Homeless Navigation Center Opens In Vermont Knolls

LOS ANGELES, CA — A navigation center offering several services for people experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles opened Monday in Vermont Knolls. It's the second such center funded by Proposition HHH which was approved on the November 2016 ballot, while the original center opened in North Hollywood in February.

The center will be located in an old fire station on Manchester Avenue at Hoover Street. Available services include a laundry room, showers and a storage room, along with case management and housing navigation support for more long-term assistance.

"This is the first navigation center in the Eighth District and really around South Los Angeles," said Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson, who co-authored proposition HHH. "Folks who are houseless will be able to come here and get a shower, store their materials, get guidance from counselors for job training, mental health treatment and all the other things that the city has helped make available."

The center will be open every day except Sunday. The facility, which had previously become an encampment, features a blue and gold mural that Harris-Dawson said represents hope and awakening.

"We're happy to be able to turn it around and turn it into a place for hope, so you know when we see people on the street now, neighbors you know, if you see somebody who doesn't have a place to go and needs a place to put their things and to get a shower, they can come to the navigation center," he said.

City News Service contributed to this report.