WeHo is spending $11,000 — a “portion” of revenue collected from parking meters over five days in December — on socks, sleeping bags and other items for homeless people in the city. There are 38 homeless people in West Hollywood, according to the official count by the Los Angeles County Housing Authority, so each official person will receive slightly less than $300 in supplies if funds are divided equally. That’s a lot of socks. Burning question: Are the city’s parking meters seriously reeling in more than $2,200 PER DAY? The full press release is below:
The City of West Hollywood’s WeHo Gives Back winter holiday season campaign, which took place December 26-31, 2022, has collected $11,000 in parking meter revenue that will be directed to the West Hollywood Homeless Initiative.
The WeHo Gives Back program provides added support for contracted partner organizations providing outreach and homeless services in West Hollywood. Program funds are directed to the purchase of supplies that assist outreach teams in engaging community members. Supplies offer an immediate benefit to people without housing, such as food, water, socks, hygiene kits, and sleeping bags. Supplies also help begin, and continue, conversations between outreach teams and community members experiencing homelessness with the larger goal of helping people on the pathway to shelter and permanent housing.
“WeHo Gives Back is another innovative way the City seeks to address homelessness in our community,” said City of West Hollywood Mayor Lauren Meister, who is also a member of the City Council Subcommittee on Homelessness. “By allocating a portion of parking meter revenue toward the City’s Homeless Initiative, visitors and residents parking in the City during the winter holiday season are contributing to solutions to homelessness and making a positive impact in the lives of our most vulnerable community members.”
The City’s Human Services and Rent Stabilization Department’s Strategic Initiatives Division oversees the West Hollywood Homeless Initiative in coordination with the City’s Social Services Division. The WeHo Gives Back program includes the City’s Parking Services Division in providing additional support. The Homeless Initiative is a multi-disciplinary, multi-agency collaborative response, which includes multiple City Departments, City-funded social service agencies, the West Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, and Los Angeles County agencies.
Through the West Hollywood Homeless Initiative, in partnership with the community, and with funding support from LA County Measure H, in 2018 the City established the Five Year Plan to Address Homelessness in Our Community. The plan identifies seven goals – and key actions to reach these goals – the WeHo Gives Back program supports Goal #2: Support businesses and residents in responding appropriately, safely and effectively to persons who are experiencing homelessness in West Hollywood.
Making progress toward the goals of West Hollywood’s Five-Year Plan remains critically important in directing the local response to homelessness.
The West Hollywood Homeless Initiative seeks to effectively address homelessness. If you are concerned about a community member who is homeless, call the West Hollywood Homeless Initiative Concern Line at (323) 848-6590. If your concern requires time-sensitive assistance during nights or weekends, please call the West Hollywood Sheriff’s Station at (310) 855-8850.
Just. Tax. The. Rich.
Allowing and encouraging people to live on the streets does no one any good. No one. These folks living on the streets should be given help to get a job and back on their feet otherwise they should be moved to a camp far away from TAX PAYERS.
Help like proper healthcare, mental health care, shelter, nutrition, addiction recovery, clothes, training. More or less total rehabilitation. These folks have lost all trust and hope. Some have lost there path entirely in their own minds. That’s what happens when someone is discarded and has to.live in non human conditions. You become a total outsider.
The USA does not give a damn let alone City of West Hollywood. It just becomes another business or tax write off etc. $11,000 is a laugh.
If there was money in helping the homeless it would be fixed in a jiffy.
California makes money by keeping the homeless outdoors…the sheriff’s get paid,the blue shirts get paid,fire department gets paid,the ambulance gets paid,hospitals get paid,courts get paid,sanitation workers get paid,parking enforcement gets paid,which feeds money to the county and state
Exactly. If it makes money who cares.
Lets see if you say that after you’ve been attacked by the homeless in the streets
Tell that to the people thats been attacked by the homeless living in the streets !
Kind of a nasty negative slant to this article- THROW at the homeless and $300 is a lot of socks.???? and as for 38- WHO THE HELL ARE YOU KIDDING?
Had to laugh at 38 homeless. West Hollywood is NOT part of the City of LA. They have their own municipality…Where I live in HOLLYWOOD is and due to lax policing/governing we have LOTS encampments ALL OVER: And a myriad of MANY services that offer FREE food at Salvation Army/Churches/showers/vouchers for metro/laundry/sign up for Sec. 8 and mobile medical..
Policing? Perhaps you’d prefer to have them all lined up and executed.
As long as they are not inconveniencing you in any way.
All 38 official homeless people must live at Pavilions on Robertson and Santa Monica or West Hollywood Park. Who counted the unofficial homeless that walk across Doheny every day? Did the Los Angeles County Housing Authority conduct their count at 3am? Or just send John Erickson out for a pre-dawn walk with his abacus again?
Pavilions. The most entitled supermarket next to Wholefoods.
That just creates more homeless. Make it hard…..not easy.
Government sponsored homelessness.🙄
“Government Sponsored Homelessness” is subsidies for luxury developers driving up the cost of living and forcing people out of their homes, NOT a few pairs of socks for someone living on the street.
Please reexamine your belief that a person would fall into homelessness voluntarily in order to receive a sleeping bag or some socks–or that ceasing even this small gesture of material aid would induce a decline in homelessness. Through what? Making conditions more miserable for a person? Would the most wretched conditions produce a person somehow more able to escape their situation? Data indicates otherwise, and compassion behooves us to help.
There’s scant compassion in the most capitalist society on the planet.
However if you are an illegal immigrant out comes the red carpet?
This is proof again how this little city does anything to attempt to be perceived as some mind blowing progressive US cornerstone for the entire nation to follow in their tracks.
Major cities do not look or care at what this crazy tiny City counsel does.
Not even Los Angeles. Does that tell you something?
A little context, without claiming that the comparison is exact: that would mean that the census to count the US population should cost 131 trillion dollars.
According to the 2019 report, the homeless demographic survey cost the city $15,000. Assuming the figure has not changed, that means last year it cost $395 to count one homeless person in West Hollywood.
https://weho.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=22&clip_id=3465&meta_id=180427
Wow! I still remember when the City refused volunteers like myself for the homeless count last year, based on our vax status.. shameful.
As someone who walks a few miles, almost every day for health reasons, definitely more then the 38 homeless counted by Horvath’s sight-impaired volunteers.
*Throwing* is a poor choice of a word for such a good deed.
Although it might be good, it is not a “good deed” when you use someone else’s money to pay for it
The government decides what to do with taxpayer money.
Fees and fines and taxes go into the local pot.
That is why we have elected leaders.
You may disagree, of course.
I do not disagree. But this is not a good deed.
I would rather see a homeless person have dry socks and a warm blanket than more money being tossed at over-priced consultants to make obvious recommendations. Spending on consultants is totally out of control.
“throwing” money away because was spend more and more of tax payers money and the problem only gets worse..not better. That’s throwing money away.
yep
“throwing” is the perfect word. like throwing down the drain. simple waste. to no effect.
spare us the bitter old queen routine
Do you hear that? Yep, more money being flushed down the drain by the Counciltwits.
Meanwhile code enforcement protects businesses instead of enforcing code.