Building Momentum on Solving Homelessness

by Gary Toebben

Since 2009 the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce has worked in partnership with the United Way of Greater Los Angeles to pioneer a new approach to end chronic and veteran homelessness through the creation of permanent supportive housing. This effort, known as Home for Good, began with visits to other communities that were making progress in meeting this difficult challenge. Taking advantage of their lessons learned, Home for Good was born and in five years we have housed 9,305 chronically homeless and 14,094 homeless veterans. Key components of Home for Good’s success include a Coordinated Entry System and a Funders’ Collaborative that has invested more than $730 million.

Today, L.A. County faces an even greater challenge due to a spike in the number of homeless in our communities. During the last two months, both the City and the County of L.A. have identified this spike as a state of emergency and are stepping forward with a bold new focus backed up by significant resources.

In 2009 we were told time and again by federal agencies focused on homelessness that there was no way to get the City and County of L.A. to work together. We are proud that our efforts have encouraged a new sense of collaboration that was obvious today when the L.A. County Board of Supervisors, L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti and three members of the L.A. City Council jointly hosted U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro. I attended that meeting and applaud the collaboration of all the elected officials in the room.

This new commitment by the City and County provides an opportunity to bolster the drive to end chronic and veteran homelessness and put into place additional efforts to address short term homelessness. It will enable our community to focus more resources on outreach and assistance to those with mental challenges, substance abuse and individuals who might endanger public safety.

Through collaboration, we can solve this vast problem by using our time, resources and talent in the most effective and efficient way. Join us for HomeWalk 2015 on Nov. 21. Together we can help the most vulnerable in our society, while improving the quality of life for all our communities.

And that's The Business Perspective.