Funds will help the chronically homeless
By JESSICA ROBERTS Special to the Daily Press
DOWNTOWN LA — The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors recently awarded more than $800,000 to Santa Monica social service agencies in an effort to improve the city’s homeless support system.
OPCC, which represents a network of social services in Santa Monica, and Step Up on Second, which primarily focuses on helping mentally ill individuals, received $761,000 and $43,000, respectively.
The funding, approved at last week’s Board of Supervisors meeting, is part of a $1.1 million allocation to enhance homeless programs on LA’s westside this year. The money represents the first portion of the $3.6 million designated for the third district, which includes cities on the beach from Venice to the north county line, as well as Van Nuys and other inland areas. The county government has committed $20 million to fight homelessness, which will be divided among the county’s five districts.
“The project supervisors were aware of organizations and sent out inquiries, asking if they could expand their services,” said La Cheryl Porter, project manager for the Community Development Commission for Los Angeles County.
OPCC has been operating for 43 years. The community-supported organization is a network of shelters and services, serving 1,200 people each year, including low-income and homeless youth, adults and families, battered women and their children, and people living with mental illness.
OPCC was granted $561,000 for 25 emergency beds in the new Westside Safe Haven for chronically homeless people and $200,000 for 10 emergency beds and five new transitional beds at the Daybreak Day Center for women with mental illness. The funding was awarded on a one-time basis over two years.
Safe Haven, which currently has 10 beds, will move to a Cloverfield Boulevard location in November to increase access to housing for hard-to-reach homeless men and women who suffer from severe mental illness, addiction or physical illness. Safe Haven, located at OPCC’s main facility on Seventh Street and Colorado Avenue, currently provides outreach and overnight residence from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., as well as access to mental health, medical and drug and alcohol treatment services.
The county’s money will provide for 15 new beds at the new facility, where the center will expand to a 24-hour operation, house more people and provide more daytime services.
Daybreak is a transitional housing program that currently provides up to six months of structured group living for as many as 15 mentally ill homeless women. Each resident has a private space to sleep and store her belongings, as well as access to a community kitchen, lounge and dining room. The shelter, located at OPCC’s main facility, offers three meals a day, psychiatric and medical care, permanent housing placement, support groups and workshops, assistance with budgeting, self-care, counseling and benefits advocacy and job readiness skills.
The county funding for Daybreak will double the number of beds, and therefore increase to 30 the number of women who can reside at the shelter at one time.
OPCC Executive Director John Maceri said the funds from the county represent 20 to 25 percent of the operating budget for each of the programs.
“This will help fill in the gap of what we need in funding,” he said, adding the organization’s expenses totaled approximately $6.7 million last year.
Step Up on Second will use its money toward operating costs and supportive services for one year for what’s known as the “Street Outreach Team,” which targets chronically homeless and mentally ill individuals on the streets of Santa Monica. Step Up on Second provides psychosocial rehabilitation services to 1,200 people each year, 45 percent of whom are homeless and mentally ill.
Step Up on Second Executive Director Tod Lipka said the money for the Street Outreach Team will allow the organization to reach the chronically homeless — those who have been on the street for a year or more and are not receiving any services.
“We are looking at the most needy, addressing the really chronic population, which is outside of the normal service network,” he said. “They don’t want to come in, so you have to go out to them, which is what we’re doing.”
The county funds will pay the Street Outreach Team, accounting for 50 percent of the budget for that project, or 2.5 percent of the organization’s total annual budget. The team already has started working to connect chronically homeless people with Step Up and other social services by approaching homeless people on the streets and establishing relationships with them.
Lipka said building trust and determining the personal needs of each individual are the goals of Street Outreach Team members. By establishing relationships, members aim to help homeless people gain access to Step Up’s services, such as showers and laundry facilities, mail pick-up, money management and housing assistance.
The Street Outreach Team also will work with the city’s Chamber of Commerce in a partnership through which local businesses can notify the team to assist homeless people in their area.
“We are so appreciative of this support from the county Board of Supervisors,” Lipka said. “This is part of our commitment in addressing the chronically homeless problem in our community by engaging those people in the community who are most in need.”
Porter said $100 million remains to be allocated over the next several years, targeting different areas of concern.
“The county is looking at overall issues for homelessness,” she said.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 19, 2006. Read the original PDF.