The framework will meet the following objectives:
The outreach strategy will maintain, to the greatest degree possible, consistency in scheduling and staffing so that relationships will be formed between outreach workers and unhoused people, with seamless transitions between outreach workers on different teams and when staffing changes occur.
o LAHSA Council district-specific teams will work collaboratively with each Council office and respond appropriately to the evolving issues of homelessness within a district's geography, communicate regularly about new challenges in the delivery of services, and transfer information that will be relevant to the policymaking process to policymakers.
o Alternative process when traditional Coordinated Entry System conflicts with a local need, including examining the Encampment to Home model.
o Establish a process for ensuring special needs of individuals are met so as not to create delays in servicing an encampment (DMH/DPH needs).
o The outreach framework should define how specific areas for outreach are selected and how encampments are chosen for specific attention.
o Developing metrics/timelines for people experiencing homelessness to transition to appropriate interventions.
The outreach framework will address homelessness at any given hour, and appropriately handle off-hour (night, weekend or emergency) calls for homeless services outside of normal business hours and ensure a team is available to respond during off hours or enable engagement at effective times for people experiencing homelessness.
The outreach framework will define how transportation for a person and their belongings is coordinated when that person is to be placed in an available shelter or housing option, allowing for flexibility and opportunity to make placements when a shelter placement wasn't explicitly expected at the deployment of outreach.
I FURTHER MOVE that the Council INSTRUCT the Chief Legislative Analyst, with the assistance of the CAO and LAHSA, to engage the County of Los Angeles and document how the process for interagency collaboration is performed, and how specialized services are delivered to people in need at the street level or from referrals to providers, with particular focus on how data on unhoused persons is maintained and transferred between different agencies' outreach activities, to avoid repeat questions and repeat engagement, and better hold outreach teams accountable.