by Laura Garber
When a woman was recently found living in her car near the Hermosa Beach City Hall with her school-age daughter and Great Dane, HB Cares helped the woman get mental health care and helped her daughter back in school. All without police intervention.
HB Cares is a Mobile Mental Health and Crisis response team funded by a $1 million federal grant obtained last year by South Bay Congressional Representative Ted Lieu. The team consists of a mental health clinician, an EMT (Emergency Medical Technician), and a care coordinator.
Sara Russo, the City’s Senior Management Analyst, said about 10% of Hermosa Beach Police Department calls are mental health related. “This spurred a conversation with staff and the City Council about how we can help relieve police officers, who are not always trained in responding to mental health episodes,” she said.
Police officers may tell individuals to leave the area if they are causing a disturbance, but may not realize the person “is suffering from some type of illness and needs more care,” Russo said.
A mental health clinician is trained to refer individuals to a hospital to receive treatment, she said.
HB Care’s federal funding expires September 29. However, Russo is hopeful new funding will be found before then.
“The South Bay Cities Council of Government is partnering with us to see if we can get Measure A funding through Los Angeles,” Russo said. “I would love to see not an HB Cares team, but a Beach Cities Cares team.”
The number of homeless in Hermosa increased from eight in 2024 to 20 in 2025, according to the city’s latest homeless count.
Russo said HB Cares is modeled after Eugene, Oregon’s CAHOOTS (Crisis Assistance Helping Out On The Streets), which began in 1989.
A 2023 survey by NRI, a behavioral health analytics company, found over 1,800 mobile crisis teams across 50 states. The 2021 American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds 85% of the first three years’ expenses for crisis response teams.
An important benefit of a local response team is response time, Russo said.
HB Cares’ response time is five to six minutes, versus two to three hours for Los Angeles County mental health services, she said.
“It makes sense for these teams to be embedded in cities because client care services can be achieved so much faster,” Russo said.
HB Cares teams do not work Friday through Sunday or late nights, a limitation Russo hopes will be addressed.
“What would it mean for our Police Department if we had a night team and a day team that operated 24/7,” Russo asked.
Russo said HB Cares’ impact over the past year will be studied after the program expires to determine how many homeless were helped, and how much the program relieved police from having to respond to homeless calls. ER
