The road home starts here

Children, families and veterans are among the more than 50,000 people living on L.A. county's streets.

As Thanksgiving approaches and we gratefully count our blessings, we also reflect on those who are consigned to society’s sidelines, living without roofs over their heads and cut off from the comforts of home and family.

They include, in our county alone, thousands of veterans, thousands of young people and families, thousands with physical disabilities and tens of thousands more who are mentally ill.

Reducing their numbers is our moral obligation, a responsibility we all share. Within Los Angeles County government over the course of the past year, we’ve taken that responsibility to heart and created something unprecedented to set us on the right course.

For the first time, we’ve brought together all the diverse departments with a role to play in preventing and ending homelessness and combined them into a powerful and dynamic force—the Los Angeles County Interdepartmental Council on Homelessness.

On November 15, the council’s initial year of work culminated in our adoption of the county’s first-ever roadmap for addressing homelessness. This roadmap taps into the collective wisdom, expertise, street smarts and tactics of more than a dozen departments and establishes how each will play a role in finding solutions and aiding those who so desperately need it.

It’s intended to cut through bureaucratic obstacles and focus on results, including more permanent supportive housing, better data sharing and teams that will work across departmental lines to provide services and leverage available funding for maximum impact. Proven, money-saving successes like Project 50 can become models for a countywide “housing first” approach.

But a roadmap is just that—a guide to where we’re going. It’s only as good as the drivers behind the wheel, and clearly, there will be many detours, off-ramps and obstacles to navigate before we reach our destination.

In other words, as challenging as it was to create, coming up with the roadmap was easy compared to the daunting journey that lies ahead.

As I’ve said before in this space, and no doubt will again, homelessness remains a great stain on our society. For a country as rich and well-endowed as ours, it is shameful and inexplicable to have so many of our fellow citizens sleeping out on the streets each night, including children, families and veterans who have answered the call of service to our nation.

We owe them better. With more than 50,000 homeless people counted on our streets last year, the need for action and for true, lasting results is immense.

It is our time—and our obligation—to do something big.

We’ve got the map. Where we go from here is up to us.

Posted 11/16/12