HOMELESS UPDATE: Redondo to hire mental health clinician
by Garth Meyer
Redondo Beach Housing Navigator Lila Omurra called L.A. County in February requesting a mental health clinician come out to evaluate a homeless man near city hall.
She took the first available appointment seven weeks later.
Omurra then left a series of notes on her client’s makeshift tent by the bike racks in front of the library, reminding him of the April 24 date.
He showed up, Omurra was there, “but (the county clinician) was a no-show.”
She got a call the next day, with an apology and offer to reschedule.
“These individuals will never walk into a clinic on their own,” Omurra said. “They will not succeed in our pallet shelter.”
Last week, the Redondo Beach city council voted 5-0 to fund a mental health clinician, a year after partially funding it and trying to enlist other beach cities to share the position.
Last spring, a mental health clinician was the top request by City Attorney Mike Webb and the Enhanced Response to Homelessness team, in city budget talks.
“In essence, it’s been a lost year,” Webb said, referring to the May 2022 earmark that funded one-third of a clinician, with the hope that Hermosa Beach and Manhattan Beach would cover the other two-thirds.
City Manager Mike Witzansky has since talked to these and other cities about such a partnership.
“The bad news is, it (was) still our no. 1 priority,” said Webb.
“We got positive feedback but with everything else going on, we just didn’t get it off the ground,” said Witzansky.
A mental health clinician is licensed to make diagnoses, create an official care plan for a homeless person and may refer them to certain agencies, such as a county mental health facility.
Omurra, who started with the city in January last year, is limited in what she may do.
She also told the city council last week that, if local police put a homeless person on a “5150” psychiatric hold, and find a bed at Harbor UCLA, for example, they may need to wait five or six hours to get the subject in. If the person is then medically cleared and they decline services, in 24 or 48 hours they likely return to the same spot in Redondo Beach.
“I have no access to the system,” Omurra said. “To be able to share that this person is a threat to themselves or others. Right now, we can’t do that.”
A mental health clinician can.
“The people left who you see on our streets are the ones we’re waiting for the county to come down and evaluate them,” said Omurra. “All I can do is keep trying to offer services.”
These include emergency shelter, help getting an I.D. card, birth certificate, etc., signing up for various social safety net programs and a potential spot in the Redondo pallet shelter.
Collective efforts
Torrance opened a pallet shelter last year and Hawthorne did a ribbon-cutting two weeks ago for a tiny-house village.
“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,” said Redondo Councilman Todd Loewenstein, saying it’s high time to hire a mental health clinician. “Every time we turn somebody away, that’s a failure on our part. I’m all in favor, let’s just get it done.”
“I don’t want to let our foot off of the pedal of what we’ve been doing,” said City Councilman Zein Obagi, Jr.
In February last year, the Greater L.A. Homeless Count showed 99 people in Redondo Beach, its lowest number since 2013, and a 44 percent decrease since 2020. Los Angeles County, overall, showed a 4.1 percent increase since that time.
City Net, a separate Redondo consultant, did a count also last February. It totaled 85 people.
Obagi said he wanted to fund a mental health clinician last year, but hoped for a collaboration with Hermosa Beach and Manhattan Beach, which operate their own efforts against homelessness.
“The City of Manhattan Beach supports the concept of a shared mental health clinician with Redondo and Hermosa,” said George Gabriel, assistant to the city manager. “And we look forward to future discussions to better serve the mental health needs of our regional community.”
“There’s still the potential (of a partnership),” said Witzansky. “We would never rule that out.”
“If other cities address their problem, and we address ours, we’re eventually going to get out of this crisis,” Webb said.
Kansas City interest
The move to hire a mental health clinician is the latest in Redondo’s recent push to further address homelessness, beginning with its homeless court in 2019 and the pallet shelter in 2020.
Word has spread. Representatives of Kansas City, Mo., held a conference call April 21 with Joy Abaquin Ford, Redondo Beach quality of life prosecutor, about starting their own homeless court.
“They are trying to replicate our model,” said Abaquin Ford. “It looks like they’re well on their way.”
Kansas City’s housing navigator is set to fly out to observe Redondo homeless court in June.
For the local pallet shelter, the 20 modular, temporary units next to South Bay Galleria, in their first two years, 79 people have lived on site and 59 have moved out – including 47 people to permanent housing – according to Ramon Rendon, Harbor Interfaith beach cities program director.
Nine residents have chosen to return to the streets. Two people died while living at the Redondo pallet shelter.
Rendon reports no walk-in traffic and no homeless at the adjacent new transit center.
Two current pallet shelter residents are a woman who collected umbrellas, who took much convincing to move in, and a man who was homeless for nearly 20 years.
“Imagine if you were sleeping sound in your bed, then abruptly moved to the street. It’s the same thing for someone sleeping on the street for quite some time, and abruptly moved to housing,” Redon said. “We’ve placed people with housing and they’ve died, whether self-inflicted or physical ailments.”
Two people have stayed at the pallet shelter for more than six months.
“Some (clients) need more than an apartment,” said Redon.
The pallet shelter is the first step toward getting off the streets in Redondo. The upcoming opening of Moonstone, “Permanent Supportive Housing” at the former Pacific Coast Inn at Knob Hill and PCH, is a further step.
Ronson Chu, senior project manager, homeless services, with South Bay Cities Council of Governments, said the organization estimates 300 evictions occur per month in the South Bay.
“These people are falling into homelessness,” Chu told the Redondo city council last week. “People being housed are mothers with daughters in my kids’ school; restaurant workers in Redondo Beach; even ex-city employees. These are residents with really strong ties to Redondo Beach who have fallen on hard times.”
Reverted Arrangement
Redondo City Councilman Nils Nehrenheim had questions April 18 about the office arrangement for the homelessness effort, which now reverts to its original spot in the city attorney’s office – following a council decision that same night to hold off on a potential ballot measure to switch from an elected city attorney to an appointee.
That vote will wait until 2026, instead of 2024.
“For the rest of my term, Lila (Omurra) will stay in my office,” Webb said. “Pushing off to 2026 the other item meant that my office has added capacity to do this.”
Omurra reports to Webb, while working in the field every weekday, and being on-call weekends.
For two months, she reported to the community services department.
The matter, Webb said, stemmed from a staff member leaving the city attorney’s office last December.
“That meant we couldn’t do these additional projects,” he said.
Webb has not yet brought in a new attorney because, he said, it was unfair to recruit someone to an office which may be disbanded next year (if the city attorney becomes an appointed position). Now with five years at minimum until that may happen, the situation is different.
Nehrenheim called for grants from the county to fund the clinician.
“We have a phenomenal opportunity now… to get the funding from county (grants),” he said, stating that the city should not have to pay for it from “our own general fund.”
Nehrenheim pointed out that there is a nationwide shortage of mental health clinicians, for which the estimated annual cost to hire is $150,000.
“If it’s a city hire, I think we’ll (draw from the county) for quality of life reasons,” said Webb.
Councilmember Paige Kaluderovic asked if the new employee could serve more than just the homeless, including youth.
“You’re going to need that beyond the homeless crisis,” said Webb, noting that the range in services depends on the funding source.
Then/now
The city council’s goal is to have a mental health clinician in place before the Moonstone opens in August.
Webb is optimistic that the $150,000 will be covered by grants. A gift of $250,000 came from L.A. County in 2022 and a $500,000 check was secured by Al Muratsuchi’s office – and presented by the assemblyman last summer to the Redondo council – though the money has not yet arrived, due to delays in Sacramento.
“You know you’re doing something really novel when they don’t know what state mechanism to pull the funding from,” said Webb.
The city formed its Enhanced Response to Homelessness program in 2019.
Homeless court is a series of outdoor hearings which offer a chance for people to address legal issues, their cases dismissed if they agree to accept services and get placed in housing. The concept began in San Diego.
Redondo Beach, with its own version, the pallet shelter and Omurra, now will add a fourth element to its project.
“I really feel like we’ve made a huge dent,” Omurra said. “Now with the mental health clinician, I feel like we have everything.” ER