Councilwoman Rodriguez calls for establishment of L.A. City Homeless Department

LOS ANGELES (CNS) - Los Angeles Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez is lobbying Tuesday for the formation of a new department to create and oversee programs that address the homelessness crisis.

In a statement, Rodriguez said the goal of establishing the Department of Homelessness is to dismantle organizational silos, improving coordination and enhancing transparency regarding the city's homelessness programs. The department would report to Mayor Karen Bass and the City Council, she noted.

"A Department of Homelessness can help verify what each level of government is doing to solve the greatest humanitarian crisis of our time; I cannot say with certainty that we have an efficient and effective operation free of redundancies," Rodriguez said Monday.

She added, "With a mutual goal of creating a responsive system, we must also be prudent and judicious with resources to assure we can accelerate our impact and aid more individuals, because urgency can and should also be efficient and the Department of Homelessness may be a key part to delivering these goals."

The councilwoman introduced a motion on Friday on the matter, which is the first step in the process. The motion will be heard by the Housing and Homelessness Committee at a future date.

In her motion, the councilwoman calls for the city to consolidate and focus its efforts on homelessness. Rodriguez said current policies and programs are currently dispersed among too many entities, making it "impossible" for the city to apply lessons learned from successful approaches.

She said systemic factors pose challenges to institutionalizing existing successful models or new ones governing the city's $1.3 billion investment into its homeless response.

The City Administrative Officer, the Housing Department and the mayor's office each dedicate significant staff time and resources to managing "overlapping homelessness interventions," she said.

"Within this system, determined efforts to evaluate city-funded homelessness programs often run aground, as the providers of services produce irregular and imprecise reporting on contractually-obligated metrics and outcomes," the motion reads.

The councilwoman said, in effect, this system places barriers between city oversight and city-funded services.