More migrant families with children sleeping in tents on Skid Row test official response

Jhon Valencia plays with Thian, 2, with his mother, Katherine Gonzalez, in the back, on Towne Avenue on Los Angeles’ Skid Row. In response to The Times report, Cheri Todoroff, executive director of Los Angeles County’s Homeless Initiative, told the county Board of Supervisors during an April 9 meeting that “outreach teams who are on Skid Row are able to immediately identify families who they are seeing unsheltered on Skid Row, and they have the resources available to bring those families inside immediately, on the same day.” Officials told the supervisors there has been a 45% increase in the number of families in the homeless system compared with last year. “Our teams are working quickly to determine if this is a new norm or a one-time surge.” The Homeless Initiative issued a statement Thursday saying it is “deeply concerning to see families, especially with young children, experiencing unsheltered homelessness on Skid Row” but contending that every family engaged by outreach workers in the area has been offered immediately available interim housing. “So far, we have moved 30 families living on Skid Row into motels and seven into a building operated by a collaboration between Downtown Women’s Center and LAHSA,” it said. I wouldn’t say the system worked well or flawless before this.” “There isn’t enough crisis shelter, crisis support, transitional shelter or permanent housing,” she said, which causes families to stay too long in transitional shelter.