In the city and county of Los Angeles, various agencies have different pieces of the jigsaw puzzle that comprise the effort to end homelessness — whether it’s mental health services, outreach, permanent housing or interim housing.
The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority is the closest the city and county have had to an overarching authority. It was created as a joint city-county agency in 1993 to help the two governments stop fighting over who was responsible for which homelessness services. Its duties have grown as homelessness and funding for services have grown.
In addition to running the annual point-in-time homeless count, a vast three-day undertaking every January that marshals thousands of volunteers to scour nearly every census tract in Los Angeles County, LAHSA has become the conduit for almost all contracting of homelessness services. For example, if the city needs service providers for its publicly financed permanent housing projects, LAHSA confers with city officials on service goals, releases a request for proposals, chooses the service providers and writes up the contracts.