VENICE, CA - JANUARY 4, 2023 - - A homeless man salvages items left from an abandoned encampment on Hampton Ave. in Venice on January 4, 2023. Many of the homeless, who once lived in the encampments, were given housing at the LA Inn and Suites as part of the Inside Safe initiative. Over a dozen other homeless were taken from the area and given housing at the same hotel. Mayor Karen Bass and Councilwoman Traci Park announced that the Mayors new Inside Safe initiative was underway in Venice. Outreach has begun to people living in encampments surrounding the A Bridge Home site at the intersection of Sunset Avenue and Pacific Avenue, and people who had accepted housing were taken by bus to a hotel in Los Angeles. Inside Safe is a new, citywide, proactive housing-led strategy to bring people inside from tents and encampments for good, and to prevent encampments from returning. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

When will L.A leaders stop getting in the way of a Venice homeless housing project?

Editorials

Sept. 13, 2023

There is yet another delay in the desperately needed Venice Dell homeless and low-income housing project in Venice.

A few months ago, city agencies stopped working with the nonprofit developers of the

on a

orders

the city attorney. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass reversed that decision.

Now, just before the state Coastal Commission was expected to decide whether to approve the project, which sits in the Coastal Zone, Los Angeles city officials told the commission staff they wouldnt take responsibility for operating the

parking

as its currently designed.

The Coastal Commission staff has already spent nearly a year working with the nonprofit developers on th

. Now, the

ommission and city officials have

the timeline

approval by months.

This is ridiculous.

has been years in development.

been approved twice by the L.A. City Council. It will provide

housing

homeless people and low-income individuals

.

The nonprofit developers, Venice Community Housing and Hollywood Community Housing Corp., will build the housing and

parking garages

intended to replace the existing surface parking lot a crucial amenity for beachgoers and Venice visitors. The developers will run the housing, but theres no reason for them to take responsibility for a city-owned parking garage when the current lot is run by the citys Department of Transportation.

So why isnt Bass telling Department of Transportation officials to

their issues with the parking facility and

?

And why isnt

championing this project instead of letting city officials fumble around with it? Yes, its controversial. Most homeless housing projects are until they get built and the community realizes

homeless people who live in housing are no longer homeless.

entire homelessness agenda

focuse

on speeding up housing projects. And even as she rents more and more hotel rooms for homeless people, she knows very well that what the city really needs is more permanent housing for homeless people

.

But here we have city officials balking at running these particular parking garages. (Becky Dennison,

, says that Department of Transportation officials had seen all the iterations of the parking garages and approved the designs and she wrote as much in a recent email to Bass' office.)

The garages involve a system of lifts and will need attendants to operate, making them more expensive. So, yes, the parking facility is more complicated than the slab of asphalt out there now. But were talking about a parking garage, not a spaceship. Surely, the Department of Transportation can figure it out.

Most of all, if the mayor cares about expediting housing projects and is concerned that not enough people have transitioned into

housing,

then she needs to tell city officials to agree to take responsibility for the parking garages as they have been designed, resolve any other outstanding issues that the Coastal Commission staff has, and get this project the approval it needs. Let's not spend another year waiting.