Hoping to foster more regional oversight of homelessness programs, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors agreed on Tuesday, Aug. 8, to create an Executive Committee of elected officials from across the Southland to coordinate county and local efforts to tackle the problem.
“This has been a long time in the making, and in order for it to work, we all have to work together,” according to Supervisor Kathryn Barger, who introduced the motion with Supervisor Hilda Solis.
The creation of a regional oversight body was one of the recommendations offered two years ago by a county Blue Ribbon Commission on Homelessness, which called for an “executive-level action team” encompassing leaders from the county and its 88 cities, along with state input, to better coordinate homeless programs regionally.
Under the board’s action Tuesday, the new Executive Committee will include two members of the Board of Supervisors, the mayor of Los Angeles, a member of the Los Angeles City Council, four mayors or city council members from cities in the county, and a representative chosen by the governor.
That committee will in turn oversee a “Leadership Table,” which will act as an “advisory body” to the committee. The Leadership Table will also leverage private funding sources for homelessness programs. That group will include Los Angeles city and county department heads, business leaders, service providers, educators and representatives of sectors including labor, public housing, veterans, the faith community and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
Also included in the Leadership Table will be the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, which has long served as a quasi city-county entity designed to oversee regional homeless-prevention efforts. The authority has been under fire in recent years over the region’s continued struggles with homelessness.
Barger stressed that the Executive Committee is not envisioned as a replacement for LAHSA, but will…
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