Mayor Eric Garcetti and the Los Angeles City Council plan to tackle the city’s homelessness crisis with the construction of a Bridge Home program in Los Feliz.
With over 36,000 people experiencing homelessness and unable to obtain permanent shelter in the Los Angeles area, Garcetti’s “A Bridge Home” initiative plans to provide 100 beds for both men and women in its Los Feliz location.
The Bridge Home program differs from typical homeless shelters in that it provides homeless individuals with an address, health care, life skill classes and other programs to assist an individual find employment and permanent housing in the long-run.
“Bridge housing is not just a roof over their head and a place to come back to everyday, but wrap around services; offices where you can meet with licensed, clinical social workers, health care and life skills training” said Mark Pampanin, a spokesperson for Councilmember David Ryu.
Ryu has opened two bridge housing programs in Los Angeles District 4 and plans to open more bridge housing, safe parking and permanent supportive housing projects, totaling a number of eight new developments.
According to Pampanin, the goal of bridge housing is much different than that of regular homeless shelters. Rather than operating on a first-come, first-serve basis like traditional homeless shelters, bridge housing acts more as a transitional step to help individuals live more independently.
Pampanin said Councilmember Ryu places a strong focus on mental health services when fulfilling Garcetti’s bridge housing program.
“[Councilmember Ryu’s] commitment when he opens anything related to homeless housing is that it has to have mental health resources. That’s the first and most vital [factor] that this project and any project in District 4 has,” said Pampanin.
Pampanin also explained that there is no deadline for individuals to find permanent housing while in the bridge housing program. Often times, if a person continues to struggle to afford housing on his or her own, he or she will transition to permanent supportive housing.
Although some may say Garcetti’s Bridge Home initiative is an ideal solution to decrease homelessness in the Los Angeles area, others argue that the plan overlooks important factors that lead to homelessness and is ineffective on a large scale.
Seth Kurzban, a clinical associate professor at USC’s School of Social Work, argued that in order to solve homelessness, one must look at issues involving poverty in addition to the issue of housing.
For Kurzban, homelessness is multifaceted.
“There are so many reasons why people are [homeless], it’s not just that housing is too expensive; incomes haven’t risen,” said Kurzban.
Kurzban suggests that focusing on long-term solutions to support Angelenos should be the priority.
“[Bridge housing is] great, it’s just too slow and too little,” added Kurzban.
According to Kurzban, the rise in homelessness is largely due to overly-expensive housing, stagnant wages, minimal welfare programs and an outdated Supplemental Security Income system.
Supplemental Security Income (SSI) is a program to support individuals with disabilities, including mental health disabilities, so severe that they cannot hold full time jobs. However, Kurzban notes that the amount of money provided by SSI has not risen in over three decades. Additionally, people arrested or committed to facilities for mental health issues can lose their access to SSI.
“Every time they are arrested or hospitalized, they lose that check. It’s not just suspended, they have to reapply for the program. It’s so non-sensible,” said Kurzban.
There is also an issue of NIMBYism (Not In My Backyard) in which many are willing to support programs to aid homelessness, but reluctant to do so in their own communities.
“That is something that we could all do a better job of raising awareness that these are fellow citizens that when housed, look and act just like us,” Kurzban said.
The Bridge Housing Shelter in Los Feliz is set to open this June 2020.
Correction made Feb. 28, 2020 at 10 a.m.: A previous version of this article misstated the number of people experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles. It has been corrected to reflect the correct number based on the most recent data from the Los Angeles Homelessness Services Authority. A previous version also misspelled the name of Mark Pampanin. This has also been corrected. Annenberg Media apologizes for these mistakes.