What do you do if you see a homeless person who may need assistance? There’s no crime or emergency, so you don’t want to call 911, but you do want to help.
Though the results of a January homeless count won’t be available until the end of May, according to Julie Jimenez, a Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) community-engagement coordinator, such encounters are increasingly common.
At a Signal Hill North Neighborhood Association (SHNNA) meeting on April 25, Jimenez shared details of a LAHSA pilot program called LA-HOP (Los Angeles homeless-outreach program), designed to help through mobile technology.
Initiated last summer, the program allows people to fill in a form online at La-hop.org with the location and description of the homeless person or people so an outreach team can contact them with assistance.
Jimenez said that there are more than 200 outreach teams throughout the county, along with a team of 12 sheriffs that go to homeless encampments.
The intimate meeting at the Signal Hill home of SHNNA President Chris Wilson also featured Signal Hill Senior Police Officer Don Moreau– who conducts homeless outreach– as well as Andrew Kerr, a member of the Measure H Citizen’s Oversight Advisory Board of the L.A. County Homeless Initiative. Signal Hill Councilmember Edward Wilson and Mayor Lori Woods also attended.
Chris said that he had invited Jimenez to present because residents are seeing more homeless people in the area and want to know what to do.
“The instant reaction is always to call police,” he said. “We want people to find out the other resources available to us, such as LA-HOP.”
Jimenez said that LAHSA funds LA-HOP– along with service providers, such as People Assisting the Homeless (PATH), The Whole Child (TWC) and Jovenes– with funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), based on the homeless count.
She added that the new LA-HOP program is working well but can only be found on LAHSA’s website since it’s still in the pilot stage.
Once someone contacts LA-HOP online, a team approaches the homeless person or people to find out more about them and if they need assistance, including housing, Jimenez said. She added that the reporting person won’t necessarily know the outcome of their request.
“You won’t know what happens, but you’ll know that they’ve gone out,” she said. “We can’t tell you [the details], because homeless folks have rights, as well.”
She added that not all homeless accept help right away, and LAHSA can’t force housing on people.
“Homeless people are all different,” Jimenez said. “Some are ready for help, some aren’t. Not everybody that’s homeless is on drugs. Some people are working folks, just like us.”
“It’s not if they accept services, it’s when,” Woods added. “[Service] people are dedicated to just keeping that contact, building that trust.”
Moreau praised LA-HOP as an entry point for outreach teams that can direct people to an assistance provider, such as PATH or veteran’s services, for long-term care. But the teams can do things like make appointments or help procure IDs, which are necessary to get services.
Teams have to try to locate the reported homeless person or people within 72 hours before closing the case, Moreau added.
“It’s not always going to be successful,” he said. “They won’t close it out until they’ve made several attempts. […] Maybe that person has moved on and they’re not there anymore.”
Kerr said that while LA-HOP is meant to streamline calls for assistance through one countywide contact rather than different agencies, jurisdictional considerations are still complicated.
Long Beach gets its own HUD funding, but the city also partners with LAHSA, Kerr said. Long Beach residents may therefore get faster service contacting the city’s health department. He also said the city is piloting a program that includes a homeless expert for 911 calls.
Kerr further described a new bridge-housing service opening in north Long Beach sometime next year, at the location of a former liquor store.
“There’s going to be a 24/7 city presence– law-enforcement presence, homeless-services presence,” he said. “The bridge-housing concept is getting people over that barrier of, ‘I don’t want a shelter in my area.’”
Moreau said such housing programs help reduce barriers that prevent people from staying in shelters– such as having to split from their pets or partner for the night.
“This could be a model that is replicated elsewhere,” Kerr said.
Kerr later told the Signal Tribune that the increased homelessness LAHSA is trying to address with programs like LA-HOP is a result of California’s recent economic growth.
“We have to rethink our cities to solve this in the long term,” Kerr said. “We have to be creative in how we create housing opportunities for the next generation, for these jobs that we’re creating. It’s this really complex economic problem that we haven’t dealt with in the last 10 or 15 years.”
To make a homeless-outreach request, visit La-hop.org.
