LOS ANGELES (KNX) — Over the next five years the city of Los Angeles will invest $3 billion into providing up to 16,000 beds or housing units for the homeless community of L.A., City Council officials said Friday. The announcement is the culmination of a lawsuit filed two years ago by the L.A. Alliance for Human Rights.
The settlement will be enough to accommodate 60% of the city’s homeless population in each of its 15 districts, according to City News Service (CNS), but City Council President Nury Martinez said responsibility does not lie solely on the city — and called on Los Angeles County to “step up.”
“Now I’m here to call on the county to do yours. It is time to do your part,” Martinez said, explaining that while the county is part of the lawsuit, it is not part of Friday’s settlement.
“Mental health care, substance abuse treatment, outpatient rehabilitation beds…that is the county’s responsibility.”
Elizabeth Mitchell, an attorney for the alliance said Friday that County officials continue to claim that there are enough mental health beds, but the alliance has not found that to be true in its research.
“They have 22 mental health beds per 100,000 people,” Mitchell said. “Do you know how many they need? 50.”
She added, according to CNS, that the County has refused to participate in the settlement, but that the alliance will not stop working to hold it accountable for its role in housing and supporting the homeless community.
The lawsuit initially began with a focus on homelessness along the infamous Skid Row, to which L.A. County objected to being part of.
Before the suit expanded to include the entirety of the homeless community in the county, the county said the lawsuit had "no merit with regards to the county" as Skid Row was not county responsibility.
Marcel Rodarte, the executive director of the California Contract Cities Association sat on L.A. County's Blue Ribbon Commission on Homelessness.
He told KNX, when it comes to Skid Row, the county's role should be only as reinforcement to the city’s response.
“What I imagine it would look like is…the city of Los Angeles would create the housing…would help through Measure HHH…also measure H funding, to create that housing,” Rodarte said.
“Then, the County would come in to create those support services around that housing. There’s a lot of folks out there in our homeless population that are having mental health issues or have substance abuse issues…so we want to make sure that we’re getting them those services…all of those services that the county can provide, that’s where the county comes in.”
Rodarte maintained what the County said early on in the lawsuit, that Skid Row is first-and-foremost an issue to be addressed by the city of L.A.
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