City seeking input for homelessness plan
Johnny Two-thirds leads his weekly feeding of the homeless in Noble Park in 2017. Photo
Officer Chad Amerine, of the Hermosa Beach Police Department, said the station often gets calls about homeless people from residents, many of whom do not realize that homelessness is not a crime. It takes a bit of explaining, but like other public agencies, law enforcement is still adapting to new roles in addressing homelessness.
“We’re in a new era. It’s not ‘Alright, move on to Manhattan, move on to Torrance, move on to Redondo.’ Police departments are not about that anymore,” Amerine said.
The “new era” that Amerine referred to is part of a deeper focus on homelessness in recent years by local governments in the region. With homelessness numbers skyrocketing across Southern California, Hermosa Beach has received funds to develop a plan to do its share to help the unsheltered. This Saturday, the city will host the third in a series of meetings designed for local stakeholders to provide input on the plan.
Nico de Anda-Scaia, assistant to the city manager, said that formulating the plan represents a way for Hermosa to see what residents, businesses and homeless services workers view as the critical aspects of the issue, and to address them in a joint effort.
“This is the first time Hermosa has taken a step to address homelessness as a regional and local issue,” de Anda-Scaia said at a previous meeting. “Cities across the county are trying to see which strategies are realistic.”
Along with Manhattan Beach and Redondo Beach, Hermosa was one of about three dozen cities in Los Angeles County to receive the grants, which averaged about $30,000. The funds come from Measure H, a countywide sales tax approved by voters in 2016 that raises approximately $350 million per year for homeless services. They were distributed in a partnership with United Way of Greater Los Angeles. The grant may only be used for planning, but could lead to additional funds without such restrictions, de Anda-Scaia said.
According to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, there were 57,795 homeless people in L.A. County in 2017, 19 of whom were in Hermosa Beach. Official numbers for the 2018 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count, which was conducted in January, won’t be available until May, but preliminary figures for this year are similar. These numbers typically grow in the summer, when weather improves and some of the region’s seasonal shelters shut their doors.
Homelessness has grown rapidly in the past few years, and officials say much of the blame goes to a housing shortage. Rising rents mean that the homeless population is growing faster than officials can build housing, open shelters or establish support services. This is especially true in high-cost areas like the South Bay.
“It doesn’t take much for a family to get set on their ear,” said Shari Weaver, director of the coordinated entry system at Harbor Interfaith Services. “We always say ‘one paycheck away,’ but these days it’s more like one-fourth of a paycheck.”
Mary Hoisington, a clinician with the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health, is in the field with HBPD officers every Tuesday, and frequently works with the homeless. Photo
Much of the focus in recent years has been on building permanent housing, but support services like those funded by Measure H remain an important part of the puzzle. For example, homelessness experts say it is far more cost-effective to help someone who is about to be evicted than someone already on the street, so some of the money is being used to provide bridge loans to help a tenant who has fallen behind.
Once a person is on the street, police officers are typically the first people to respond to calls about homeless people. This has become easier in the past year through a partnership with the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health that pairs a mental health clinician with South Bay police departments. The clinician, Mary Hoisington, spends Tuesdays in Hermosa, visiting contacts and responding to calls. According to the mental health department, about 60 percent of Hoisington’s calls involve homeless individuals.
Faith-based groups also play a key role in aiding the city’s homeless population. Pastor Dale Turner of Hope Chapel said that his church ministers to as many as a dozen different homeless people per week. He said that the church always makes an effort to find out how people end up in Hermosa. Most of those who end up in Hermosa, he said, are drawn here because of a preexisting connection.
“We’re a bedroom community. They have to make an effort to get here. It’s not like downtown [Los Angeles], Santa Monica or Long Beach,” Turner said.
Saturday’s meeting begins at 2 p.m. in City Council Chambers. Officials are looking for an “informal, general discussion” of homelessness, and will combine resident input with comments previously connected from government bodies, businesses and community organizations. The plan is expected to come before the City Council for comment at the body’s first meeting in May, de Anda-Scaia said. It must be submitted to the county by the end of June.