PRESENTED BY
// HOW THE PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SECTORS CAN TEAM UP TO FIGHT HOMELESSNESS Wendy Greuel, Former Los Angeles City Controller
How have you engaged both within government, as well as the philanthropic community to focus attention on the issue of homelessness? On the issue of homelessness, of course during COVID, it was how do we ensure that those that are the most vulnerable, that over 65, underlying health conditions, which is a large part of that population, gets inside. And we actually turned a bit to the not only working with government but the private sector in finding hotels and motels to create a program called Project Room Key that the governor helped set up and provided funding for. And this was looking at a number of hotels. We’ve actually been able to have leases with more than 35 hotels and motels in the L.A. County region. I think a crisis that we have now often times highlights the inequities. More than 30% of the homeless are African American, even though in Los Angeles, only 9% of the population is African American. And so with those kinds of inequities, it’s important that we can work very closely with the business community to help leverage their expertise. And as we look to address homelessness in the future, it is about building affordable housing. It is about ensuring that people have that housing. Government cannot build all that housing. The private sector needs to be part of that and the philanthropic community and the businesses can help us identify new ways of looking at housing that we never thought of before.
few years, which was the public passed two bond measures, Measure H, which is a sales tax, and Measure HHH, which is a bond that allows us to have some funding—although challenged obviously—in these economic times. But what is hopeful to me is that the fact within two months, we were able to find 3,500 beds just like that. And the ability to move mountains, to come through that bureaucracy, which is so important. Well, guess what? Normally, having someone live on the street is an emergency and we need to move mountains to do that. I’m extremely positive about the fact that, as I said, a disaster has outlined not only the inequities but caused it to be a sense of emergency. And the stories that we hear about businesses that may or may not ever be able to open after this pandemic, to individuals who have lost their jobs and are unsure whether they can pay their rent. There are creative ways that people are looking at and changing that box, breaking down that box, breaking down those barriers to say, it is a crisis. We must deal with it and we must be able to see that there is actual movement. The private sector has expertise, has ways in which they can help us, and people are more open to that in a time of crisis. What are some of the solutions you see that can make a real impact on homelessness? Particularly in this pandemic, you’ve seen people step up to the plate and provide funding and donations to the L.A. Regional Food Bank as well as Shelter Partnership, both of which have provided resources to existing shelters and as well as those newly established. There were short-term effective ways that people can assist and continue to help out on the issue of homelessness. But I also think in the long-term, it is looking at new ways of housing people and being able to have the financial resources to do that. A private sector fund that would allow us to move much more quickly than the federal government, or the state or local government would be—to be able to purchase a piece of property. I think there are ways in which the private sector can engage from everyday necessities that are needed for the homeless on the stress of Los Angeles, to literally trying to solve that problem, which is building that permanent supportive housing. I will say, it is important to support that building of affordable housing. We found even when we were placing people in hotels and motels, vulnerable individuals, communities who said no, we don’t want them in our neighborhoods. Again, the homeless have a face, and a name, and so many of them are people like you and me who have fallen on hard times and we have to recognize that.
Is there something that makes you hopeful because we are experiencing these things in Los Angeles, an epicenter of entrepreneurialism, that we’re in some ways uniquely equipped to respond to the challenges we’re currently facing? Absolutely! I think a couple things that happened even in the last
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