Homeless street services stall as encampments continue to grow

Homeless street services stall as encampments continue to grow

High above the Metro Gold Line tracks, a string of lean-tos that Lee Brown calls his “three-bedroom condominium” is tethered to a hilltop fence in Elysian Park.

The four-man, two-dog tent city — one of several camps in the 600-acre park north of downtown Los Angeles — has remained intact for at least two years, passed from one homeless person to the next, Brown said.

Last year, Los Angeles put money behind various efforts to curb encampments like Brown’s until the city’s ambitious housing construction program takes hold.

Funding for one strategy — camp cleanups or sweeps — expanded to $13 million. But spending on services for people living in the streets — mobile showers, housing navigation centers, storage facilities and homeless parking lots — lagged behind.

Of the $7.5 million budgeted for “street strategies” in 2016-17, more than $2 million was returned to city coffers, and nearly $2 million was diverted to camp sweeps, according to figures provided by city officials. Last month, the city approved an additional $509,000 transfer from services to homeless outreach workers to accompany cleanup teams.

Advocates say hygiene, storage and other services help homeless people get back into the mainstream. But no navigation centers have opened, storage facilities are available only on skid row and, to a limited extent, in Venice, and one small city-funded parking program opened in South Los Angeles in June.

“Institutionally we have not instigated a sense of urgency about the street strategy stuff,” Westside Councilman Mike Bonin said at a recent homelessness committee meeting. ”It doesn’t seem this is where we’re putting our shoulder.”

A spokesman for Mayor Eric Garcetti said the city has expanded homeless outreach, added drop-in and access centers, and spent $4.2 million on skid row storage and nighttime bathroom access. A $450,000 hygiene center with showers, wash stations and bathrooms is set to open on skid row as soon as next week.

“Mayor Garcetti is leading an aggressive effort to keep our streets clean and safe,” press secretary Alex Comisar said in a statement. “This strategy includes targeting drug dealers and other criminals who prey on our vulnerable homeless population, and continuing focused street cleanups to keep our sidewalks healthy, and prevent disease.”

But some advocates say the city may have missed an opportunity to curtail the camps — the most visible and politically toxic manifestation of the city’s homeless crisis…..more here

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