Talk May be Cheap, but Critical Conversations are Priceless* (* If you know how to have them!)

As Executive Director of the Hollywood 4WRD homeless coalition for the last three years, I’ve participated in countless conversations intended to shore up the fractured homelessness systems too weak to support our community’s most vulnerable. While I appreciate every opportunity to represent H4WRD’s view, I don’t always consider such conversations successful until or unless they lead to tangible results. 

Over my time at H4WRD, I’ve developed a clear-eyed perspective on what’s necessary to facilitate productive conversations:

1. Finding common ground on both the problem and potential solutions
2. Forming effective multidisciplinary partnerships that utilize each partner’s strengths in addressing the solution
3. Creating actionable steps for everyone while fostering mutual accountability going forward

Several recent conversations have each included all these components and give me hope for improvement on the homelessness landscape:

• May 2024: Hollywood Chamber of Commerce's Mayoral Luncheon, in which the Mayor clarified her stances on several relevant issues while also calling for private sector participation
• June 2024: A dinner with local leaders and community activists to address the funding lag impacting LA’s service providers

• September 2024: LA County Supervisors Forum gave guests a chance to interact directly with Hollywood-area Supervisors and explore potential areas for partnership
• 2022 - Present: The evolving conversation between the community and Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health to strengthen the Hollywood 2.0 pilot program and Greater Hollywood

‍

These conversations perfectly frame H4WRD’s upcoming community summit on September 18th: Off the Sidewalk: Pre-Olympic Sprint to Halve Street Homelessness in LA.

Co-hosted with Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, the event aims to propose actionable, housing-now solutions to the City of LA without waiting for the 2028 Olympics to arrive. This is one critical conversation you absolutely don’t want to miss.

---------------------

Now that I’ve shared my take on the essential ingredients necessary for activating sustainable systems-change, I want to hear from you. Please consider taking this brief survey to tell us who you think H4WRD should be talking to, and what we should be talking about.

At Hollywood 4WRD, we want to follow your lead as we continue to lead the critical conversations to end and prevent street homelessness in Greater Hollywood.