The Key Questions Before LA’s Top Homelessness Panel

Are L.A.’s data problems around homeless services getting fixed?

What’s the latest with Mayor Karen Bass’ signature homeless housing program?

What should the city do to prepare storm shelters for unhoused people?

Could better staff training lead to fewer people getting kicked out of shelters?

Those were among the items up for debate earlier this week at one of L.A.’s most influential government panels.

The city council’s Housing and Homelessness Committee was scheduled to meet at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday.

The five-member committee — often called "H&H” — centers on two of L.A.’s top issues: the housing affordability crisis and homelessness.

The twice-a-month meetings are where the city council develops a lot of its policies — and where council members exercise their oversight role when it comes to city departments and the mayor.

When it comes to specific new policies, spending or proposed laws, if a majority of the committee approves an item, it then heads to the full city council for final approval. For certain actions, it’s then up to Mayor Karen Bass whether they go into effect.

Click here for the full agenda. Anyone can speak in person during public comments — the call-in option ended in April under a change led by council President Paul Krekorian.

After intense frustration, an update on new data dashboards on homeless services

Committee members expressed a lot of frustration this summer about data problems at the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, known as LAHSA.

“It’s just insanity,” Councilmember Monica Rodriguez said at a committee meeting in early August. “There's a fundamental problem with getting some very basic information here, and it's costing taxpayers millions of dollars.”

The issue blew up at that meeting when another council member asked about missing data points about people who leave the Inside Safe motel shelter program.

The nonprofits that serve unhoused people are supposed to log when unhoused people exit the motel room program. But that requirement has not been enforced by LAHSA, which contracts with the providers and manages the data system. The agency’s system allows providers to “bypass” disclosing whether a person has left the program, a LAHSA official told council members.

LAHSA’s data disclosures have improved a lot in recent weeks, with public reports now showing how many people have entered motels under the Inside Safe program, how many people have found housing and how many people returned to the streets.

Update on Mayor Bass’ main homelessness program Inside Safe

These updates by City Administrative Officer Matt Szabo’s office also often generate a lot of discussion at the committee meetings.

The latest update, which is current through Aug. 18, shows a total of 1,531 people entered motels and hotels at some point under Inside Safe since the program started in December.

• 1,133 people were still in motels, hotels and other temporary housing
• 148 people were permanently housed
• 250 people left the program without any known housing

Between mid-July and mid-August, two encampments were cleared by Inside Safe, with a total of 90 people moving into motel rooms. The encampments were along Grand Avenue and Broadway near the 110 Freeway, and along Selma Avenue in Hollywood.

Data reports show 19 rooms were added to Inside Safe’s capacity over the month ending in late August.

The cost for rooms is expected to go up, as the city is "reaching capacity” of lower-cost “2-star motel inventory,” the latest report says.

Inside Safe itself is not reaching capacity, said Mayor Karen Bass’ spokesperson, Zach Seidl.

“We have Inside Safe operations planned in the coming weeks and will continue to house Angelenos as quickly as possible,” Seidl wrote in a text message responding to questions from LAist.

“It just means that hotels of a certain cost may be less available — but motel costs are tied to the motel market so prices fluctuate,” he added.

Seidl said this underscores the importance of ongoing efforts to buy the 294-room Mayfair Hotel for temporary housing, and to speed up creation of housing across the city so people can move inside faster and at lower cost.

Preparing to shelter unhoused people in future storms

None of the agencies that oversee homelessness and disaster response in L.A. — the city, county and LAHSA — have written plans for how to support unhoused people in extreme weather events like flooding or heat waves.

That’s despite the county’s disaster assessment noting unhoused people are particularly vulnerable to extreme weather.

In the wake of Tropical Storm Hilary last month, city and LAHSA officials are now starting to develop such plans.

Up for approval at the committee meeting is devoting $757,000 for sheltering unhoused people in future extreme weather events.

“Given that this is a new program outside of the City’s Winter Shelter Program, the LAHSA will require additional time to develop a detailed plan and ramp up the program,” a staff report states.

LAHSA officials would “report back on a detailed plan on an Inclement Weather Shelter Program, including the results of any request for proposals, roles and responsibilities, participants processes, and funding needed.”

Looking at why people are kicked out of interim housing and shelters

L.A. has created thousands of temporary housing and shelter beds in the last five years — including tiny home villages, A Bridge Home and the Inside Safe motel program.

But a lot of people get kicked out for violating the rules. Council members now want to learn more about what those rules are and whether increased training of shelter staff and adding mental health clinicians on site would help people stay longer and keep everyone safer.

Council members Nithya Raman and Bob Blumenfield are asking fellow committee members to order LAHSA and city officials to report back within 60 days about the issue and make recommendations.

An appointment to the Affordable Housing Commission

The committee is also considering whether to approve Mayor Bass’ re-appointment of Belinda Allen, executive director of the West Angeles Community Development Corp., to the city’s Affordable Housing Commission until June 2028.

The seven-member commission advises city leaders on affordable housing issues — including making policy suggestions to preserve and create housing.

Surveys have shown that the homelessness and the housing affordability crisis is top of mind among Angelenos’ concerns.

As of Tuesday, the Affordable Housing Commission’s website had a section for its meeting agendas and minutes, but it did not list any. And its online calendar showed nothing scheduled through the rest of the year.

Allen’s re-appointment would fill a vacancy created when engineer Gerard Garcia withdrew from consideration, according to city records.