The Los Angeles Homeless Containment Thread

[CA4Now]

Luis Flores, Malibu's public safety liaison, said the city is showcasing its preliminary numbers months ahead of the official countywide release “to be proactive with our messaging.” Over the years, he said, there’s been an ebb and flow that creates “a perception that not a lot is being done and that we have a major crisis on our hands. We want to ensure and highlight that a lot of great work is being done.”

Since 2017, Malibu has contracted with the People Concern* for services and currently has two outreach workers and a housing navigator.

A Malibu ordinance prohibits overnight stays “in any public park, public beach or public street (including in a vehicle parked on a public street).” An amendment bringing the law into compliance with federal court rulings specifies that it will not be enforced on people who “do not have access to adequate temporary shelter.”...

* https://www.thepeopleconcern.org/

Malibu’s homeless numbers are down nearly 80% from 2020, city announces:
https://www.latimes.com/california/s...official-count

[CA4Now]

The four families arrived in the U.S. by air and bus from El Paso and San Antonio after crossing the Mexican border into Texas. They came from Nicaragua, Peru, Honduras and Venezuela with no connections to Los Angeles. They included a 22-year-old woman pregnant with twins and a single mother with three small children.

Their fare was paid by faith-based groups in Texas, and it was unclear whether the trips were related to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s campaign to send migrants on buses and planes to other states. A call to Catholic Charities in San Antonio, the organization one family identified as its sponsor, was not returned.

Skid Row, an intense environment with half-clothed people wandering aimlessly, open drug use and a pervasive stench, is universally judged an unfit place for children to live. But the new wave of migrants arriving from Texas has added to the strain on both public and private agencies working to prevent that.

The four families living communally on Skid Row became connected at Union Rescue Mission, two blocks away on San Pedro Street, where they stayed for 90 days until they were asked to pay rent.

Since October, the mission has been overwhelmed by migrants, who mostly find their way there by word of mouth and now make up 75% of the 400 family members there, said Kitty Davis-Walker, vice president for public relations.

With donations declining since early last year, the privately funded mission in December decided that anyone staying beyond 90 days would have to help cover their costs by contributing 15% of their household income.

Children on Skid Row: Four migrant families form a tenuous community:
https://www.latimes.com/california/s...ck-of-skid-row

[CA4Now]

Nearly 4 in 10 renters in Los Angeles County have worried about losing their homes and becoming homeless in the last few years, according to the results of a new survey from UCLA. A similar share have worried that they or their family would go hungry because they cannot afford the cost of food.

The 2024 Quality of Life Index, prepared by UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs, suggests that the county‘s renters are feeling particularly intense strain from the steep cost of housing combined with inflation.

Median rent in Los Angeles is $2,083, according to Apartment List. That’s down slightly from last year but still high enough to create significant challenges for renters across the region.

https://www.latimes.com/california/s...c-survey-finds

[CA4Now]

Progress!

When Many Mansions, an affordable housing nonprofit, purchased the half-acre parcel opposite what was formerly Sun Valley High School in 2017, the Los Angeles Unified School District approached it with a proposal to develop the land into housing for homeless families with children in the district.

After nearly seven years of overcoming bureaucratic and pandemic hurdles, the project is finished. Families began moving into the 26-unit residential building in December.

Rubang’s family of three was among the first to move in on Day One. This was the first time any of them had a place to call home.

Nearly 15,000 students in the district are experiencing homelessness, according to the LAUSD. However, this figure is likely an undercount since the data relies on self-identification, which many students and families choose not to disclose.

Sun Valley housing project offers stability to homeless families in LAUSD:
https://www.latimes.com/homeless-hou...ilies-in-lausd