Los Angeles city and county homeless service agencies are touting their success in getting 374 unsheltered people off the streets during Tropical Storm Hilary.
That represents about 0.68% of the 55,000 unsheltered people in L.A. County as of January 2023.
The outreach by both city and county agencies began last Thursday, working to get hundreds of people in high-risk flood zones like riverbed and mountain areas into shelter. More than 140 families were moved into accommodations, including motel rooms.
Mutual aid groups across L.A. County also worked to distribute tarps and emergency supplies to the thousands of unsheltered people who couldn’t move inside, L.A. Public Press reports.
While the city of L.A. opened several emergency shelters over the weekend, a coalition of mutual aid groups issued an open letter calling on city officials to do more to meet the scale of the problem. Grassroots organization Ktown For All shared a recording Saturday of one unhoused resident’s call to 211, in which they were told there was no available shelter for single adults.
Nathaniel VerGow, acting chief program officer at the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, told KNX News’ Pete Demetriou that the agency’s goal is to make sure the few hundred people who did get into temporary shelter don’t go back to the streets.
“We are working in close collaboration with the city and the county on identifying available resources,” he said. “We're looking to try to be creative as well and ensure that we have opportunities to offer everybody.”
VerGow said the success of Inside Safe has shown that people will gladly accept shelter if the city is able to offer it.
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