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General Meeting
Wednesday, June 24, 2020 10:00-11:30 am Zoom-based Virtual Video Conference Please email contactSBCEH@gmail.com for meeting link details. Advocacy Committee Our next meeting is tentatively scheduled for Wednesday, June 17, 2020 from 1:00-2:00 pm Please email Paul Stansbury of your interest. We may be holding a virtual Zoom meeting. Starbucks,1171 W Carson St, Torrance Contact Paul Stansbury, PStans5@aol.com Past Meeting Minutes
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May 18, 2020
Project Roomkey Information Project Roomkey is a collaborative effort by the State, County, City of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) to secure hotel and motel rooms for vulnerable people experiencing homelessness, with a focus on seniors 65+ and individuals with existing health conditions. It provides a way for people who do not have a home to stay inside to prevent the spread of COVID-19. On Friday, May 15th, LA County reported there are 26 Hotel/Motel Roomkey sites operational, with 2,207 people in these venues.
In recognition of COVID-19's disproportionate impact on communities of color, LAHSA created the COVID-19 Racial Equity Resource Guide to underscore the importance of providers' efforts to counter structural inequities and remove implicit bias as they work to provide equitable access to vital resources in this crisis. There have been several questions raised about the next steps for the Roomkey participants. At the May 12th Board of Supervisor's Meeting, LAHSA was directed to develop a COVID-19 Recovery Plan related to people experiencing homelessness that will address this. A plan framework will be presented in 15 days, with the full plan due in 30 days presenting the goals and objectives for this effort. March 22, 2020
In response to all the actions underway regarding the COVID-19 outbreak, our coalition leadership feels the urgency to support our South Bay organizations that are able to continue providing assistance to our disadvantaged neighbors. Their need for food and cleaning supplies has intensified as many local meal programs and pantries have had to temporarily shutter their operations. Compounding this are low-income families who have never sought these services and are now finding themselves struggling to make ends meet. I witnessed this surge at St. Margaret's Center this past Friday, where they saw a 200% increase in the number of families seeking food. This is why we are asking our coalition members to do what you can to bolster the supplies at the shelters and pantries that have remained open. As you are able, please support the agencies below - as well as others that you know of - by doing any of these suggestions:
In addition to the specific organizational contacts and needs information provided below, we want to highlight:
Other food resources that you might find helpful at this time:
Organization: St. Margaret's Center (part of Catholic Charities)
Location: 10217 S Inglewood Ave, Lennox, 310-672-2208 Contact: Yesica Villalobos, yvillalobos@ccharities.org, or Mary Agnes Erlandson at MAERLANDSON@ccharities.org Financial Contributions: Checks of any amount are appreciated, mailed to its location. Needed Donations:
Organization: Harbor Interfaith Services Location: 670 W. 9th St., San Pedro Contact: Martha Flecha-Raza, mflecharara@harborinterfaith.org, 310-831-9123 x245 Financial Contributions: Click here for more information Needed Donations:
Organization: Rainbow Services Location: 453 W. 7th St, San Pedro, 310-548-5450 Contact: Front Desk: Carlos Ramirez or Maria Hernandez at 310-548-5450 for donation drop-offs, or Tatiana Dorman at Tatiana.Dorman@RainbowServicesDV.org for additional questions. Financial Contributions: Click here for more information Needed Donations:
Organization: Salvation Army Stillman Sawyer Family Center Location: 820 Lomita Blvd, Harbor City Contact: Ernesto Madrid, 310-835-1986, 310-370-4515 Financial Contributions: Click here for more information Needed Donations:
Organization: Doors of Hope Women's Emergency Shelter Contact: Laura Scotvold-Lemp, office: 310-518-3667, cell: 310-347-9170 Financial Contributions: Click here for more information Needed Donations:
Organization: Community's Child Location: 25520 Woodward Ave., Lomita Contact: Tara Nierenhausen, admin@cchild.org; DeDe Ornelas, Dede.0@cchild.org, 310-534-4040 Financial Contributions: Click here for more information Needed Donations:
Organization: 1736 Family Crisis Center Location: 21707 Hawthorne Blvd, Suite 300, Torrance Contact: Michele Nadeau, michelefor1736@gmail.com, cell:(323)387-9445 Financial Donations: Click here for more information Needed Donations:
Organization: Mental Health America of Los Angeles (MHALA) Location: The Village, 456 Elm Ave, Long Beach Contact: Marjorie Solorzano, msolorzano@mhala.org, 562-366-6085 Financial Donations: Click here for more information Needed Donations: Please contact Marjorie before dropping off donations
March 22, 2020
Thanks to the tremendous leadership at the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA), County of Los Angeles, City of Los Angeles, and numerous service providers, there has been a whirlwind of COVID-19 activity these past two weeks. Here are the latest homelessness-related announcements from across the county. LAHSA COVID-19 Portal LAHSA created this webpage that provides links to local and national homelessness resources related to the COVID-19 response. We invite you to check it often as it is updated frequently. Special LAHSA Email and Hotline for Homeless Service Providers LAHSA established a special email where provider questions regarding COVID-19 can be submitted: COVID19@lahsa.org. It has also set up a "Provider Hotline" operated weekdays from 8:00 am - 5:00 pm at 213-233-4796. Staff will record all questions and publish an FAQ the next day providing answers to questions received the previous day on its COVID-19 Portal. All service providers and shelter operators are invited to use these resources, even if they are privately funded. Street Outreach and LA-HOP.org Update Street outreach is continuing, with all staff having received special training on how to keep themselves and those experiencing homelessness safe. We are encouraging the public to continue using LA-HOP.org to report people in need, but ask that they recognize outreach staff is refocusing on supporting the COVID-19 response on our streets. Winter Shelter Programs (WSP) Update Many WSPs are now operational 24-hours a day and have extended their season beyond the traditional March 31st closure date. The one operating in Service Planning Area (SPA) 8/South Bay in Long Beach is providing 'round the clock service through September 30th. Please see LAHSA's announcement for additional details. The Winter Shelter Hotline at 1-800-548-6047 is also available 24 hours a day, seven days a week for program updates. Hand Washing Stations Hand washing stations have recently been set up throughout the County, including 17 in SPA 8. Click here for their locations. City of Los Angeles New Emergency/Crisis Shelters The City of Los Angeles opened eight new emergency shelters on March 20th, located at city parks and recreational centers. Five additional shelters are scheduled to open shortly, with a total of 42 planned. Buses will run a set route from 9:00 am - 4:00 pm with pick-up locations. Walk-ins are also permitted. Each is staff by the City's Rec & Parks Department, LAHSA, and LA County Department of Mental Health. Facility NameAddress# Beds
LA County Department of Public Social Services (DPSS) Benefits In accordance with Governor Newsom's Executive Order, all DPSS benefits, including Medi-Cal, CalFresh, CalWORKs and General Relief benefit payments, will be issued without interruption for the months of March, April and May 2020. Census 2020 Update The US Census Bureau has suspended field operations for two weeks and delay its shelter enumeration for one month to April 29, April 30, and May 1. This applies to emergency and transitional shelters, soup kitchens, mobile meal sites, and outdoor locations such as encampments. While we will continue to provide highlight summaries, we anticipate our Announcements emails will be sent out intermittently in the coming weeks. We welcome your feedback on them so we can be responsive to your needs (e.g., would you like to see additional details, have more frequent updates as new information is made available, etc.). As always, please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions or concerns. March 12, 2020
We have canceled our upcoming March meetings because of COVID-19 (Coronavirus) concerns. Please note this applies to both our General Meeting (on March 25th) and Advocacy Meeting (on March 18th). We are very appreciative that our March guest speaker, Kris Freed of LA Family Housing, has graciously rescheduled and will be discussing her agency's "Shared Housing Pilot" at our September 23rd General Meeting. We will be reassessing when to resume our meetings on a month-by-month basis. We invite you to continue scanning our weekly Announcements emails, which highlight local and national news about homelessness. To help keep you informed on the latest regarding Coronavirus, LAHSA has created a COVID-19 portal containing guidance for LA County's homeless services community. Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions or concerns you have. We appreciate your understanding at this time. March 2, 2020
"Public Charge" Final Rule At our February General Meeting last week, Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) Legislative Affairs Analyst Traci Kawaguchi gave an update on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's "Public Charge" rule that went into effect on February 24th. She shared LAHSA's Information Sheet explaining this ruling categorizing the status of immigrants based on them becoming reliant on public services, along with Protect Immigrant Families' "Does This Apply to Me" Guide in English and Spanish. LAHSA's list of lmmigration legal agency referrals was also made available. There is still much confusion and concern surrounding this ruling, so please help spread the facts about it. January 26, 2020
We wish to extend our sincere thanks to you for supporting our South Bay Homeless Count. With over 750 pre-registered signups, we had another terrific turnout and were able to complete 99% of our region in a single night! (We will achieve 100% completion very shortly.) Our collective success was also largely due to the following, who led our deployment sites:
Official Count results will be announced by LAHSA, historically in late May for the County and Service Planning Areas, and summer for the city-level results. December 6, 2019
The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) oversees the Winter Shelter Program (WSP) at sites throughout LA County. They provide overnight shelter, but are generally open 24-hours during inclement weather. This evening the Long Beach Navigation Center opened the SPA 8-South Bay WSP. No walk-ins are allowed. Participants must go to one of the transportation locations to access the site, where a bus will be waiting. The bus pickup sites are at:
Please refer to LAHSA's WSP List for additional information on all the county sites. October 5, 2019
Our homeless coalition has developed information sheets for each South Bay city based on the official data provided by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority. We are pleased to announce the 2019 reports are now available on our website. They features trends going back to 2015. Below is a summary of each South Bay 2019 city/neighborhood's homelessness: 
Data Notes
June 26, 2019:
At today's SBECH General Meeting, we presented our annual Homeless Count South Bay regional overview, looking back over the last four Counts. The preliminary city-level data, whose information was taken off LAHSA's dashboard on June 22nd, is also included (view the presentation with 1 slide/page, or with 2 slides/page). Once LAHSA finalizes the results and releases two key datafiles, we will create our annual "city level 1-pagers" that highlight the data for each municipality (click here to see SBCEH's 2018 1-pagers). Beginning with this year's Count, LAHSA refined the borders of many cities. It then retroactively applied these new borders to the 2016 through 2018 Counts. This caused some cities' past Count totals to change slightly. (Note: questions about this can be directed to datasupport@lahsa.org.) As a reminder, LAHSA reported that Service Planning Area (SPA) 8's overall Homeless Count is 4,388 (excluding the Long Beach Continuum of Care). The following subtotals are only included at the SPA-level and thus not reflected in the city-level data:
Additional information is available on LAHSA's 2019 Homeless Count website, including:
June 4, 2019: 2019 Homeless Count Results Announced
The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) released the first set of 2019 Homeless Count results this morning. Overall homelessness rose by 12% in the County of Los Angeles. While there were a few counties reporting a slight decrease, in general homelessness rose throughout the state. Other Southern California counties homelessness rate changed by:
Within the LA Contiuum of Care, these subpopulations changed:
Additional information is posted on LAHSA's website, including LAHSA's Executive Director Peter Lynn's presentation. LAHSA will release the city-level data later this summer. January 25, 2019 Homeless "Street Count" Completed!
We are thrilled to report that as of this writing, nearly all of the South Bay has been canvassed during the Greater Los Angeles Homeless "Street Count." The few remaining tracts will be completed soon, with many pre-assigned to special outreach teams because of their hard-to-reach locations. This extensive coverage was made possible because of the overwhelming support we had from community members, homeless service provider staff, city staff, and local law enforcement. We especially want to recognize the deployment site leads and hosts who were at the heart of this effort:
Thank you again to all who were able to join us! 11-5-2018 Update
Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) recently released two videos to help education the general public on homelessness:
10/29/2018 Update
An outbreak of typhus is affecting Los Angeles County. Please share the following resources to help education your organization and the people we serve about this disease: Typhus FAQ in English Typhus FAQ in Spanish Typhus Poster in English Typhus Poster in Spanish 7/28/2018 Update
On July 27th, the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) released an update to its May 31st Homeless Count numbers. All of the Count numbers have been revised. Included in this release are the city/neighborhood figures. Please note:
Note: This includes the Los Angeles CoC, Glendale CoC, Pasadena CoC, and Long Beach CoC 6/3/2018 Update
As you probably know, the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) released the first set of 2018 Homeless Count (HC18) results last Thursday. Homelessness is down 3.9% in the LA Continuum of Care (CoC) but also went up slightly in Service Planning Area (SPA) 8/South Bay. We will analyze where the geographic changes occurred after LAHSA provides later this month the individual shelter, city, and census tract level data. In the meantime, I want to share a few personal reflections about the Count:
Notes:
For you "data geeks," we hope these additional stats will keep you engaged until our June General Meeting when we'll review HC18 in much more detail. 2/29/2018 Update
The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) released its 2018 Report on Homeless Housing Gaps in the County of Los Angeles. It will help inform policy makers as they determine Measure H funding allocations for specific homelessness populations and program types. The 2018 Report is an update to the previous one published in 2016, and provides:
9/24/2017 Update
Recently we sent out information in our "Announcements" email about the Hepatitis A outbreak in San Diego county, which to date has caused 16 fatalities and 444 confirmed cases. You may have heard that last week 10 confirmed cases have been identified in LA County. Please help us spread the word about its prevention by using any of the following resources:
In addition, DPH is administering vaccinations at its Inglewood and Torrance locations. These are for both those experiencing homelessness and for service providers.
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Measure H
Information on how the Measure H funding will be used is highlighted on the County's Homeless Initiative website 
Domestic Violence Heightened Concerns
The ongoing stay-at-home directive is having a devastating effect on domestic violence (DV) victims. It is also creating a potentially unsafe breeding environment for new DV cases, highlighted in this Los Angeles Time article. Please help spread these DV hotline numbers widely:
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