Los Angeles Briefs: Judge Sworn-In as Inaugural Director of JCOD and County and LA Alliance Agree to Settlement

Judge Songhai Armstead (Ret.) Sworn-In as Los Angeles County Justice, Care and Opportunities Department Director

LOS ANGELES — Judge Songhai Armstead (Ret.) was sworn in as inaugural director of the new Los Angeles County Justice, Care and Opportunities Department or JCOD at the Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration today.

Judge Armstead (Ret.) took the oath to serve in her new role in front of the Board of Supervisors, staff and friends and family in attendance.

Judge Armstead (Ret.) was appointed as a Superior Court Judge by Gov. Jerry Brown, during which she served for five years before stepping down to lead the county’s Office of Alternatives to Incarceration (ATI), which is now part of JCOD.

She has more than 20 years of experience in the largest and possibly most complex justice system in the country. Always committed to a human centered approach, during her tenure as a Superior Court Judge, she achieved one of the best records for compliance and reducing recidivism. In her early career as a prosecutor in the Office of the Los Angeles City Attorney, her innovative programs to improve the lives of veterans, the unhoused, and individuals struggling with mental health and substance use disorders received state and national recognition.

Federal Court Approves LA County and LA Alliance Settlement On Homelessness

LOS ANGELES — A federal court Sept. 29 approved Los Angeles County’s settlement with the LA Alliance for Human Rights that commits up to $1.24 billion in additional funding to provide 3,000 beds for people with mental health and substance use disorders experiencing homelessness, while also expanding street-based outreach and wraparound services.

The new resources come on top of $293 million the county pledged in a separate agreement over the course of this three-and-a-half-year lawsuit to provide 6,700 beds for people experiencing homelessness near freeways as well as for unhoused seniors.

Combined, the county’s total commitment amounts to $1.53 billion and dovetails with the county’s ongoing efforts to scale up and fast-track efforts to address homelessness in response to the Board of Supervisors declaring a state of emergency in January.

Settlement

The settlement will include the following additional resources

• 3,000 new mental health and substance use disorder beds.
• 450 new subsidies for board-and-care beds serving the most vulnerable, including the elderly and disabled.
• increasing from 27.5 to 44 the number of specialized outreach teams serving people who face significant barriers to housing due to physical, mental, and behavioral challenges.
• providing a comprehensive suite of supportive services for eligible occupants of more than 13,000 permanent and interim housing beds the City of Los Angeles committed to build in their own settlement with LA Alliance.

A federal monitor will assist the court in overseeing the settlement, which becomes effective on the date the court enters an order dismissing the plaintiffs’ claims against the county and terminates on June 30, 2027.

Additional details of the settlement are spelled out in the fact sheet below.

Fact Sheet

The settlement will provide the following additional resources:

• 3,000 new mental health and substance use disorder beds for people experiencing homelessness.
• 450 subsidies to help provide individuals at risk of homelessness with enriched residential care at existing adult residential facilities or at residential care facilities for the elderly beds, also known as board and care beds.
• A significant increase in the number of county multi-disciplinary teams conducting clinical outreach in the city — from 22 to 34 teams — ensuring there is at least one team in each LA City Council District. These teams have expertise in medical and mental health, substance use disorders, case management and peer support.
• Increasing from 5.5 to 10 the number of homeless outreach and mobile engagement teams, which specialize in psychiatric support and intensive case management. These teams will be assigned exclusively to the City of Los Angeles.
• Funding and providing supportive services, including mental health and substance use disorder services, for occupants of the permanent housing units and interim housing units that the city has committed to building as part of its own separate agreement with the LA Alliance.
• Provide city-funded outreach teams with access to various county services directly and through coordination with outreach teams assigned within the city.
• Work to ensure county outreach teams have access to county homeless initiative-funded high service need interim housing beds for people experiencing homelessness.
• Work with the city to make city- and/or county-owned land available within the city for new interim or permanent supportive housing sites.
• Work with the city to advocate and apply for additional state and federal funding to fund services for people experiencing homelessness with mental health illness or substance use disorders.
• Monitoring to assist the court in overseeing and enforcing the county settlement and filing quarterly status reports with the court on the county’s commitments.
• Consider and potentially amend this settlement agreement to enhance housing and services citywide or countywide if the city or county obtains significant new funding from the city’s United to House L.A. or if the county receives new funding from the potential future extension of Measure H, a voter-approved quarter-cent sales tax from 2017-2027 dedicated to preventing and addressing homelessness.