Hahn Appoints San Pedro Homeless Services Advocate Amber Sheikh to Key LA Homeless Services Authority Commission

LOS ANGELES  — Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn April 23 appointed San Pedro homeless services advocate Amber Sheikh to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority or LAHSA Commission. The ten-member body has the authority to make budgetary, funding, planning and program policies, and includes members representing both the city and County of Los Angeles. Sheikh has spent years working with and on behalf of people experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles. 

“I’ve seen Amber in action, reaching out to our neighbors experiencing homelessness, encouraging them to accept help. That is exactly the type of determined, methodical, and passionate energy we need for LAHSA,” said Hahn. “She is a champion for unhoused people and our effort to tackle homelessness will be better off with her on this commission.”

Sheikh is the owner and chief impact officer of Sheikh/Impact, a social-sector consulting firm working to raise the capacity of nonprofit organizations in the fields of justice reform, income inequality and healthcare access. Sheikh previously spent ten years in homeless services and urban poverty alleviation with various organizations including the Downtown Women’s Center, Children Today in Long Beach, and Indcare Trust in Delhi, India. 

“I am grateful to Supervisor Hahn for this appointment, and both excited and humbled by the opportunity,” says Amber. “A lifelong Angeleno and advocate for the unhoused, I’ve witnessed Supervisor Hahn’s personal and political commitment to addressing our region’s most pressing issue firsthand. LAHSA has perhaps the most important mission of any public Commission, and I look forward to supporting efforts to achieve what I believe to be our ultimate goal: setting more of our neighbors on a path to safe, sustainable housing, leading to a better life.” 

Sheikh, a daughter of Pakistani and English immigrants, mother of two, and San Pedro resident, was selected as Woman of the Year for the City of Los Angeles’s 15th District in 2019 for her homeless outreach work. She also serves as a board member of Social Justice Partners LA, Abode Community Housing and Maternal Mental Health Now.