New on the County Channel

Volunteers fanned out across the region for the 2023 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count. The point-in-time count enumerates the number of unsheltered people living on the streets and in cars to inform the deployment of resources and services needed to move people indoors.

You can watch more stories like this on Channel 92 or 94 on most cable systems, or anytime here. Catch up on LA County Close-Up here.

At Your Service

State of Emergency on Homelessness: Our Missions

Los Angeles County is mounting an urgent and strategic response to the declaration of a state of emergency on homelessness, focusing initially on three key missions:

Reducing encampments to bring unsheltered people indoors
Increasing interim and permanent housing placements
Ramping up mental health and substance use disorder services for people experiencing homelessness

To support these missions, the Board of Supervisors yesterday (Feb. 7, 2023) approved a record $609.7 million budget for the Los Angeles County Homeless Initiative for fiscal year 2023-24, the largest investment in any given year to date to prevent and address homelessness. They also approved an additional $76.9 million to expand housing and services that the County provides in collaboration with local cities, as well as for innovative new programs.

Creative Recovery LA Application Workshops Available

Join the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture and Community Partners to learn how to apply to Creative Recovery LA, a new grant program created to address pandemic impacts on the nonprofit arts sector. Through this new initiative the Department of Arts and Culture will award over $26 million in American Rescue Plan funds to deliver financial relief and recovery to the nonprofit arts and culture sector. Arts and Culture is partnering with LA County Libraries to host in person workshops. Workshops will include information about the program, guidelines, eligibility requirements, and tips on submitting strong proposals—everything 501c3 nonprofit and Model A fiscally sponsored organizations will need to prepare to apply online when the application is open through February 15, 2023.

#FoodEquityLA

We’re setting the table for our neighbors struggling with hunger. The Board of Supervisors just adopted an action plan to address food insecurity, which affected more than 2 million County residents in 2022. First step is designing a new Office for Food Equity and identifying how to best implement the plan, from streamlining benefit enrollment to creating food-as-medicine programs.

Out and About

Family Storytime - Decorate a West African mask and Egyptian Collar Necklace

Celebrate African American and Black History Month with LA County Library! Join us for a story time celebrating African American and Black History Month. Learn about traditions of the African diaspora with stories, songs, and dance. Decorate a West African mask and Egyptian collar necklace. To register for this event, click here.

Find more events hosted by LA County Library here.

A Healing Space

LA County invites you to A Healing Space: Well Being, Creative Expression & Connection as Acts of Resistance on Friday, February 19, 2023. Join us for food, music, social services, mental health support, art, healing circles, dance classes, benefits enrollment, animal emotional support, poetry, expungement, kids activities, pet adoption and much more.

Learn more by visiting jcod.lacounty.gov/event/a-healing-space/.

Photo Finish

Photo: Los Angeles County / Mayra Vasquez

Downtown Los Angeles from Boyle Heights

Click here to access more photos of LA County in action.