Supervisors Back LA City Homeless Emergency Declaration

LOS ANGELES —The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Dec. 20 voted unanimously to approve a proposal by Board Chair Janice Hahn and Supervisor Kathryn Barger to support the City of Los Angeles’ emergency declaration on homelessness signed last week by Mayor Karen Bass and partner in the emergency response to the homelessness crisis.

The 2022 Los Angeles County Homeless Count counted a total of 69,144 people experiencing homelessness in the County, with nearly 42,000 people experiencing homelessness within the City of Los Angeles.

On Dec. 12, Chair Janice Hahn joined Mayor Karen Bass at the City of Los Angeles emergency operations center as she signed a declaration of a state of emergency on homelessness. The goal behind this declaration is to be able to approach the homelessness crisis as you would a natural disaster like a fire or flood that displaces tens of thousands of people from their homes by mobilizing resources more quickly to address the issue of homelessness and move housing projects forward without cumbersome red tape.

Chair Hahn and Supervisor Barger’s motion, which was unanimously approved by the Board of Supervisors, officially proclaims the county’s support for the City of Los Angeles’ emergency declaration and takes the following concrete steps to establish a new city-county partnership:

1. Ensures representatives from the Los Angeles County Departments of Health Services, Public Social Services, Public Health, and Mental Health will join Mayor Bass and her leadership team at regular meetings to implement the state of emergency.
2. Identifies county staff who will work with city homeless outreach teams and at new interim housing sites to connect individuals with county services such as mental health counseling, substance use counseling, housing navigation, Medi-Cal enrollment and domestic violence services.
3. Embeds the CEO of the county, Fesia Davenport, or a designee, as the second deputy incident commander in the City of Los Angeles incident command at the city emergency operations center. (Added to the motion by Hahn through a read-in revision during the meeting)