December 23, 2019
New federal program hopes to prevent homelessness in young adults aging out of foster care system
Christian, 22, is a recipient of a U.S. Housing and Urban Development initiative that provides vouchers to help provide stable housing for young adults aging out of foster care. (Scott Smeltzer / Daily Pilot)
The Foster Youth to Independence program was created, introduced, and passed by Congress within four months.
“It’s a monumental lift that’s never been done before, and that’s why it’s so important to do this right,” he said.
The HUD program is providing 24,000 vouchers to young adults across the nation who left the foster care system, mostly within the last year. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimates that more than 23,000 young people age out of foster care each year.
The National Center for Housing and Child Welfare estimates about that 25% of these young people experience homelessness within four years of leaving the foster system and an even higher percentage are precariously housed.
December 4, 2019
MAYOR GARCETTI, LAUSD ANNOUNCE EXPANSION OF PROGRAM TO ASSIST FAMILIES COPING WITH HOMELESSNESS, HOUSING INSECURITY
Mayor Garcetti today announced that 500 homeless families with students in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) system will receive Section 8 vouchers — an invaluable resource in the fight to get Angelenos off the streets and into housing.
“Angelenos are coming together to confront the homelessness and housing crisis, from opening A Bridge Home Shelters across the city to cutting red tape getting in the way of urgently needed affordable housing,” said Mayor Garcetti. “For decades, our schools have been overlooked in this fight — and today is an important first step as we work to ensure students and their families are met with opportunities and not obstacles.”
November 5, 2019
Watch: A homelessness and housing town hall
The post-recession recovery has not lifted all boats across California's economic landscape. Although Los Angeles and the Bay Area have seen growth in high-wage jobs, service-sector jobs continue to make up a significant portion of the labor force and those wages have not kept up with the cost of living or housing. Photo by Dan Coyro/Santa Cruz Sentinel
California’s affordable housing shortage has become a full-blown crisis and the numbers are staggering. Meanwhile, the state’s growing homeless population is straining public health systems.
LAFH President & CEO Stephanie Klasky-Gamer joined a panel organized by CalMatters, The Milken Institute and The Los Angeles Times during a town hall that examined the many factors leading to explosive rates of homelessness, and the steps that local and state leaders are taking to both accelerate housing development and navigate the legal and moral maze of helping the tens of thousands of people who live in squalor on California’s streets.
October 15, 2019
Empty Garages: The Answer to California’s Housing Shortage?
The LA-Más units have roomy, contemporary designs. Credit: Stephen Schauer, via LA-Más
According to a recent report by the California Housing Partnership, the state needs 1.4 million more affordable rental homes to meet current needs. The housing crisis in California means that architects and builders have had to get creative, and Steven Dietz said he is up for the challenge.
Garage conversions, granny flats, backyard cottages, in-law apartments, guesthouses, crash pads: In California as of 2017, they’re all “accessory dwelling units,” or ADUs, and state laws regulating their construction have been relaxed. Governor Gavin Newsom signed a law this month that further encourages their construction.
August 21, 2019
LAUSD partners with city housing agencies to assist northeast Valley families
Brianna Ceja,10, Rita Gonzales,10, and Leyla Cruz,8, are applauded by LAUSD Superintendent Austin Beutner for their perfect attendance while he toured Telfair Elementary School on the first day of school in Pacoima on August 20, 2018. (Photo by John McCoy, Contributing Photographer)
As students across the Los Angeles Unified School District headed back to classrooms Tuesday, district officials heralded a new partnership with city and county housing agencies aimed at providing support to a number of housing insecure and homeless families in the northeast San Fernando Valley.
Douglas Guthrie, president and CEO of the Housing Authority for the city of LA, said the agency will grant 50 Section 8 housing assistance vouchers to LAUSD households as part of a pilot program in coordination with LA Family Housing and Mayor Eric Garcetti’s office, in hopes of duplicating the venture in other parts of the district.
August 2, 2019
Column: Would forcing homeless people to move inside and off the streets work?
Shane Isaacson, a homeless military veteran, with his service dog, Bear, reads late into the night at Echo Park Lake in Los Angeles. (Liz Moughon / Los Angeles Times)
Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas and Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg, both involved in homeless issues for years, have proposed a new approach, in which the state would establish a right to shelter and make sure there’s a bed for every homeless person now camped on streets, riverbeds and parks.
This is a change in direction because for several years, the focus has been on building permanent supportive housing rather than temporary shelter. But the more radical part of the proposal is this:
Once beds were available, homeless people would be forced to move inside.
July 31, 2019
What It’s Like to Live in Your Car
(Photo credit: New York Times)
On Tuesday, over strenuous objection from advocates for the homeless, the Los Angeles City Council voted to reinstate and extend rules that bar people from living in their vehicles in many parts of the city.
The law, which expired at the beginning of the month, prohibits dwelling in vehicles at night on any residential street and at any time within a block of parks, schools and day cares.
The move comes as cities around the state grapple with homeless populations that — despite increased spending on services — are growing.
July 25, 2019
Giving Shelter
Maria and Ceasar Carrillo. Photo Michele Stueven
Shortly before she found out she was pregnant, the father of Maria Carrillo’s baby died unexpectedly. Facing some hard choices, she decided to keep the baby, which resulted in no other option but to move back in with her mother.
Her appendix burst during the pregnancy and Ceasar Carrillo was born prematurely, diagnosed with hydrocephalus from the impact and spent the first month of his life in an incubator. At two months he endured his first head surgery. Ceasar is now 3 years old, suffers seizures regularly and is under the constant and dedicated care of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.
June 1, 2019
A new North Hollywood ‘Family Campus’ goes ‘beyond the shelter walls’ to serve homeless
Emily Martiniuk, who was once homeless, left, gets a hug from President and CEO of LA Family Housing, Stephanie Klasky-Gamer at the grand opening of the new Irmas Family Campus of the LA Family Housing in North Hollywood, CA May 30, 2019. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
A homeless shelter that had been operating for 30 years out of a former motel and bar completed its transformation this week into a sunshine-filled campus that will soon begin offering health, housing and other services to thousands of people in the San Fernando Valley who are now living on the streets or in shelters.
The new LA Family Housing campus clusters together a family center, shelter and permanent housing with office space for job counselors, housing navigators, legal service staff and other partners.
The close proximity of a range of services and housing means that instead of needing to take a bus to get to a doctor’s appointment, it might only be a short walk to an exam room in another part of the campus.
Read the full article at The LA Daily News
More about The Irmas Family Campus
May 1, 2019
A One-Stop Shop for Affordable Backyard Homes Advances L.A.
(Graphics courtesy of CityLab/LA-Más)
Looking at the pressing shortages of low-income housing in each and every state in the country, it’s hard not to come to the conclusion that NIMBY homeowners are winning the fight against new housing, and especially against affordable housing. But there’s one potential foe that reactionary homeowners are ill-equipped to dominate: their own neighbors. Other homeowners, that is, who have elected to house Section 8 voucher-holders in their backyards.
That’s the proposal by LA-Más, an urban-design nonprofit in Los Angeles, and other organizations involved in The Backyard Homes Project. Led by designer Elizabeth Timme and public-policy expert Helen Leung, LA-Más has previously worked on placemaking projects and convenience-store redesigns that highlight healthy food options. Now, Timme, Leung, and their partners hope to finance and build backyard homes, or accessory dwelling units (ADUs), for homeowners who agree to rent them initially to Section 8 voucher-holders for a minimum of five years.
April 25, 2019
Michael B. Jordan, Ronda Rousey, join efforts to help the homeless
(Photo: Eric Charbonneau/REX/Shutterstock)
Michael B. Jordan and WWE star Ronda Rousey were just two of the powerhouses that gathered in Hollywood Thursday night for the LA Family Housing’s annual fundraising celebration.
The live-auction event, which brought together hundreds of top industry executives, philanthropists and government partners, aimed to raise $2 million for LAFH, which builds permanent housing and supportive services for the city’s homeless. In a rallying effort to meet the event’s goal, Jordan and Rousey, alongside families directly impacted by LAFH’s services, took the stage to express the importance of the non-profit’s work.
“I learned at a very young age that people who own less are not less than,” Jordan said on stage. “The people who we help should not be defined by what they lack. Homelessness is not an identity or the result of someone’s mistakes. It is a result of a broken system, people falling through the cracks, racism and discrimination, a lack of affordable housing, and years of unfair pay.”
The “Black Panther” star wasn’t the only one to touch on the stigma attached to homelessness. Blair Rich, president of worldwide marketing at Warner Bros. Pictures and Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, and actor PJ Byrne, the event’s emcee, also pointed to misperceptions of the homeless as one of the leading challenges facing the community.
“So many people look at homeless people and are like, ‘Just pull yourself up from your bootstraps, go get a job, and get off the street.’ That is not the answer,” said Byrne. “For so many people it happens because of medical bills. They get certain diseases, they’re bed-ridden and can’t pay their rent so they find themselves on the streets with their children. And sometimes you just need that helping hand to get off the streets into a home, reboot, and start your life again.”
According to Rich, who’s chaired the annual fundraiser for the past ten years, such a reboot can be made possible through an innovative model that successfully moved over 2,000 people into permanent housing in the last year. LAFH has 24 properties across Los Angeles, and a campus opening next month offering more than just housing. “I can’t stand the injustice that the stigma of homelessness brings with it which is that it’s an unsolvable problem and people are just trained to look away and people don’t think there’s a solution,” Rich said. “It’s not like a disease without a cure — we actually do know what to do so we have the model and it’s building permanent housing and matching that housing with supportive services like health care, tutoring and job training.”
Bringing together stars such as Jordan and Rousey is one way LAFH brings more attention to the city’s homeless crisis, said Mark Ridley-Thomas, the LA County Supervisor and the honoree of the night.
“I am just very proud that they are here because they get it,” Ridley said when asked about Hollywood’s involvement with the organization. “And many of them have their own journeys, their own stories. Some of those who we celebrate as celebrities have themselves been homeless.”
(Photo: Eric Charbonneau/REX/Shutterstock)
Rousey spoke of her own tumultuous beginnings in her speech, recounting the times she had to sleep in her car due to instability in her home life. “Like many others here tonight, I was not born into money or privilege,” Rousey said. “I spent more than enough nights sleeping in my car but I was lucky and I found a way to work myself up the economic ladder.”
The Olympic medalist ended her speech on a high note before the night’s bidding began, though. “I believe in advantageous disadvantages,” she said. “There is power in reaching our lowest lows because it not only shows us what we’re capable of enduring but also what we have the ability to rebuild ourselves from. I believe that rock bottom is the most solid foundation from which to build your life.
Feb 13, 2019
Stephanie Klasky-Gamer and the Prevention and Diversion of Homelessness
Stephanie Klasky-Gamer describes LA Family Housing’s Prevention & Diversion programs, and process for placing housing throughout the city, which has an unprecedented rate of community acceptance. You’ll also hear Stephanie’s experience with a woman who had come the end of her options, but who is now flourishing thanks in part to an individualized approach that determines what is needed to become permanently housed.
Jan 30, 2019
The government shutdown is over, but uncertainty remains for tenants in public housing
Stephanie Klasky-Gamer, president and CEO of LA Family Housing, addresses people gathered before the three-day Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count at the Fiesta Apartments in North Hollywood. (Nick Agro / For The Times)
These are anxious times for Stephanie Klasky-Gamer and the people her organization, LA Family Housing, helps lift out of poverty and homelessness.
Throughout the 35-day government shutdown, the chief executive worried that some 400 families — or about 1,600 people — wouldn’t be able to stay in their federally subsidized houses and apartments, and that LA Family Housing wouldn’t recoup the $250,000 it had spent to prevent mass evictions from the federal government.
And now that the government has reopened, she is worried that another shutdown will put those same tenants at risk again and that landlords will be less willing to work with the poor and homeless people her organization serves.
JAN 23, 2019
Mayor Eric Garcetti kicks off annual L.A. homeless count: ‘Counting is the beginning of caring’
LA Mayor Eric Garcetti during the Homeless Count (Photo: Nick Agro / For The Times)
On a night when temperatures dipped into the 40s in Los Angeles, Mayor Eric Garcetti joined thousands of volunteers documenting the area’s homeless population.
The mayor was joined by other government officials at a permanent supportive housing facility in North Hollywood run by L.A. Family Housing. More than 7,000 volunteers are expected to participate in the annual documentation, which continues through Thursday.
January 3, 2019
Audio: outreach Is Key To Ending Homelessness In Los Angeles. Here's How It Happens
Outreach worker Eric Montoya (right) and Dr. Absalon Galat (left) approach a makeshift shelter in the Sepulveda Dam basin, in Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley (Photo: LAistt)
Every day, hundreds of people in Los Angeles County work homeless outreach — building relationships with homeless residents, and working with them individually to enroll in programs and services already available for help. It’s a major part of LA’s anti-homelessness efforts, but they can’t end homelessness on their own, as KPCC’s housing reporter Matt Tinoco reports.