{"id":23481,"date":"2020-04-08T19:31:31","date_gmt":"2020-04-09T02:31:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=23481"},"modified":"2020-04-08T19:31:31","modified_gmt":"2020-04-09T02:31:31","slug":"keeping-vulnerable-homeless-seniors-housed-post-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=23481","title":{"rendered":"Keeping Vulnerable Homeless Seniors Housed Post-Pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"

Los Angeles, CA (Wednesday, April 08, 2002) –<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Driven by a state of emergency, Los Angeles County has been working urgently to bring thousands of homeless people \u2013 specifically older adults and those with underlying health conditions \u2013 indoors to protect them from COVID-19. Now, Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas has filed a\u00a0motion<\/a>, co-authored by Supervisor Janice Hahn, urging Los Angeles County to develop a plan aimed at keeping these vulnerable individuals housed even after the pandemic has subsided.<\/p>\n

\u201cLA County is taking unprecedented steps to bring our most vulnerable indoors in the face of the COVID-19 crisis,\u201d Supervisor Ridley-Thomas said. \u201cAs we move forward, we can\u2019t just think short-term. We must be focused on keeping the thousands we intend to bring indoors housed for the long-term.\u201d<\/p>\n

If approved by the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, April 14, the motion would direct the County\u2019s Chief Executive Officer and various County Departments to develop a strategy within the next 45 days to provide long-term housing options for homeless people ages 65 and older who are being provided emergency housing during the pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re using unprecedented resources to bring people off the streets and indoors during this pandemic,\u201d said Supervisor Hahn. \u201cThis is the level of urgency that the homeless crisis has demanded for years and when the day comes that this pandemic is behind us, we need to ensure that we can take advantage of the progress we have made and make sure that the people we have found shelter do not end up back on the streets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Currently, the County of Los Angeles is collaborating on Project Roomkey with the State of California, the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, the Los Angeles County CEO Homeless Initiative, and other public and private partners to make 15,000 hotel rooms available to serve as temporary homes for people experiencing homelessnes who are particularly vulnerable to contracting the coronavirus, especially seniors and those with underlying health conditions.<\/p>\n

As of April 8, 2020, the County has executed occupancy agreements for over 1,000 hotel rooms. Over 400 hotel rooms are already operating across the County with health, mental health, and other supportive services provided by County staff as well as non-profit partners.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should not be content with bringing our homeless neighbors indoors only when there is an emergency,\u201d Supervisor Ridley-Thomas said. \u201cIt is critical to start assembling post-COVID-19 plans to ensure that they remain housed long-term.\u201d<\/p>\n

This motion continues\u00a0action<\/a>\u00a0that Supervisors Ridley-Thomas and Hahn initiated on January 21, 2020, when the Board directed several County Departments to examine the\u00a0Comprehensive Crisis Response Strategy<\/a>\u00a0issued by Governor Newsom\u2019s Council of Regional Homeless Advisors and develop the framework for establishing a legal obligation to provide housing.<\/p>\n

In a\u00a0report<\/a>\u00a0back to the Board on March 24, 2020, a workgroup of County Departments proposed implementing or scaling up 16 of the Comprehensive Crisis Response Strategies. In addition, a pilot program was proposed that would focus attention on ensuring housing to people experiencing homelessness who were aged 65 years or older.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe County has been working aggressively to address the homelessness crisis. With assistance from the State, the County could do even more to help people move into housing,\u201d County CEO Sachi Hamai said in the report.<\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s motion calls for the County to report back in September, as part of the Board\u2019s annual budget proceedings, with a longer-range implementation framework to ensure options to all homeless older adults who are willing to receive housing and services.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Los Angeles, CA (Wednesday, April 08,...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ca-local","category-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23481"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23481\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23482,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23481\/revisions\/23482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}