Advocates will begin offering housing services to the approximately 200 people who live in the homeless encampments along the boardwalk in Venice Beach on Monday.
The six-week initiative, a collaboration between government agencies, nonprofits and neighbors, aims to provide housing, shelter and services and will be extended to everyone currently living in the encampments along Ocean Front Walk.
Councilman Mike Bonin said the program will provide a pathway to help the recipients succeed.
“The ‘Venice Beach Encampment to Home’ program will not be led by law enforcement, nor driven by threats of arrest or incarceration,” Bonin said in a news release. “We will offer what works: housing, with counseling, or mental health services, substance abuse recovery services, and anything else needed to successfully transition people into housing.”