Meeting_Body
REVISED
REGULAR BOARD MEETING
OCTOBER 26, 2023
Preamble
Motion by:
BASS, HAHN, HORVATH, YAROSLAVSKY, DUPONT-WALKER, and SOLIS
October 26, 2023
Response to Homelessness Motion
Each night, tens of thousands of Angelenos go to sleep without a roof over their head, and five unhoused Angelenos die every day. Annually, the number of people experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles continues to rise. The 2023 Los Angeles Homeless Count revealed an estimated 75,518 people are experiencing homelessness within Los Angeles County, a 10% increase from the previous year. In the City of Los Angeles alone, 46,260 people are experiencing homelessness, a 9% increase from the prior year.
Metro recognizes the crisis facing Los Angeles County in addressing the needs of people experiencing homelessness. There are many challenges related to people seeking shelter within the Metro system, including drug use, untreated mental health, and safety concerns.
In 2017, the Board directed Metro to partner with the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services to provide street-based outreach and engagement to unhoused individuals on the Metro system. Metro' s multi-disciplinary teams, which include its Ambassadors and the Street Teams, conduct intensive outreach and engagement across the bus and rail system and focus on providing housing placements to people experiencing homelessness.
In October 2022, the Board approved Motion 20, the "End of the Line and Unhoused Riders Motion," directing the CEO to evaluate Metro's End of the Line policy and make recommendations for serving the unhoused population exiting trains at night and boarding trains in the morning at the ends of rail lines. The response to this motion came in January 2023, where staff presented preliminary findings of the numbers of unhoused riders being removed from Metro A Line trains in Downtown Long Beach at the end of the night, with additional information on the other ends of Metro's rail lines still t...
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