Dozens of most vulnerable homeless are at risk of dying at Los Angeles Skid Row and need immediate assistance, city officials said on Tuesday.
To provide housing and social services to the most vulnerable homeless people, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has approved a 5.6-million-dollar budget, the board announced.
The effort, named "Project 50", is patterned after efforts in New York and other cities designed to save the lives of those most likely to die on the streets.
New York City-based Common Ground, one of the advocacy groups being contracted for the effort, implemented a similar program in a 20-block area of Times Square and reduced the number of homeless people there by 87 percent, according to the organization.
Last month, Los Angeles officials, assisted by Common Ground staff, canvassed an area of Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles for nine days during early morning hours and surveyed people they found sleeping on the streets.
The team found 471 people sleeping in four streets, a portion of the 52-block area classified as Skid Row, where about 5,130 homeless people live, according to a count by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.
Using a vulnerability index developed by Common Ground to identify those most likely to die on Skid Row, the team identified50 homeless people as "the most vulnerable".
With the budget approval, a team from Common Ground will return to the Los Angeles area to train officials from various departments and Veterans' Affairs. Those officials will then return to Skid Row to locate the 50 people who were identified earlier and begin the process of moving them into "supportive housing." The housing will be provided by the Skid Row Housing Trust, which will also provide office and clinic space.
The 50 most vulnerable transients identified on Skid Row were an average of 53 years old and have been homeless for nearly 10 years. About 76 percent are male, 70 percent black, 18 percent Hispanic and 12 percent white.
They accounted for 53 percent of reported hospitalizations of homeless individuals on Skid Row last year, and 59 percent of them said they had been to an emergency room in the last three months.
The person identified as being the most vulnerable is a 65-year-old male military veteran who has been living on the streets for 37 years.
Source:Xinhua
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