oversee the implementation

It’s a long title with huge implications.

I’m talking about the June 28th Motion signed by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors — Skid Row Action Plan: Improving the Lives of Residents on Skid Row by Addressing Homelessness Stemming from Decades of Institutional Racism. Supervisor Hilda Solis, the Labor Secretary with President Obama, is the County Supervisor for Skid Row.

The Motion began a six month Skid Row comprehensive strategic planning process that resulted in a report with seven pages of recommendations sent to the Board of Supervisors December 12th signed by Dr. Christina Ghary, Director of the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, a County agency with a yearly budget of over five billion dollars.

Part of the planning process involved the Resident Advisory Committee (RAC), a group of residents, former residents, and active participants in Skid Row community life at the grassroots level. As part of engaging Skid Row residents for community input into the planning process, the RAC hosted two Arts focused initiatives as well as a large gathering in November called Ubuntu, an African word meaning “I am because we are”. Ubuntu was part resource fair and part community input opportunity. It was a big hit.

The RAC was created and facilitated by Dr. Alisa Orduna, hired by the County as part Consultant, part Facilitator, part Event Planner, and a bit of a local legend due to her work in Skid Row back in 2016–2017 when she was the Homelessness Policy Director for Mayor Eric Garcetti.

The report from Dr. Ghary ended the formal planning process. The report was sent to 174 people who participated on some level with creating the plan. Now it becomes a matter of implementation. There is always the danger with strategic plans they end up ignored on top of the pile of all the other plans ignored.

As we enter 2023 with several months of focused implementation before us, massive dots are connecting or not connecting with major implications for the Skid Row Action Plan. Los Angeles has a new Mayor, Karen Bass, the first woman Mayor and black woman Mayor in Los Angeles history. Both Mayor Bass and the County Board of Supervisors have recently issued emergency declarations around homelessness.

And on January 17, the three year old LA Alliance for Human Rights lawsuit against Los Angeles City and County regarding homelessness presided over by Federal Judge David Carter that was close to a final settlement entered into a 90 day extension period primarily to focus on how the County can provide more resources in a final settlement.

But what is truly unique and potentially transformative in all of this is one of the many recommendations in the seven pages of recommendations. In fact, it’s the final one — Sustain the Ad Hoc Resident Advisory Committee to oversee the implementation for the Skid Row Action Plan.