LOS ANGELES —  A grassroots network of volunteers and homeless advocates launched the first homeless access center on LA’s Westside this month, offering free clothes, food, showers and resources to those living in nearby encampments. Volunteers with Neighborhoods in Partnership staffed a dozen booths in the covered parking lot of MOA Wellness Center in Del Rey while a van delivered people living in various encampments throughout the day.

“Our government doesn’t do a very good job of giving the access or organizing the access and a lot of that is political will,” said volunteer Faith Myhra, a video game developer who believes outreach is the best way to address LA’s snowballing homeless crisis.

What You Need To Know

  • Volunteers with Neighborhoods in Partnership staffed a dozen booths in the covered parking lot of MOA Wellness Center in Del Rey

  • The group launched the monthly access center with the hope of eventually increasing the frequency

  • “We need one in every neighborhood, frankly,” said City Councilmember Nithya Raman, who led a similar effort in Silver Lake

  • Raman said the center helps volunteers feel more empowered to help with the homeless crisis

Faith said the effort will build trust between neighbors, the unhoused and service providers while they wait for more permanent housing solutions to come on line. In the meantime, case managers can address other issues that may be keeping people on the streets.

The access center is modeled off a similar effort in Silver Lake by SELAH Neighborhood Homeless Coalition. That group currently runs a weekly access center at Silverlake Community Church providing showers, services, food and clothing to the unhoused.

“We need one in every neighborhood, frankly,” said SELAH founder and City Councilmember Nithya Raman, who is now seeking to make it a permanent part of her district. “We pushed for one and asked for funding and asked for the city’s help in finding a site in the district.”

Beyond connecting the homeless with services, Raman believes it helps constituents feel empowered to help a situation that can otherwise seem hopeless.

“I will say, as someone who is now in office where I receive a lot of complaints about homelessness in the district, I think that ability to have a moment where you’re able to have empathy is essential for us to be able to move the city in the direction that we need.”

Now, Councilmember Mike Bonin is looking to copy the idea on the Westside. Both Bonin and Raman voted against LA’s new ordinance that creates a process for the city to once again clear encampments from sidewalks, schools and parks.

“You hear about the animosity and the disagreement and the tension between housed and unhoused people and here we see people trying to build relationships and try to connect on a very human level and help,” Bonin said at the access center’s launch. “I think that helps dictate to the city that’s how you do outreach effectively.”

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Bonin’s recent “Encampment to Home” program cleared 211 people off the Venice Beach Boardwalk with the promise each person would be connected to permanent housing. It took several months and $5 million to do it. Meanwhile, there’s an estimated 40,000 homeless people living in the city of Los Angeles. “Some people are like, ‘wow you’re really hopeful’ but I don’t think that’s the word. I’m very desperate,” Faith said. “This is all necessary. This is stuff that has to happen because the other option is that people die on the street.”

At the end of the day, the homeless went back to their encampments. But Faith will be coming back next month looking for familiar faces and new ones.