Demand For Affordable, Permanent Housing Grows On Westside

SANTA MONICA, CA — Homelessness and affordable housing is not just a problem for families, it's a problem for entire communities. With the pandemic, this has only amplified the divide between people living on the edge of poverty and homelessness on the Westside, forcing people to decide where to live and go next.

That's why Upward Bound House offers families homes and independent living—it's a chance to move forward.

The organization has housing and service programs across LA County, including at locations in Santa Monica, Culver City, Compton and South Los Angeles. The Santa Monica program serves families from the Westside of Los Angeles including Venice, West LA and Westchester communities.

The group received a grant from CIT Group Inc. to help put people on a path to permanent housing. It was identified as a community need by a customer of CIT's Southern California retail bank OneWest Bank as part of the CIT's Acts of Caring initiative.

"CIT’s grant will provide furnishings for 10 apartments in UBH’s apartment building in Santa Monica that has 21 one-bedroom apartment units with bathrooms and kitchens," the company announced in a news release.

Some of those donation items are bedding, linens, toiletries, kitchen utensils, or kid necessities, such as cribs, high chairs.

"Each family that enters this program moves into a fully furnished apartment with brand new items," the group said. "After living in unsafe and inhumane conditions, most families are distressed and need a safe, sanitary and dignified environment to begin their journey of transitioning from homelessness."

Families take these items with them when they move into their apartments.

"Providing these basic living items to families when they leave also has a positive financial impact," the company said. "Families get to maintain their savings for a rainy day or for other big-ticket items they may need upon getting into permanent housing."

Chris Oliver, Program Manager at Upward Bound House, told Patch the shelter is vital for families struggling with affordable housing and homelessness on the Westside. Oliver helps with both the transitional housing shelter in Santa Monica and an emergency shelter in Culver City, working with these families.

"Homelessness has been an epidemic in LA County, so it was already on the rise, obviously it’s even greater now," Oliver told Patch. "I think the rent moratorium and some of those benefits have stopped any increased homelessness in terms of the referrals were receiving. As things go on, we will need more shelters, but I know Project Room Key has helped."

Project Room Key provided emergency resources in the early days of the pandemic in California, giving people without a place to go either a motel or hotel room and increasing resources for shelters.

"It was an immediate program to address COVID and those actually who hod a higher chance of getting COVID, elderly, people with diabetes," Oliver told Patch.

Oliver believes this helped to prevent outbreaks in shelters, an important move as the community continues fighting the virus.

"If there is an outbreak in the shelter it pretty much shuts the shelter down," Oliver said.

"Because of COVID, our main priority is trying to get people to permanent housing," Oliver told Patch. "We had clients who were affected with a furlough or losing their jobs, and then childcare became a major issue, and then they had to do virtual learning, and that required parents to be home. So now these kids are in school and that’s one less child care opportunity and that it was a big impact with the pandemic."

In the early days of the stay-at-home order, the organization added Wifi at both shelters.

"It helped the children, any of the parents if they had to do any virtual interviewing and things like that," Oliver told Patch. "We didn’t have it at first, but when the pandemic came, not having Wifi became a bigger issue."

Access to technology and the internet became vital once the lockdown started.

"If you’re stuck at home and you have to use Wifi it can be another barrier," Oliver said. "It helped the families, it helped the children."

Each family at Upward Bound House has its apartment. The nonprofit works to give people their independence and support them as they move forward to stability.

"People have their autonomy," Oliver said.

There are several barriers to accessing housing on the Westside, including trying to find employment, increasing income, getting driver’s license, social security card—sometimes people don’t have that—budgeting, housing, grocery shopping and laundry.

There are 21 families currently living at the Santa Monica facility and 18 families living at the Culver City location.

"Having a shelter as a middle point to housing is very important because people being on the streets, especially with children, it can take a mental toll," Oliver told Patch. "It’s hard for children to really excel at school when they don’t have a safe space to sleep, they don’t know where they’re showering, sleeping in a car might not be comfortable."

Not having a home can impact a child's confidence.

"It’s a self-esteem issue," Oliver told Patch. "Affordable housing is what is really needed, especially in Los Angeles, because the rents are just increasing and increasing."

The organization works to give support and works toward rapid re-housing.

"That’s helped because it gives families support, individual support moving in," Oliver said. "One of the major things is we provide deposits."

It's about just getting started and having a place to call home, something the group strives to provide. It might not be easy, but it's one way that the families find support and connect with landlords who might understand their position.

"It gives landlords more assurance, that’s one of the larger things to accept families that may have an eviction on their record," Oliver told Patch.

Employment and child care is still a challenge, but people have started to stabilize, Oliver said.

"We’ve had families who have been able to move and find places," Oliver told Patch. "We’ve been able to connect with landlords who are a lot more understanding and open to the community. That’s a big part of being able to reduce the crisis of homelessness, are landlords to be part of the community support and helping people to stabilize."

People coming out of homelessness often cannot afford to live in permanent housing on the Westside.

"One of the difficult things is the Westside as a place that we can house people," Oliver told Patch. "One of the hardest things is it’s hard for them to get permanent housing in the Westside. It’s kind of like having to decide to see 'If I wait to see if something happens or do I just get permanent housing for my family?'

It's a bizarre predicament for the shelter and advocates: to live on the Westside but not deliver permanent housing on the Westside. There are a few ways to stay in the community, but not everyone can.

"The only way is if you get connected with the affordable housing in Santa Monica or a voucher," Oliver said. "You have to have priority, resident, forcefully evicted. It’s pretty hard and really it’s pretty much we can provide shelter but you’re likely going to have to move more closely into the city."

They get six months. Six months of a Westside school, job, park and community—then they have to leave.

"That’s the hard thing about having a shelter on the Westside," Oliver told Patch. "It’s hard to keep them connected to their resources when they move into permanent housing because permanent housing is more likely going to be east."

See more:

• Authorities Report 14 Arrests From LA Protests In May, June
• Culver City Police Investigating Shots-Fired Incident
• Authorities Seek Woman Accused Of Setting Fires In Santa Monica