RESEDA, Calif. – Dozens of people on the front lines of the housing crisis gathered at a Reseda senior center recently to discuss ways to continue helping Los Angeles County’s nearly 60,000 homeless individuals. 

One speaker was Zondre Johnson, who was homeless from the ages of 14 to 53. She says she left home to find any way to help her mother financially, doing jobs that landed her in and out of jail for 28 years. After her mother died, she had nowhere to go. And being formerly incarcerated kept her from finding a home.

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She shared her story with a room full of people, and encouraged leaders to be mindful of the barriers people face to qualify for housing.

Mayor Eric Garcetti also stepped up to the podium to share all the bridge housing that’s been built and is being built, thanks to measure HHH funds.

He said just 9,000 homeless people in Los Angeles were housed four years ago, and this year over 21,000 people are.

That’s a lot of beds, and yet not nearly enough.

The latest LAHSA homeless count says there are 58,936 people in Los Angeles County experiencing homelessness, and 36,300 just in the city of L.A. 

Johnson eventually found housing and has been living at a senior housing facility for seven years.