New "A Bridge Home" Homelessness Shelter Opens In Van Nuys

VAN NUYS, CA — Mayor Garcetti and Council President Nury Martinez announced the completion of a new bridge shelter in the Van Nuys afternoon. It's the 21st shelter to open since Garcetti announced his "A Bridge Home" program in 2018, and the fourth in the San Fernando Valley.

The shelter will be located at 14333 Aetna Street, adjacent to the Van Nuys metro station along the Orange line running from Chatsworth to North Hollywood.

"This is really exciting, to take a space where you can only imagine what it would look like, and actually be able to come here and see," Garcetti said Monday afternoon. "The taking of it from a dream to a reality, from a hope to a home."

Mayor Garcetti initiated the "A Bridge Home" project in 2018, attempting to curb the homelessness crisis by providing transitional housing. The program got off to a slow start, with only four sites opening in the first year according to LAist. Recently, however, the city has seen a surge in bridge housing, with four new developments opening so far in August.

"We took this effort on long before this pandemic, because homelessness is a public health crisis," Garcetti said. "We know that Angelenos experiencing homelessness are more likely to die, get sick, more likely to be afflicted with poverty and other conditions that make their quality of life less than Angelenos that are housed."

Garcetti said the city is on track to open an additional 24 bridge homes by mid-December, expanding to a total of 2000 beds by the end of the year.