The City of West Hollywood’s Homeless Initiative works to address homelessness with a multi-disciplinary, multi-agency, collaborative response.
It’s estimated that up to 40 percent of homeless youth identify as LGBTQ, according to local estimates.
The City partners with funded social service agencies, with the West Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, with the West Hollywood Sheriff’s Station, and with Los Angeles County agencies to provide a wide variety of services that reduce homelessness and support people who are experiencing homelessness.
As part of this work, the City of West Hollywood will host a virtual Community Update Meeting about the West Hollywood Homeless Initiative on Wednesday, February 16, 2022 at 6 p.m. The meeting will take place via Zoom. Advance registration is requested and community members are encouraged to submit questions in advance when registering for the event via Zoom.
The Community Update Meeting will provide community members with an opportunity to learn about the latest information about the City’s Homeless Initiative, including recent outcomes from City-funded organizations that directly assist people experiencing homelessness in moving from the streets into housing. Meeting attendees will get a preview of new projects in development that respond to community needs and make significant progress toward the goals of the City’s Five-Year Plan to Address Homelessness in Our Community.
The meeting discussion will also include a special focus on current efforts the City is taking to secure Homekey financial support from the State of California, which could create an opportunity to provide an interim housing site in West Hollywood where community members could access resources, connect to services, and move off the street. The event will provide insight into next steps for this effort and will offer community members details about other ways to get involved in the Homeless Initiative.
At the Community Update Meeting, attendees will hear from a variety of speakers including members of the City Council of the City of West Hollywood – Mayor Lauren Meister and Mayor Pro Tempore Sepi Shyne, who comprise the City Council’s Subcommittee on Homelessness – as well as City staff members and representatives of the City’s contracted services providers. Outreach teams who work with unhoused community members will share about how they do their outreach work and about the challenges faced by housed and unhoused community members as a result of the nationwide housing and homelessness crisis.
The West Hollywood Homeless Initiative is overseen by the City of West Hollywood’s Strategic Initiatives Division in coordination with the City’s Social Services Division; both Divisions are part of the City’s Human Services and Rent Stabilization Department.
