H4WRD Great Reads for September '24

Our September Great Reads offers a range of articles and resources that reflect the urgent need for more housing solutions NOW, a theme driven home by the H4WRD/Hollywood Chamber of Commerce event on 9/18, 'Off the Sidewalk: Pre-Olympic Sprint to Halve Homelessness in LA':

• LA Daily News, 9/11: LA County calls for strategy to address homelessness near major sporting venues
  • Summary: The LA County Board of Supervisors directed its staff this month to develop a regional strategy by December 2025 for addressing homelessness in areas where major sporting events — including the 2026 FIFA World Cup, 2027 Super Bowl and 2028 Olympics — are scheduled to take place. The motion approved by the board calls for the development of a written regional strategy “to increase and sustain the capacity to address unsheltered homelessness around areas where major sporting events will take place.”
• LA Times, 9/17: Nonprofit helped conceive California’s homeless housing program, then left string of failed projects
  • Summary: Step Up On Second Street helped inspire Project Homekey, California’s housing grant program to convert old hotels and motels into affordable housing, but several projects are now in foreclosure.  
• H4WRD blog, 9/10: Talk May be Cheap, but Critical Conversations are Priceless* (* If you know how to have them!)
  • Summary: Our Executive Director  lays out key strategies for turning conversations into effective tools for systems-change:
    • Finding common ground on both the problem and potential solutions
    • Forming effective multidisciplinary partnerships that utilize each partner’s strengths in addressing the solution
    • Creating actionable steps for everyone while fostering mutual accountability going forward

• LA Times, 9/18: Thousands of foster kids in California could lose their homes amid insurance crisis
  • Summary: A major insurer says that because of the rising cost of sexual abuse claims, it can no longer cover agencies like Aviva Family & Children's Services that recruit, certify and support foster parents. Without insurance, foster family agencies like Aviva's (and other family- and TAY-focused agencies in the H4WRD coalition) can no longer provide many of their most-needed services to clients. Citing an overall increase in costly litigation, Nonprofits Insurance Alliance of California, which says it backs roughly 90% of foster family agencies, will begin letting policies expire in October.
• Cal Matters, 10/1: Late payments to nonprofits hamper California’s fight against homelessness
  • Summary: California’s homeless service providers have a problem, one that won't surprise longtime H4WRD community members: They aren’t getting paid on time. This is making it even harder for them to get people off the street. Nonprofits that provide everything from shelter beds, to counseling for homeless residents, to affordable housing, say they regularly are kept waiting weeks, if not months, for the city, county and state funding they rely on. That means they’re struggling to pay their employees, make rent payments for their clients, and, in some cases, even keep the lights on. In response, service providers have been forced to scale back and take out loans as they wait for late payments from the government.

'Off the Sidewalk' event follow-up

In case you missed it -- our panelists and speakers at 'Off the Sidewalk' brought a diverse range of informed, passionate and compassionate perspectives to the table while sharing innovative insights about how to expedite implementation of the solutions discussed, including:

• Leveraging nostalgia for the pandemic-era urgency/haste
• Considering setting up a one-stop Problem Solving Shop (brick-and-mortar OR virtual) for project application through execution
• Reviewing and utilizing Appendix P as much as possible, which relaxes the building code requirements for interim housing
• Considering interim housing placement on gravel instead of cement
• Importance of influencing the Executive Committee on Regional Homelessness
• Noting that we don’t know how much it actually should cost to house someone experiencing homelessness
• Interim Housing IS NOT Housing. Someone in interim housing has simply been brought inside temporarily; housing still awaits.
• Affording dignity to all of our neighbors, unhoused included, by considering quality of life, support services and warm meals
• And many others

Additional 9/18 'Off the Sidewalk' reads/resources:

• AUDIO-only recording of 'Off the Sidewalk': Part One, featuring councilmembers remarks and community leaders setting the stage for the urgency of the conversation;
• AUDIO-only recording of 'Off the Sidewalk': Part Two, featuring the panel discussion with housing experts on how to expedite interim housing solutions.
• 'Off the Sidewalk' Highlight reel
• Press coverage:
  • Panel at TV City explores ways to address homelessness: Beverly Press coverage of the event.
  • Hollywood leaders address homeless crisis ahead of LA28: Live NBC LA report from TV City on 9/18.