A new interim housing pilot program is taking place in South Los Angeles with the aim of helping referred, unhoused individuals find permanent housing within 30 days, the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority announced Thursday.
At a news conference in the South Park neighborhood, officials unveiled the Welcome Navigation Center, a 41-room, 24,000-square-foot facility with the capacity to temporarily house 80 people. LAHSA CEO Va Lecia Adams Kellum, L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, Councilman Curren Price — who represents the 9th District, which includes the center — and Metro Deputy CEO Sharon Gookin visited the center.
If the program is successful, officials will consider expanding it to other parts of the city and county of Los Angeles. Officials noted the program is showing early signs of success with more than 200 people given services since its inception in December 2023.
“LAHSA’s Welcome Navigation Center is a new and bold solution that improves the rehousing process by addressing multiple hurdles simultaneously,” Kellum said in a statement. “Compromised health conditions, lack of transportation, and inadequate documentation make it impossible for our unsheltered neighbors to start their housing application process. Through this pilot program, LAHSA and its partners provide critical services under one central location to expedite their journey home.”
Key aspects of the program involve helping participants be “document ready” for housing applications, and provide access to mental and physical health care. Other features of the center include three meals daily for participants, a community hall, outdoor patio, laundry room and a pet relief area.
In a statement, Bass hailed the pilot program, noting that it will take “innovative solutions” to address the homelessness crisis.
“I want to commend Dr. Va Lecia Adams Kellum for leading the development of this initiative to urgently bring more people inside from the streets to be connected with services, prepare them to move to permanent housing and prevent them from returning to the streets,” Bass said. “We will continue to work together across the city, county, Metro and beyond to continue treating homelessness as the crisis we know that it is. I look forward to seeing the positive impacts that these services and the facility will have for unhoused Angelenos.”
After the 30-day period expires, participants may be given an extension or transferred to alternative interim housing sites while still receiving services and housing-related support, LAHSA officials said. Relocating participants allows the agency to maintain a steady flow of clients through the Welcome Navigation Center and ensure people remain inside. Additionally, LAHSA will conduct outreach to the local community to engage with people experiencing homelessness near the Welcome Navigation Center.
Price said the center highlights their commitment to meeting “our unhoused neighbors with empathy and urgency.”
The center is also expected to provide 25 beds available for unhoused individuals who have been using Metro’s trains and buses as shelter.
Metro CEO Stephanie Wiggins said in a statement, “Having these 25 shelter beds available 24/7 at LAHSA’s Welcome Navigation Center will be a tremendous help to ensure the unhoused we encounter on our system have a safe place to stay and get connected to the services they need no matter the time of day, something that is especially important in the middle of the night when many of our trains and buses go out of service.”