Resources Dedicated to Housing the Homeless

Over the past year, the city of Manhattan Beach has dedicated additional resources to provide housing services to support unsheltered individuals.

In November 2021, the City Council approved an agreement with Harbor Interfaith Services for a dedicated housing navigator/case manager that has been instrumental in interacting with unhoused individuals and providing them with assistance, whether through treatment referrals, document production, or interim/stable housing placements.

The City Council also approved an agreement with SHARE! Collaborative Housing for two beds to shelter unhoused individuals.

Both agreements ensured that street outreach conducted by Harbor Interfaith Services could quickly result in the housing of individuals within 24 hours of first contact, compared to 260 days elsewhere through the housing process.

The city also works in partnership with MB SAFE, a local non-profit that connects homeless people with the city’s homeless navigator and seeks to refer people to essential resources.

Photo montage via MB SAFE

Additionally, in collaboration with regional partners that include Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach, El Segundo, and the South Bay Cities Council of Governments, the city was awarded $216,000 in Measure H grant funding for two additional homeless navigators/case managers to service the cities.

During the first half of 2022, the city’s investments in community partnerships, housing assistance, and extensive outreach resulted in five permanent housing placements and nine short-term housing placements. The city has also had productive interactions with 82 unhoused individuals, assistance with document production or enrollment in benefits provided to 10 individuals, and six treatment referrals.

[Read MB News stories about some of the city's housing placement success stories here and here.]

The Manhattan Beach Police Department has also played an active role in addressing homelessness in the community with an emphasis on public safety. Thirteen police officers have been trained to respond to incidents involving people who are homeless. These officers work with the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health on a weekly basis to assist mentally ill homeless individuals.

More information about the city's efforts to solve the homelessness problem is available here: www.citymb.info/homelessness.

Homelessness Still Rises Across L.A. County

The greater L.A. area, however, showed a slight increase in homelessness in the new survey.

Across Los Angeles County, the results of LAHSA's point-in-time count, conducted over three nights in February, estimated that 69,144 people were experiencing homelessness in L.A. County at that time, a 4.1% rise from 2020.

Nevertheless, that increase is very small compared to the jumps that L.A. County had experienced in recent years. In the homeless counts between 2018 and 2020, L.A. County saw a 25.9% increase and the City of L.A. experienced a 32% increase.  

Over the past five years, LAHSA and its partners have made 84,000 permanent housing placements, which, to put in perspective, is enough to fill Dodger Stadium one and a half times. Last year alone, the rehousing system made 21,213 placements.  

“While it is too soon to know what this year’s count results will mean long-term, the numbers are suggesting there is a flattening of the curve that is driven by the necessary and effective economic programs that helped keep people in their homes throughout the pandemic,” said Kristina Dixon, acting co-executive director of LAHSA, in a statement.