Campaign to End Homelessness
in Los Angeles
Los Angeles, CA: On April 6 the highly
anticipated Bring L.A. Home Plan launched its 10-year campaign
to end homelessness in Los Angeles. The report lays out
a broad range of strategies to address the complexities
surrounding the homeless problem that are present throughout
the County. The Bring L.A. Home Blue Ribbon Panel sets in
motion a general framework with key strategies that will
create momentum for the campaign to end homelessness in
Los Angeles.
The report responds to the current homeless crisis in Los
Angeles County, which has now been labeled the “Homeless
Capital” of the United States. According to the 2005
Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count report, the total number
of homeless people in the streets and shelters is 82,291
on any one night (point in time) and 221,363 annually excluding
those in Long Beach, Pasadena and Glendale. Including homeless
count information from Long Beach (4,475), Pasadena (1,217)
and Glendale (362), the total homeless count for Los Angeles
County is 88,345. Of the 82,291, there are 34,512 that are
chronically homeless individuals.
"Bring L.A. Home, the ten year plan to end homelessness,
is the product of thousands of hours of hard work by people
who have dedicated their lives to this issue long before
it got the media attention it currently commands,"
said Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa. "We are thankful
to the authors of this plan and look forward to their work
informing the growing collaboration between the City and
the County on this issue."
The Bring L.A. Home Plan was originally conceived in 2003,
when the County and City convened a diverse 60-member Blue
Ribbon Panel, consisting of stakeholders from government,
corporations, non-profits and former and presently homeless
persons, to develop a 10-year plan to end homelessness in
the County. During these past few years, the Los Angeles
Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) and the Los Angeles
Coalition to End Hunger and Homelessness (LACEH&H) were
responsible for coordinating the activities and meetings
that helped to create the final version of this plan. These
activities consisted of 20 focus groups, 24 community forums
and over 1,000 people were convened to provide their input.
The report indicates that the cost of “doing nothing”
is actually more costly to local taxpayers. Studies have
shown that there is extraordinary cost placed by homeless
people to communities due to arrests and hospitalizations.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff Department estimates it spends
approximately $32 million each year on such responses. Based
on analysis, hospitalization is 49 times more costly than
supportive housing and jail is at least twice as expensive.
One month’s stay in a mental hospital could pay for
20 months in supportive housing and one day in the hospital
could pay for more than 45 days in supportive housing.
“Tonight, one in every nine persons who is homeless
in our country will be in Los Angeles, and that is good
reason for the work of the Blue Ribbon Panel and its ambitious
recommendations,” indicated Philip Mangano, Executive
Director of the Federal US Interagency Council on Homelessness
and point person on the issue in the Bush Administration.
“ I have followed the work of the Panel from its inception
and their deliberate efforts have provided information and
an analytical foundation for the creation of an action plan
to create results on the streets, in neighborhoods and in
the lives of homeless people.”
The Bring LA Home Plan is based on seven guiding principles:
• Prevent homelessness;
• Address the structural causes of homelessness;
• Sustain the current capacity to serve homeless people
and build new capacity where it is needed;
• Ensure rapid return to housing for people into the
mainstream of society;
• Bring alienated homeless people into the mainstream
of society;
• Take a regional approach to the crisis; and
Reaffirm that housing is one of the basic human rights.
A copy of the plan is a available on LAHSA’s website
at www.lahsa.org or at LACEH&H at www.lacehh.org or
Bring LA Home’s website at www.bringlahome.org
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