The year was 2021, and the Covid-19 pandemic was raging across the world.

In Los Angeles County, homelessness was continuing to increase, as officials and outreach workers looked to find solutions to the encampments that were lining various parts of the city of L.A. One of the largest, on Venice Beach, contained more than 200 people.

Its size and location made it hard to ignore, setting the stage for the successful six-week effort known as the Ocean Front Walk (OFW) Encampment to Home Project. This resulted in the majority of those individuals living in permanent housing.

Modeled after the 2018 Encampment to Home pilot, which focused on two South L.A. communities, the effort was led by the Venice-based nonprofit St. Joseph Center, which serves as the Coordinated Entry System lead agency for Service Planning Area 5 (SPA 5) on the west side of the county.

Like the pilot, the Ocean Front Walk project was a collaborative effort between government, law enforcement and outreach workers, said then-President and Chief Executive Va Lecia Adams Kellum, Ph.D., now-Chief Executive of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA).

But there were important differences. First, employees at St. Joseph Center had secured 212 interim and permanent supportive housing slots before they even approached the residents.

The encampments were divided into five zones, starting from the outside and moving inward, with law enforcement utilized only to protect outreach workers.

“Law enforcement did not interact with the residents, which helped to build trust,” Adams Kellum said. “Being able to offer immediate housing on the spot was also key.”

Current St. Joseph Center President and Chief Executive Ryan J. Smith said workers crafted the solutions based on each person’s specific needs.

“We sent out multidisciplinary teams of clinicians, outreach workers and community ambassadors, some of whom had experienced homelessness before,” said Smith. “We focused on building trust as we offered resources.

“The encampment was cleared one zone at a time, and we’ve seen significant improvements since then,” he added.

The agencies and groups that were part of the effort continue to meet every Friday to discuss the ongoing needs of people experiencing homelessness in the Venice Beach area, said Smith.

The lessons learned from OFW laid the groundwork for Mayor Karen Bass’ Inside Safe Program, which Adams Kellum helped craft.

Since it was unveiled in December, there have been 62 encampment efforts, with 3,080 people being place in interim housing through Aug. 31.

The funding component

While the key to the Ocean Front Walk project’s success was collaboration, the St. Joseph Center could not have carried out the endeavor without government and philanthropic funding, said Smith.

While it relies on a number of sources, philanthropic organizations like the Westlake Village-based Conrad N. Hilton Foundation are key.

President and Chief Executive Peter Laugharn said the foundation is the largest private funder of homelessness efforts in L.A. County, adding it will have made $37 million in grants to nonprofits and $3 million in program-related investments by the end of the year.

“We focus on a few categories: Prevention, mental health, homelessness response including shelter and supportive housing and affordable housing,” said Laugharn.

St. Joseph Center is among the nonprofits that receive consistent funding.

United Way of Greater Los Angeles tackles homelessness both as a grantmaker and as a recipient of grant monies.

Elise Buik, president and chief executive of the nonprofit, said most of its homelessness dollars are targeted toward efforts that help seniors, older adults, community college students and families living in poverty.

“For college students, we provide small grants through our hardship fund and offer mentorship and internship programs to help keep them in school,” said Buik. “We also work with Labor Community Services to get food to families and partner with organizations like SoCalGas to provide utility assistance.”

The Weingart Foundation directs its funding to three areas – protection, preservation and production, said Joanna Jackson, its president and chief executive.

“We use our endowment to invest in the production of affordable housing,” Jackson said, “including making program-related investments, i.e., 1-3% low-interest loans to nonprofit developers and others that advance our foundation’s goals around racial and economic equity and make grants to frontline organizations such as the St. Joseph Center and others providing critical services to those who are unhoused or at risk.”

“We also support public/private partnerships like Stay Housed LA that focus on protection and homelessness prevention,” she added.

Balancing the numbers

While foundation, corporate and individual donations and grants are one of the keys to allowing nonprofits to carry out their good works, those dollars alone are not enough, said Ken Craft, founder and chief executive of North Hills-based Hope the Mission.

The largest rescue mission in the U.S., with 23 interim housing site locations across greater L.A. and over 700 employees, the nonprofit has an annual budget exceeding $100 million.

Each day it provides over 6,000 meals to those in need, but with inflation driving up prices, Craft said making ends meet is an uphill battle.

“We receive about 22% of our revenue through the philanthropic efforts of individuals, foundations and corporations,” said Craft. “The funding we receive from our foundations is critical, but they do not have endless dollars and the application process is very competitive, leaving us to primarily rely on government contracts for 60% of our funding.”

“These contracts provide for reimbursement, which means we have to cover the costs upfront and wait for them to be paid,” said Craft. “This can require taking a line of credit to cover employee payroll and other costs.”

Keeping county monies flowing

While progress is being made in the fight against homelessness, an estimated 75,000 people remain homeless in L.A. County, including about 45,000 in the city of L.A.

In 2017, residents passed Measure H, which created a one-quarter of a cent sales tax, with the proceeds used by the county to fund initiatives designed to help solve the housing crisis.

With Measure H set to end in 2027, voters in November are being asked to approve the more expansive citizen-backed Measure A, which would increase the sales tax to a half cent, with the monies directed toward boosting mental health and substance abuse services, homelessness prevention programs and the expansion of affordable housing.

Miguel Santana, president and chief executive of the California Community Foundation (CCF), is one of the sponsors of Measure A.

He said CCF has allocated nearly $4 million toward the campaign effort to help ensure its passage.

“The measure, drafted by community members, tackles the crisis on multiple fronts,” said Santana. “It provides transparency and accountability on how these funds will be used.”

“Funds will be used to get people on the streets the help and housing they need, build more housing to expand affordability and fund programs like short-term rental assistance that prevent the crisis,” he added.

Moving forward

Laugharn said he believes a solution to the homeless crisis is within reach, citing a record 27,500 people being housed in the county in 2023.

The previous year, LAHSA reported that in coordination with its partners, it made 22,540 placements. The number marked the fifth consecutive year since Measure H was implemented that more than 20,000 people were put in permanent housing.

“If we can continue to make that kind of progress for the next three years, we could essentially eliminate the problem, but that’s only possible if we stop people from falling into homelessness,” he said.

“The current reality is that more people fall into homelessness every day than are able to find a way out of homelessness, which pushes the year-over-year results upward,” said Laugharn.

He and other homeless advocates argue a multi-pronged and more unified approach, utilizing the lessons learned from the Venice Beach project, is needed to combat the problem.

“There is a lot of great work happening, but it needs to feed into one streamlined plan that gets people off the street quickly and focuses on preventative and permanent solutions,” said Laugharn.

Jackson said more must be done to keep residents in their homes.

She’s also calling for easier access to funding and financing for those looking to build affordable housing so that projects can get off the ground quicker, and a closer look at new models of community ownership.

“We must find ways to address the imbalance between what housing costs and what people in L.A. County make and can actually afford,” Jackson said.