An outreach worker speaks with someone who has been living in an encampment along the San Gabriel Riverbed in Bellflower as part of a Pathway Home encampment resolution Sept. 24. Moe than 40 homeless people were placed in housing during the operation.
Courtesy photo
Wave Staff Report
DOWNEY — Los Angeles County’s Pathway Home program brought more than 40 people experiencing homelessness who had been living along the Glenn Anderson (105) Freeway and the San Gabriel River in the cities of Bellflower, Downey, and Norwalk and into safe interim housing, where they are receiving supportive services and other resources to help them transition out of homelessness and into permanent housing.
The latest Pathway Home operation continues the county’s response to resolve encampments and return community areas to their intended use.
“Homelessness is an emergency in Los Angeles County, and we are responding to this crisis with the urgency it needs,” said Supervisor Janice Hahn. “These Pathway Home encampment resolutions take a lot of time and work to complete — especially operations like this one that span multiple cities and jurisdictions — but they are the most effective tool I have seen to get people housed, and keep them housed.”
The week before Hahn was on hand for the opening of Laurel Grove, a former motel that has been converted into apartments in West Whittier for people who were homeless.
Pathway Home is a county homeless initiative that aims to bring entire encampments inside together using local motels as interim housing. Nearly 2,000 Los Angeles County residents have been brought indoors through Pathway Home, 395 of whom are now permanently housed and no longer experiencing homelessness. Meanwhile, 1,020 recreational vehicles have been taken off the street.
The county homeless initiative collaborated with Hahn’s office as well as the cities of Bellflower, Downey and Norwalk to conduct the Pathway Home operation Sept. 24.
The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority and the nonprofit service provider PATH were essential to bringing unsheltered residents indoors as they had built trusting relationships with them by providing engagement and support during their unhoused experience.
The Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health, Department of Health Services, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Homeless Outreach Services Team, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works and Los Angeles County Department of Animal Care and Control also were critical partners in the operation, along with Caltrans.
Pathway Home has been funded primarily through Measure H, a quarter-cent sales tax approved by county voters in 2017 to address homelessness. Since July 1, Pathway Home has received funds from Measure A, a half-cent sales tax approved by voters in November 2024 to replace Measure H.
