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VNC NEIGHBORHOOD MEETING - The Homelessness Committee of the Venice Neighborhood Council (www.venicenc.org) held a public forum Monday evening at the Grace Lutheran Church where roughly 200 locals listened politely to the challenges of dealing with the homelessness issue here in Venice and specifically at the boardwalk.
A collection of county bureaucrats and officials led by Amy Perkins, the Homeless Deputy for LA Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, who also serves as chair to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, the super agency more commonly known as LAHSA.
The forum was organized by Alley Mills Bean, who chairs the local standing committee and is also a VNC community officer. The meeting was moderated by committee member Naomi Nightingale who asked questions from the audience who filled out speaker cards.
Despite the size of the crowd in attendance, there was no direct conversation with Venetians during the Q&A portion of the meeting.
This practice of demanding speaker cards instead of those in attendance to simply ask a direct question grew thin as people began to leave before the Q&A even commenced.
The seven participants were from various county agencies representing mental health services, Horvath’s office and LAHSA. Since the acoustics were so poor, much of the dialogue was muffled and many in the back portion of the church could hear very little as things needed to be repeated again and again.
The members of the VNC Homelessness Committee consists of Bean, Nightingale, Judith Goldman, John Reimers, Lisa Redmond, Pat Raphael and Christina Tullock. Also in attendance were several members of the Venice Neighborhood Council including President Brian Averill as well as Yolanda Gonzalez, Erica Moore and Clark Brown.
Venice community activists Mark Ryavec, the President of the Venice Stakeholder’s Association (VSA), and Brian Ulf, Chief Executive Officer of SHARE (Self Help and Recovery Exchange) also were in the audience.
Perkins, who has presented to the Homelessness Committee in the past made several observations regarding the astronomic cost to secure beds and described the homeless as “our neighbors who just live outside.”
Perkins painted a dim and dreary situation of the homeless here in Los Angeles claiming it costs $1 million to create a bed, while the fate of the homeless is really in the hands of judges and the legal system.
Perkins said she supported using local hotels to house the homeless, especially at the boardwalk despite the fact there seems to be little community consensus for that kind of strategy moving forward.
Many locals believe as I concur that Oceanfront Walk is a tourist destination that should be exempt and protected from this encampment crisis.
While this was an assessment of homeless both here in Venice and countywide, no data or formal presentation was made to the disappointment of many in attendance.
In fact, no statistics were offered regarding the number of homeless at the beach, Venice in general or the current number of RV’s permanently parked here in the neighborhood.
During the initial public comment, there was opposition to holding the meeting at Grace Lutheran as being described as “disrespectful,” while another speaker noted that 40% of RV dwellers are currently employed. No additional information was offered as to the reliability of that assessment.
Panelists claimed there is an ongoing effort to address the needs of the chronically disabled, but no specifics offered. The issue of new dollars for bed capacity were discussed, but no hard numbers were offered as the issue of additional funding will be needed to address this crisis that has created chaos on the streets of Los Angeles.
According to the panel, five individuals are dying per day in a homeless state here in Los Angeles.
The panel agreed there was what was described as a “deficit of housing,” but again the cost of construction was never addressed, simply describing it as an “expensive intervention.”
Many listening to the presentation described it as a “bureaucratic word salad” that did not address solutions or strategies that in effect are decreasing the homeless population here in Venice or the rest of LA County. The recent results of the 2024 Homeless Count provided disappointing results as LA County witnessed an anemic 0.27% decrease to 75,312 and LA City witnessed an equally dismal 2.2% decrease to 45,252.
And these numbers reflect a multi-billion dollar government investment that continues to yield little in tangible success or change.
Keeping accurate records of those living on the streets continues to be a challenge and disturbingly the panel asked the audience for suggestions where the homeless could be placed here in Venice. One would think those identified as experts would know this information.
The desperate tone of the panel was chilling, and quite frankly, disturbing indeed.
Clinical intervention and the notion of master leasing were also discussed as ongoing solutions given the inability to construct permanent supportive housing. Many believe the cost of construction is hampered by the mandate of prevailing wages to construct as well as the inability to increase the speed of construction by prioritizing future units with modular versus traditional buildouts.
VNC Community Officer Clark Brown found the entire presentation as disappointing, as little was offered specifically to address the conditions of Venice.
Another attendee described the meeting as just another “dog and pony show that offered nothing new or different to the solving of the problem.”
As individuals began to trickle out, so did I as nothing stated or offered was in anyway new, meaningful or optimistic moving forward.
The only real question worth restating was that of committee member Judy Goldman, who asked why Venice time and time again carries this “unequitable burden” of homeless housing and services when compared to neighboring Pacific Palisades to the north, or the beach cities to the south.
There was no answer worth repeating.
(Nick Antonicello is a thirty-one year resident who covers the encampment and RV crisis here on the streets of Venice. Have an encampment issue on your block or street? Contact him via e-mail at [email protected].)
