Venice Org Cosponsors State Bill For Homeless Housing Assistance

VENICE, CA — Venice-based nonprofit Safe Place for Youth cosponsored a bill that looks to require localities to provide affordable homes to people experiencing homelessness and create a Homeless Housing Obligation Fund to support that goal.

California Senate Bill 7 is authored by Senator Catherine Blakespear in the state's 38th District and will ensure that each city is doing its fair share to address housing needs in local communities.

The bill headed to the California Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday, just a day before the Los Angeles City Council voted to ban overnight RV parking on various Mar Vista streets.

"We have the cold, hard facts that homelessness continues to get worse in this state every month, including within the shadow of the capital of the fourth largest economy in the world," Blakespear said. "So we are, simply stated, not keeping up with the need and we are not working systemically toward getting people out of encampments and into homes and the state has not provided an obligation for cities and counties to do this."

According to Blakespear, the bill seeks to mandate that local jurisdictions meet the needs of local homeless populations. The bill adds the category of homelessness to the Regional Housing Needs Allocation, which will require cities to plan for housing their homeless population.

Safe Place for Youth officials said the organization is proud to cosponsor the bill as it serves more than 1,000 unhoused people ages 12 to 26 in LA each year. The nonprofit provides interim and permanent housing as well as case management, meals, education and employment assistance, and other services.

"As a youth homeless services provider, Safe Place for Youth is committed to advancing lasting, community-driven solutions that address systems of racial and social inequity; and by increasing access to safe and affordable housing with SB 7 we are doing just that," SPY Chief Executive Officer Erika Hartman said. "Since 2011, we have steadily increased available housing resources for youth, but we know that vastly more is needed - we will only be able to end homelessness if there is enough available housing."