At the end of March, the Los Angeles County Interdepartmental Council on Homelessness (LACICH) held its first meeting, marking the first time that county departments and agencies have collaborated to end homelessness.

A homeless man places items into a shopping cart Tuesday afternoon near Western Avenue and 3rd Street in Koreatown. (photo by Aaron Blevins)

Prior to the meeting, the various agencies and departments, such as the county’s Department of Mental Health and Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, had “operated like silos,” said Flora Gil Krisiloff, Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky’s deputy on homelessness and mental health. With more than 50,000 homeless in the county, a systematic change was needed, she said.

“It’s time to really scale things up,” Krisiloff said.

The council was created in January via a Yaroslavsky motion that was seconded by Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, 2nd District. According to the motion, 34 percent of the 51,340 homeless residents in L.A. County have substance abuse problems; 33 percent have a mental illness; 24 percent are chronically homeless; 22 percent have physical disabilities; 18 percent are veterans; and 9 percent are homeless youth.

The move followed a 2006 motion by the supervisors that created the $100 million Homeless Prevention Initiative, which launched several homeless pilot projects.

Krisiloff said it also follows Project 50, a Yaroslavsky initiative that paired Skid Row’s most vulnerable with permanent housing. She said Project 50 highlighted some misconceptions about the homeless — namely, that they don’t want to be helped.

“For the chronically homeless, they need to be moved into permanent housing with support services,” Krisiloff said. “They do want to be housed.”

In the long run, providing housing saves the county money, she said. With permanent housing, residents are unlikely to cycle in and out of services, wind up in the emergency room or get arrested for a crime, Krisiloff said.

With that goal in mind, the county has rounded up any and all departments that deal with homelessness. The group also includes the Department of Children Services, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and the U.S. Department of Labor, among others.

“They slipped through every crack, every safety net, so you need every department,” Krisiloff said. “We know we have a better understanding of what needs to happen. It’s a really tough job. …It’s a 24/7 kind of commitment.”

She said the full council will meet every two months, though “working groups” will coordinate with one another in between meetings. All the participating departments have been asked to analyze their resources on hand, and at the end of the year, they hope to have a road map — not a plan that is hundreds of pages — that will provide guidance as the county seeks to end homelessness.

“A homeless person is probably going to need the help of so many departments,” Krisiloff said.

Additionally, the council is looking to improve infrastructure throughout the county, in an effort to avoid saturated areas of homeless residents such as Skid Row.

The council, which was modeled after the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, is also hoping to persuade the state to create such an agency.

“We’re off to a good start,” Yaroslavsky said of the local council. “I’m very confident in where it’s headed.”