Housing and Homelessness Crisis
Below are the remarks L.A. Area Chamber President & CEO, Gary Toebben, presented to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2016, regarding the housing and homelessness crisis in the county. The same message was delivered concurrently at L.A. City Hall by the Chamber's public policy office.
Members of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors,
On behalf of the members of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce I urge you to take the next step in ending our housing and homelessness crisis by adopting the Comprehensive Homeless Strategy before you today.
As this hearing progresses, the broad-based support for addressing the homelessness crisis in our county will be obvious. Collectively, here are four lessons we have learned in the last five years since the Chamber and the United Way launched Home For Good:
- Investment Works: While homelessness may seem intractable, in 2016 we will celebrate an effective end to veteran homelessness. This is not an accident. We’ve amassed an unprecedented amount of resources for homeless veterans, and it has paid off.
- Housing Works: The consequences and causes of homelessness are multi-faceted, but the first step is to provide safe and secure housing so individuals are able to focus on their other needs. Our Home For Good partners have permanently housed and transformed over 25,000 lives through this strategy since 2011.
- Collaboration Works: The foundation for long-term progress is partnership. Our Funders Collaborative works with 20 public and private funders. The Coordinated Entry System has over 150 participating parties. More than 12,000 advocates participate in HomeWalk.
- Accountability Works: As business leaders, being able to measure success and shortfalls is essential. Clear measures and standards will enable us to collectively modify our strategies as situations change to that we can manage homelessness in the short term and end chronic homelessness in the long term.
We welcome the leadership shown by the County and we encourage you to closely coordinate your work with other partners. While the challenges of managing and eliminating homelessness are greater today than they’ve ever been, so too is the opportunity to create real solutions.
“The cost of inaction” will tax our broader community more than investing in the immediate and lasting solutions that are proposed today. We cannot afford to do otherwise.
Gary Toebben
President & CEO
Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce