Questions are rising about the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority operation strategy

LOS ANGELES, CA — The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, which oversees the region’s efforts to combat homelessness but has faced some questions over the speed and scope of its work, unveiled an operational strategy Tuesday that it says will mirror responses to natural disasters.

LAHSA interim executive director Heidi Marston said the Housing Central Command is an effort to revamp how the city, county, and federal agencies work together and increase the speed and effectiveness of getting homeless people into available housing.

The HCC will use real-time data of the area’s permanent supportive housing availability as well as funding streams, available vacant units and how quickly managers are moving people into them, according to LAHSA.

The HCC is based on the crisis-response model developed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to get people housed after a natural disaster.

“Getting everyone in the same room at the same time lets us see the inventory we can use to bring our neighbors home,” Marston said. “When we turn complex inter-agency interactions into face-to-face communications, we get more people into more homes quicker and with less red tape.”

Representatives from LAHSA, the Los Angeles County Development Authority, the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles, the mayor’s office, the County Department of Health Services, and the County Department of Mental Health are all included in the HCC system.