Los Angeles, California partner with federal government to reduce homelessness

Los Angeles is one of five American cities along with the entire state of California partnering with the White House and the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) to combat homelessness.

The city will work with the federal government on the ALL INside initiative.

“This is a historic agreement for our city – and I want to thank our partners in the White House, especially the President and Vice President, for locking arms with us to bring unhoused Angelenos inside,” Mayor Bass said in a press release issued by her office. “Ambassador Susan Rice, Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough, and Executive Director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness Jeff Olivet have each visited Los Angeles since I was sworn in, and today, we see the fruits of that work. I don’t invite White House officials to our city for photo opportunities, I invite them to help us get the work done, and I am so grateful to have a partner in the White House that understands the urgency here in our city of the great need to bring 40,000 Angelenos inside.”

The initiative aims to reduce homelessness in Los Angeles by 25% by 2025.

Here is how the federal government will collaborate with the city and state in hopes of reducing homelessness, according to the release:

Fast-tracking processes to bring people inside; Addressing documentation requirements and other red tape that prevent people from being housed quickly; Ensuring people can use existing resources like Emergency Housing Vouchers; Creating more regulatory flexibility such as support for expediting federal reimbursements; and Supporting local efforts to advance coordination with State and local agencies such as the local transit authority and public housing authorities

The federal government will help make this happen, according to the release, by doing the following:

Deploying dedicated teams across the federal government to identify opportunities for regulatory relief and flexibilities, navigate federal funding streams, and facilitate a peer learning network across the communities; and Convening philanthropy, the private sector, and other communities to identify opportunities for follow-on support and collaboration. Embedding a dedicated federal official in each community to accelerate locally-driven strategies and enact system-level changes to reduce unsheltered homelessness.

Additionally, the Biden administration says it will unveil policy efforts to reduce barriers to housing, health care, and other support for homeless people, as it laid out in its ALL INside White House Fact Sheet.