LOS ANGELES—Councilman Mike Bonin’s initiative began June 28 to offer a voluntary path to permanent housing for all people living in encampments along Ocean Front Walk in Venice.
St. Joseph Center outreach teams were scheduled to offer housing, shelter, and services to the people who live in the boardwalk encampments, which have grown amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Those who don’t accept housing would have to leave the area by a certain date, Bonin’s office said, but it wasn’t clear how that would be enforced.
“We’re launching a major effort to confront the homelessness crisis at Venice Beach, address the safety needs of the housed and the unhoused, and fully reopen the park and beach for general public use. How? We’re offering housing, not handcuffs,” Bonin tweeted in the initiative’s announcement last week.
Outcry about the homelessness crisis in the area has been a factor in a recall effort launched against Bonin last week.
The Los Angeles City Council was scheduled to vote last week on an initial $5 million to fund the initiative, but the vote was delayed until after July 1, when the new fiscal year begins. The delay didn’t push back Bonin’s timeline for offering services to the encampment residents, as St. Joseph Center has the resources to begin, he said.
Aside from the $5 million for interim housing, funds for permanent housing will come from resources already available, according to Bonin’s office. The motion would also instruct the city administrative officer and the chief legislative analyst to report on the likely total cost of the program.
The process to offer shelter to the boardwalk’s unhoused residents will take about six weeks, and each week the outreach teams will focus on a different section of Ocean Front Walk, according to Bonin. During outreach for a particular zone, the unhoused residents will be given a choice of either accepting housing or moving out of that zone.
Over the six-week period, as people are given housing and leave the encampments, the Bureau of Sanitation will clean the area. Bonin said in his email to constituents that his office—with assistance from Mayor Eric Garcetti, Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, and County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl—identified permanent housing options including Project Homekey, shared housing, and permanent housing vouchers.
“It is a similar process to what we’ve used in the past, at the handball courts, for instance, or the Rose/Penmar encampment last year,” Molnar told City News Service.
“The end goal is to lead with the resources, offer housing to every unhoused individual on the boardwalk, and free up those spaces in the park for public use and enjoyment.”
