October 03, 2023

Los Angeles, CA – At today’s meeting, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved updates to the County’s local emergency declaration for homelessness focused on eviction prevention, property leasing, and fully leveraging all emergency powers. The motion was authored by Supervisors Lindsey P. Horvath and Kathryn Barger who brought forward the emergency declaration in January. 

“Far too many Angelenos are facing eviction, disrupting the education of students, uprooting families, and pushing vulnerable older adults into homelessness at a time when we simply cannot afford it. Today’s motion calls on LA County to use every tool at our disposal to keep renters housed in the neighborhoods they already call home,” said Supervisor Lindsey P. Horvath. “I hope that through these updates we’ll move even faster in securing units for interim housing and delivering the results our communities expect and deserve.” 

“This motion is about keeping the County’s homelessness response work moving at the urgent pace that’s needed,” said Supervisor Kathryn Barger. “Our nearly 40 County departments have been empowered by our Board’s Emergency Proclamation on Homelessness to cut red-tape, accelerate hiring, and contract quickly for the support services that are needed. We need to keep their work under a magnifying glass and hold our County’s department leaders accountable for delivering results.” 

The emergency declaration update does the following: 

• Adds Eviction Prevention as the emergency declaration’s fourth mission, joining: Encampment Resolution, Housing, and Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Services.  
• Streamlines and expedites leasing of property to bring people inside, including for interim and permanent housing. The emergency declaration currently includes purchasing property and this now expands leasing authority. 
• Calls on all County departments that have a role in homelessness emergency response to fully utilize the emergency powers to hire, contract, lease, and generally move with greater urgency.  
• Addresses accountability and cross-department problem solving by convening all departments that touch homelessness emergency response internally and bringing forward a monthly presentation to the Board to ensure the public receives regular updates on the County’s homelessness response.  

In addition to approving these emergency directives, the County’s Homeless Initiative provided an update on RV encampments, the first of a monthly homelessness update before the Board. RV encampments have been a focus of Pathway Home—the County’s encampment resolution initiative made possible through the emergency declaration. Since launching in August, the program has brought 108 people inside and 58 RVs have been removed. Learn more about Pathway Home at homeless.lacounty.gov/pathway-home.  

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