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We know we need more supportive housing and we have the resources to build it, but there are a number of policies and regulations slowing us down—things like parking requirements and prohibitive density restrictions.

But last week, L.A. City Council moved decisively to cut the red tape and make it easier to build the housing we need. The Council approved two new ordinances, the Permanent Supportive Housing Ordinance and the Motel Conversion Ordinance, which ease the restrictions on certain types of housing. More specifically, the first measure allows modestly sized supportive housing that meets certain criteria to skip parking requirements and contentious public hearings. The second measure simplifies the conversion of unoccupied and dilapidated motels into supportive housing.

These two ordinances would not have passed without strong public support. However, not everyone sees eye-to-eye with us, and harmful regulations have their defenders. In Council meetings, the “not in my backyard” (NIMBY) crowd, which tends to be a lot louder than it is large, demanded veto power over every new development and complained that their property values might fall (despite evidence to the contrary).

Fortunately, we came in numbers and managed to overcome the prejudice of the NIMBYs. We called, tweeted, and wrote letters to our representatives to show our support. More importantly, we showed up: Over 100 supporters went to the first committee meeting where the ordinances were being discussed. That advocacy was in addition to the Angelenos who spoke out, week after week, in the Neighborhood Council meetings where so much decision-making gets done.

The two new ordinances are a major victory and will make it cheaper and less time-consuming to build homes for the people who need them most. Roughly 200 additional units of housing will go up every year, with a total of 10,000 over the course of a decade, making a big dent in our homelessness problem. Because of you, we’re heading toward a more sustainable and compassionate future. We can’t afford to stop now. Everyone in.

“Where is the love?” It’s a question we’re routinely asking as supportive housing projects run into roadblocks. Even though most Angelenos believe in commonsense solutions to our homelessness crisis, an extreme but vocal minority refuses to even see homeless people as human beings.

In 2016, 77 percent of Los Angeles voters opted to raise their property taxes to pay for $1.2 billion in homeless housing, and, in 2017, 69 percent of county voters supported paying for the supportive services provided to people living in those buildings. But you wouldn’t always know we have such a large majority of support from attending your nearest Neighborhood Council meeting. These gatherings, which have a big impact on whether solutions to homelessness are implemented, can be dominated by an agitated and intolerant minority.

Folks against housing homeless people in their neighborhoods like to trot out all sorts of canards, like the idea that building supportive housing will deflate property values (in fact, it may raise them). But what’s most disturbing is that they seem to blame homeless folks for their own misfortune, sometimes claiming (as absurd as it sounds) that some people simply want to be homeless.

A majority of Angelenos take a more compassionate view. Ninety percent of us don’t believe that homelessness is “someone else’s problem.” But we aren’t always speaking up; instead, we’re letting fearmongering NIMBYs speak for us.

Recently, in Orange County, intense community opposition derailed efforts to help hundreds of people living on the streets. Those who led the campaign against housing accused city leaders of trying to erect “tent cities” that would transform their suburban neighborhoods into bleak slums. Last week, more than 1,000 protesters showed up at the county’s Board of Supervisors meeting in Santa Ana with signs reading “Keep Our Children Safe” and “Solutions Not Tents.”

Protesters denounced their homeless neighbors as “strangers,” but a recent survey by Orange County United Way found that 68 percent had lived in the county for 10 years or longer, and 90 percent were U.S.-born.

The study underscores the fact that homeless people are our neighbors, maybe even our relatives or friends. They’re local families who’ve been evicted and young adults recently let go from their jobs, and they’re living all across the Southland—more often than not in the neighborhood where they lost their homes.

But politicians aren’t going to throw their weight behind sensible solutions for housing them unless they have the public’s support. That’s why it’s so important to attend Neighborhood Council meetings in your area and let your voice be heard.

Tell your neighbors that building supportive housing is safer than letting people live on the streets. Let them know that ending chronic homelessness won’t lead to the destruction of your neighborhood’s character or decrease the property values of houses.

Homelessness touches every neighborhood in L.A. and the only way to solve this problem is for every neighborhood to step up and demand the supportive housing we know to be effective. Instead of allowing our leaders to kick the can to neighboring districts, let them know you believe in bringing everyone in.

Everyone In is proud to partner with The Advocates to help educate the public on the homelessness crisis, and participate in interactive discussions with local communities on how they can help be advocates for our neighbors living outside.

In addition to showing the film, each screening will be followed with a panel discussion, featuring Director Remi Kessler and experts working on the issue.

Synopsis:

The Advocates is a breakthrough documentary about the homelessness crisis in Los Angeles, told through the eyes of the advocates working to end it.

Over half a million people experience homelessness in the United States, with nearly 53,000 living in L.A. County. The Advocates explores the depth of this emergency by showing the stories of three advocates trying to help our most vulnerable survive each day.

Intensely humanizing and intimate, this film provides a sweeping look at the historic and current causes of L.A.’s unprecedented housing and homelessness crisis—and lays the blueprint for solutions moving forward.

Interested in hosting a screening? Click here.

On Wednesday, the L.A. City Council votes on two measures that would make it dramatically easier to build supportive housing by cutting the red tape. They’re both really important, commonsense measures that will help us accomplish our goal of ending homelessness in L.A.

Just as with the “222 Plan,” it’s time to make sure that your councilmember is IN. Call them and ask where they stand on the Permanent Supportive Housing Ordinance and the Motel Conversion Ordinance, then tweet when you’re done.

Together, these ordinances would cut the red tape and bypass City Council approval for smaller buildings that meet specific requirements, make it easier to turn dilapidated motels into useful supportive housing, and eliminate parking space requirements for new buildings near transit that house homeless residents.

When these measures first came up in City Council meetings, they had the usual opposition from the Not-In-My-Back-Yard crowd, but we brought more than 100 supporters to City Hall. By the last committee meeting, the opposition had stopped coming altogether. That is the power of Everyone In. We represent a majority of voters across this county. When we show up and make ourselves heard, we are unstoppable.

Those initial meetings were important, but now it’s time to vote. Call City Hall today and tell them we’ll never end homelessness in L.A. if the housing we so desperately need gets wrapped up in red tape. Ask them if they are in for both the Permanent Supportive Housing Ordinance and the Motel Conversion Ordinance. When you’re done, fire off a tweet and let us know how it goes.

As the overall number of homeless people has increased across L.A., the face of homelessness is also changing. Despite the ongoing stigma around homelessness and common depiction of homeless people as addicts and criminals, our homeless neighbors are often indistinguishable from our housed neighbors. For example, the highest increase in homelessness in 2017 was among young adults ages 18 to 24 and the number of homeless children under 18 increased by 41 percent. Most of these children are members of homeless families and many of those families are led by single parents.

In 2017, we also saw significant increases in homelessness among veterans and families—57 percent and 29 percent increases, respectively. The number of newly homeless individuals (versus chronically homeless) also shot up last year: Over 8,000 people who became homeless within the last year are experiencing homelessness for the first time. There was also a shocking surge in Latinx homelessness across the county—a 63 percent increase in one year.

Many of these growing homeless populations across the county are especially vulnerable, marginalized, and in need of stable housing and supportive services. Thirty-five percent of homeless youth identify as LGBTQ and many of them face intense discrimination from their families, employers, and landlords. This makes it harder for them to find stable work and housing, which in turn makes it harder to exit the cycle of homelessness. Survivors of domestic violence and physically disabled individuals, who represent 34 percent and 16 percent of the homeless population within L.A. County, can also face discrimination when it comes to finding housing and are often seen as “nuisance” tenants.

Homeless people across L.A. aren’t outliers or bad apples. They’re people we love and people whose rights we’ve committed to protect. They’re our neighbors, our co-workers, and our friends. They’re us—and it’s up to us to make sure that we get everyone in.

In a survey conducted earlier this year, 97 percent of Los Angeles County voters said homelessness was a serious problem and 63 percent said they thought it was getting worse. These results shouldn’t surprise anyone who lives in L.A. and can see how extensive our homelessness problem has become in recent years. But what is surprising—and exciting—is what people think should happen next.

90 percent of people rejected the idea that homelessness is someone else’s problem.

In the same survey, 90 percent of people rejected the idea that homelessness is someone else’s problem, signaling a shift away from how L.A. and many other cities have traditionally dealt with homelessness—by pushing it into “someone else’s” backyard or community. But it’s obvious that this approach doesn’t work and, with a homeless population large enough to be its own city, there is nowhere else to go.

Last year, homelessness increased in every part of the city and county, and every area has its own population of homeless residents. According to the 2017 homeless count, which covers all of L.A. County except for Glendale, Long Beach, and Pasadena, every service area saw an increase in homelessness. Antelope Valley and East L.A. both saw a 50 percent increase, and all but three City Council districts within the city of Los Angeles saw an increase in homelessness.

L.A. County residents are recognizing that homelessness is too widespread to contain to one area and that every neighborhood, district, and city needs to do its part to bring everyone inside for good. In 2016, we voted in a measure to tax ourselves and fund supportive services by some of the widest margins ever. Now, we’re seeing those funds used to coordinate efforts across the county and support a comprehensive plan that brings together every agency, city, district, neighborhood, and community across L.A.

For example, last month Santa Clarita received a grant to start working on its own plan to address homelessness and elected officials in Lancaster were able to use funds to keep an emergency shelter open during winter months.

While elected officials and service providers have the most immediate access to requesting these funds, individual members of each community play a critical role and there are many opportunities to support the countywide plan to end homelessness from wherever you are. Here are a few options:

• Learn more about the plan to end homelessness on our website
• Volunteer at a local homeless shelter or with a local services provider in your area
• Contact an elected official in your city or district and ask what they’re doing to support the plan to end homelessness
• Go to a Neighborhood Council or City Council meeting where homelessness is being discussed and advocate for proven solutions like supportive housing
• Talk to one of your neighbors or co-workers about how you can be a part of the solution to ending homelessness in L.A.

Whatever you do, tweet us with the #EveryoneIn hashtag and let us know how you’re playing a part in the coordinated effort to end homelessness across L.A. or how your community is stepping up.

Our movement has a mantra: Homes end homelessness. We’ve all been saying it for the last year and our work continues to be guided by it. The best way to help our neighbors off the street is to bring them inside and support them as they recover.

In recent years, the “housing first” approach to ending homelessness has gained popularity, first as an idea and then as a proven method. People recognized that being homeless makes every aspect of day-to-day life more difficult, and many of the challenges that homeless individuals face in getting back on their feet could be addressed if they had a permanent address. They also recognized that many people who experience homelessness struggle with mental illness, physical disabilities, and other issues that make it difficult to adjust back into life off the streets.

“Don’t think it can’t happen to you. It happens overnight. The question is, if it does happen to you, what would you like your homelessness to look like.” —Emily

Issues like PTSD don’t just disappear when you put a roof over someone’s head and most people who have been homeless for years can’t easily fall back into a routine of buying groceries and paying bills. We need to be smart and compassionate when we think about helping our homeless neighbors who are the most vulnerable and in need.

Supportive housing combines a stable and affordable living environment with on-site supportive services, like mental and physical health services, job training, and addiction treatment that can help people deal with the issues that contributed to, or were exacerbated by, their homelessness. Research shows that this form of housing is the most effective way to reverse homelessness and it’s easy to see why. Numerous studies on the impact of supportive housing on individuals and communities have demonstrated the following results consistently:

• Effective – Supportive housing has a 90 percent success rate of reversing chronic homelessness, meaning that individuals who enter supportive housing stay housed for at least a year. People who enter supportive housing also see increased stability when it comes to employment, mental and physical health, and school attendance; and reduced substance use.
• Efficient – The cost of keeping people on the streets is far greater than the cost of housing them. Homeless individuals without access to stable shelter and consistent services are far more likely to rely on emergency shelters and health care, often getting stuck in a revolving door that drains civic resources and doesn’t allow people to exit.
• For everyone – Supportive housing doesn’t just help the formerly homeless individuals who live there; it helps the entire surrounding community. Studies have shown that bringing supportive housing into a neighborhood (versus shuffling people from one street to another) improves the overall safety of the neighborhood and can increase property values.

People who enter supportive housing find more than four walls and a bed—they find hope and an opportunity to thrive on their own terms. Homelessness affects all of us and we all deserve to heal.

Have you read the L.A. Times series on homelessness yet? Each editorial is a passionate and principled argument for why we need to act now, and it’s impossible to come away unmoved. The series unpacks the history behind our homelessness crisis and shows us who’s responsible for fixing it (everyone). Here are a few choice quotes from each piece. After you read them, post a tweet and let others know we’re taking on this challenge and we need them to get involved.

Part 1: A national disgrace

Passing Measures H and HHH was the easy part. Money alone doesn’t solve problems, and in the end the tougher questions are how to spend it, where to spend it, on whom to spend it and how to measure success. If we hope that the crisis will be gone — or, more realistically, under control — when the money runs out in 10 years, we need city and county officials to explain what actions they’re taking and why, how many people they’ve housed or failed to house, what they expect to accomplish by the end of the year and by the end of the decade — so that we can hold them accountable for their actions.

Part 2: The economically homeless

Guadalupe Linares is an example of someone who teeters on the edge. She and her two children moved out of a $600-a-month illegally converted garage after a rat bit her son. But the one-bedroom she found cost twice as much, forcing her to take on long hours in multiple jobs, including cleaning houses and working in restaurants. Her 17-year-old daughter, Mariana, who had been thinking about a career in medicine, began missing school to help her mom clean houses from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. — which required her to transfer to an independent study program through the school district. She quickly learned that the program is full of kids putting their ambitions on hold while they work to help keep their families housed.

Part 3: NIMBYISM

Until the mayor and the members of the City Council treat the building of these 10,000 units of housing with the kind of extraordinary urgency this crisis requires — the kind that the federal and state governments bestowed upon, for example, the rebuilding of the broken Santa Monica Freeway after the Northridge earthquake — they simply will not be built. And they must be built. Supportive housing in particular — which offers not just a place to live but also access to job counseling and mental health and substance abuse treatment, among other things — is the best long-term solution for the chronically homeless, whose cases are the most difficult to solve. A substantial number of these housing units must be located in every single council district. They cannot just be concentrated in poor areas or in neighborhoods with less political clout. Already, a new report shows that even more housing will be needed than was estimated at the time HHH was passed.

Part 4: The mentally ill

[P]eople who should be in permanent supportive housing and clinical care are on the street in large part because a society that did so well at the easy and money-saving part of deinstitutionalization — releasing the patients, laying off the staffs, closing the hospital doors — failed to follow through with the difficult and expensive part. Few of the promised clinics were built. The funding was constantly delayed. It was finally supposed to come with the Mental Health Systems Act of 1980, signed into law by President Carter. But the following year, Congress and the new president, Ronald Reagan, repealed the act.

Part 5: Compromise

The increasing visibility of homelessness and destitution contributes to the uneasy feeling that the problem is closing in on everyone. It’s also a daily reminder that the values and systems to which we cling — liberty, democracy, free enterprise, the social contract that’s supposed to hold a community together, the safety net that is supposed to protect the most vulnerable — haven’t steered us out of this mess. Nor have our leaders.

It’s not surprising that some Angelenos are angry or even afraid. But we need to channel those concerns into constructive action.

Part 6: Accountability

Every city and county elected official must be held to answer, individually and collectively, on a regular basis, for clearly communicating how well their programs are working, how many people they have housed — and how many they are leaving on the street.

It should go without saying that homelessness is an issue of a different magnitude than, say, fixing potholed streets or ironing out the problems in a new recycling program. This is a humanitarian tragedy of extraordinary proportions that the citizens and elected officials of this city and this county are morally obligated to solve by working together, committing resources and, in some cases, making sacrifices.

To that end, though, the people in charge need to show that they know what to do, that they are making tough decisions, that they are getting the most for our money and that the problem is receding. That’s what leadership requires.