L.A. County officials reaffirmed at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting that a “care-first” approach will be used when dealing with homeless encampments.
Questions had been raised by cities across the county, according to Sheriff Robert Luna, on the back of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s executive order last week ordering state agencies to clear encampments on state property. Luna said the general concern is that homeless encampments would be cleared out in one city and they would simply move to another nearby city, exacerbating the problem.
That was a point that other county agency leaders hit on throughout Tuesday’s report to the board on the county’s response to the rising homelessness crisis. Many of them said that clearing homeless encampments is a goal, but not if that involves criminalizing the homeless simply for being homeless.
“Being homeless is not a crime, and we will maintain our focus on criminal behavior rather than an individual’s status, which is key,” Luna said. “As always, any criminal activity will be addressed accordingly.”
Newsom’s order came nearly a month after the Supreme Court ruled on City of Grants Pass v. Johnson, saying that bans on homeless encampments are not violations of the Eighth Amendment’s constitutional protections against excessive bail, fines or any cruel and unusual punishment.
Ana Lai, part of the county’s legal counsel, said the ruling and executive order do not mean that encampments must be cleared, only that they can be. She added that other constitutional amendments still protect people, such as the Fourth Amendment’s limit on illegal property seizure and the Eighth Amendment’s excessive fines clause.
Va Lecia Adams Kellum, CEO of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, said criminalizing homeless people is not part of the framework that the board tasked county agencies with implementing. She also said that removing encampments would only push people to other places, leading to more crimes possibly going unreported due to those areas being less policed.
As far as how effective LAHSA has been, Adamas Kellum said the agency’s work has led to “measurable” success to the tune of a 5% drop in unsheltered homeless, a 13% increase in sheltered homeless and a 31% drop in makeshift shelters, per the latest point-in-time count conducted in January.
In a prepared statement released on Tuesday, 5th District Supervisor Kathryn Barger said she believes working with cities in the county is the best strategy.
“I believe we must continue working closely with city partners to solve homelessness regionally instead of shuffling people experiencing homelessness around or calling on law enforcement partners to cite them,” Barger, who represents the Santa Clarita Valley, said in the statement. “Those strategies are ineffective because they don’t treat the root cause of homelessness.”
“I want to be clear: Enforcement is certainly an important tool, but it needs to be applied strategically and in a way that sustains permanent change,” she continued. “It will remain a last resort to maintain public safety and public health. Some believe our work to resolve homeless encampments isn’t happening fast enough, but fast doesn’t always mean successful.”
Barger’s sentiments were echoed by Cheri Todoroff, director of the county’s Homeless Initiative, who said providing care is more impactful than simply telling someone to move, and cities declaring their intent to be good neighbors and not shifting jurisdiction is the right way forward.
“This includes partnering with cities to bring in new resources, such as through Pathway Home and through funding that we’re able to secure, such as the state encampment resolution grants,” Todoroff said.
Pathway Home is one of the county’s partnerships with cities that has led to encampment resolution. To date, that program has led to 17 encampments being removed, 692 people moved into interim housing, 422 recreational vehicles being taken off the streets and 114 people being permanently housed, according to the program’s website.
Todoroff said the program’s outreach efforts will ramp up this fiscal year after first being implemented in the previous fiscal year.
Capt. Geoffrey Deedrick with the Sheriff’s Department’s Homeless Outreach Services Team said the department started the HOST protocol in 2011 and is now viewed as the national model. He said there are five key points that the HOST team focuses on when going to encampments:
- Identification: At least five people must be living in an area for it to be deemed an encampment.
- Assessment: Getting to know the people living in an encampment to better understand what those people need.
- Outreach: Specialists are used to address the factors found during the assessment period.
- Posting.
- Cleanup.
Deedrick said he knows of multiple formerly homeless individuals who were reunited with family due to the actions of the HOST team.
Both Barger and 1st District Supervisor Hilda Solis said they were worried about Newsom’s order causing Caltrans to have more control over the clearing of encampments. Todoroff said the Caltrans requirement of 72 hours’ notice — it was previously 48 hours — is well below the county’s standard of two weeks’ notice, but that the order does prioritize shelter and services as a precursor to resolving a camp.
“Clearing homeless encampments in a county as big as ours isn’t just an issue of money,” Barger said in her statement. “This is about our capacity to house and deliver a well-orchestrated strategy with several ingredients: sustaining outreach work, building trust, and delivering coordinated social services.
“I stand by that strategy,” Barger continued. “The testimony we heard today from Sheriff Luna — along with county housing and mental health experts who lead local efforts — reaffirms that Los Angeles County has solid partnerships in place to implement compassionate strategies that work. The governor’s executive order means we will have an extra layer of strategic coordination with Caltrans and other state agencies, which isn’t new.”
Solis called on state agencies to take part in the conversations at local levels to ensure that people living in encampments are not simply pushed aside elsewhere.
A report is due back to the board in 120 days on how the county’s mission to combat homelessness is working and what can be done better.
