Housing for All: Philanthropies, Nonprofits Look to Get People Off the Streets

By Sherry Karabin The year was 2021, and the Covid-19 pandemic was raging across the world. In Los Angeles County, homelessness was continuing to increase, as officials and outreach workers looked to find solutions to the encampments that were lining various parts of the city of L.A. One of the largest, on Venice Beach, contained more than 200 people. Its size and location made it hard to ignore, setting the stage the successful six-week effort known as the Ocean Front Walk (OFW) Encampment to Home Project. This resulted in the majority of those individuals living in permanent housing. Modeled after the 2018 Encampment to Home pilot, which focused on two South L.A. communities, the effort was led by the Venice-based nonprofit St. Joseph Center, which serves as the Coordinated Entry System lead agency for Service Planning Area 5 (SPA 5) on the west side of the county. Read More: https://labusinessjournal.com/special-reports/housing-for-all-philanthropies-nonprofits-look-to-get-people-off-the-streets/