At Monday night’s City Council meeting, a unanimous, 4-0, vote (council member Rick Mullen was not in attendance) approved a grant agreement between City Manager Reva Feldman and Los Angeles County.
The agreement involves a hot-button issue in Malibu—homelessness.
A program established by LA County and United Way of Greater Los Angeles’ Home For Good Funders Collaborative seeks to “pursue regional solutions to the homeless crisis” by uniting communities in the county.
The LA County Board of Supervisors first established its Homeless Initiative in 2015. On June 13, the board allocated $2 million in “one-time funding from the County general fund” to coordinate and “develop a comprehensive plan to prevent and combat homelessness.”
“The county and its cities must work in partnership if we expect to succeed in our battle against homelessness,” LA County Board of Supervisors chair Mark Ridley-Thomas said in a statement.
Malibu was one of 47 cities to receive a planning grant (ranging from $30,000-$70,000) from the set-aside funds based on “localized blueprints” for how each city would work with its contractors to confront rising homelessness.
The LA Homeless Services Authority Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count found that Malibu had 180 “unsheltered persons” in 2017. The city was awarded $50,000 based on the count.
Representatives from each city involved attended a United Way’s Home For Good and LA County-led strategic planning meeting on Nov. 29 in downtown Los Angeles.
Phil Ansen of the LA County Homeless Initiative began the 9:30 a.m. meeting, emphasizing the “unique role” cities had in building “broader health and social systems.”
United Way’s Chris Ko said the planning meetings were “meant not to be restrictive,” but to “introduce you [cities] to better guides.” Ko also mentioned that certain “traditional” practices in combating homelessness were “no longer feasible.”
Malibu Public Safety Manager Susan Dueñas represented the city at the meeting.
“They gave us a big, giant binder with resources and stuff to help guide [us],” Dueñas said, in a phone interview with The Malibu Times. “ … We look at the countywide initiative and look for ways to support and link to that initiative.”
Dueñas believes Malibu will use the guides and that “there are areas we [Malibu] can very likely support.”
The cities are meant to work with contractors in facing the issue. After an interview and bidding process, Malibu City Council unanimously decided to hire the firm MIG as its contractor to help facilitate the planning grant process.
The agreement will total $54,970—funding for which comes from the LA County grant and $4,970 set aside in Malibu’s Adopted Budget for Fiscal Year 2017-18 (under “Emergency Management Professional Services”).
The agenda item also details that the city “expect[s] to request an extension to June 30 to ensure we have enough time to be thorough in our planning efforts”; the original deadline for plans is March 30 with a possibility of extension to June.
Following the appointment approval at Monday’s City Council meeting, Dueñas will be overseeing the project.
LA County urges homeowners to consider building housing for homeless
Another part of LA County Homeless Initiative is its Second Dwelling Units Pilot Program—designed as part of an effort to help homeowners visualize what guest houses on their property could look like. Those structures would then become housing for formerly homeless individuals. Working with the Department of Regional Planning, Community Development Corporation and Chief Executive Office, the LA County Arts Commission Civic Art Program launched “Part of the Solution: YES to ADU.”
On its website, Civic Art “encourages architects and designers to serve as creative strategists in service to the Homeless Initiative.”
The idea is to have creatives help the public “visualize” Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs, otherwise known as “granny flats”) in their places of residence through a design competition.
The winners will be announced an event in March. Residents will then be able to “engage directly with architects, builders, artists, and planners around topics investigated in the design competition.”
These topics include how the dwellings might affect neighborhoods and civic spaces, an area of concern for Malibu residents in particular.
The deadline to submit an entry is January 5. The first prize winner will receive $12,000 while two second prize winners will receive $6,000 each.
The program is in conjunction with a subsidy of $75,000 for homeowners to build two to three new ADUs on their property. “The subsidy will be provided in the form of a soft loan or forgivable loan tied to a commitment to rent the ADU to a homeless family/individual or participant in the housing choice voucher program,” according to the county’s website.
Visit lacountyarts.org/ADU and planning.lacounty.gov/secondunitpilot for more information.
Homeless served at Homeless Connect Day
While city representatives met at the strategic planning meeting on Nov. 27, Malibu held its third Homeless Connect Day at the old courthouse. A number of agencies from the city, county, state and nonprofit sectors joined in to provide “free, one-stop services to people experiencing homelessness.”
The services included food stamps, health screenings, free haircuts, carepacks, legal assistance and more.
Those who attended also received a free boxed lunch and hygiene kit.
Volunteers from the community joined in to support the initiative.
