L.A. City Council, County Supervisors Must Stop Finger-Pointing on Homeless Fix

Rally and Protest March Tuesday, May 3rd, 9:30 a.m.

Starting @ L.A. County’s Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration and marching to L.A. City Hall

Housing justice advocates from AHF and its housing advocacy division, Housing Is A Human Right (HHR), will host a rally and advocacy/protest march on Tuesday, May 3 at 9:30 a.m. in downtown Los Angeles to spotlight and protest the finger-pointing, buck-passing and epic mismanagement of Los Angeles’ homeless crisis by both L.A. County and City of Los Angeles and elected leaders and government officials.

The event will kick off from the County’s Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration just before the Supervisors’ weekly Board meeting (meetings which still remain closed to in-person attendance and participation by the public) with a rally urging more action by the County on homelessness as well as greater cooperation between the County and City of Los Angeles on the issue. The housing advocates will then march the few blocks over to Los Angeles City Hall to urge similar stepped-up action and cooperation by city leaders and officials with their county counterparts.

What: HOMELESS SERVICES RALLY/PROTEST MARCH urging stepped-up action and greater cooperation between Los Angeles County and City of Los Angeles officials in addressing the homeless crisis.

When: Tuesday, May 3, 2022 – Kicking off at 9:30 a.m.

Where:

RALLY & MARCH STARTS:

• Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration, (Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors) 500 W Temple St, Los Angeles, CA 90012

MARCH PROCEEDS TO:

• Los Angeles City Hall, 200 N Spring St, Los Angeles, CA 90012

B-ROLL: 25-30 housing advocates with sign and banners, many waving oversize foam fingers.

ON-SITE MEDIA CONTACT: Susie Shannon, Policy Director, Housing Is A Human Right, +1.213.880.3065, susie.shannon@ahf.org

Late last month, the Los Angeles Times reported on a contentious division between county and city officials regarding a partial settlement the city reached in a lawsuit brought by the L.A. Alliance for Human Rights over the delivery of homeless services.

According to the Times, county officials “… bashed the settlement, saying the city was effectively seeking to dump responsibility for thousands of severely ill homeless people onto the county, promising no new housing that isn’t already committed and shirking responsibility for the people who most urgently need help. City officials said the deal clearly lays out what the city can and cannot do. It also sets goals to make sure the city continues to grow the amount of both permanent and interim housing for homeless people, officials said.”

The Times’ article also noted: “In the late-1980s and early 1990s, a court fight between the two governments led to the formation of the joint city-county Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority. ‘It seems like people have forgotten our history. It seems like we are going backwards to that place,’ (John) Maceri (chief executive of the People Concern, a nonprofit focused on homelessness) said.”

“With so many people dying on our streets every year, it is imperative the County and City of Los Angeles stop the finger pointing and prioritize permanent housing and services immediately to address the urgent needs of our unhoused community.” Susie Shannon, Policy Director of Housing Is A Human Right.

The 2022 Greater Los Angeles Point-in-Time Homeless Count took place in late February and numbers won’t be released until sometime later this spring or summer. The homeless count was cancelled in 2021 due to the pandemic, so the most recent homeless numbers date to the 2020 count, which found 66,433 people experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles County of whom 41,290 were living in the city. According to NBC Los Angeles, “The county’s homeless population increased by 12.7% over the previous year (2019), while the city of Los Angeles’ homeless population jumped by 14.2%.”

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220502005893/en/