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BY BRIAN HEWS
The Hawaiian Gardens City Council, at its upcoming July 31 Special Council meeting, will discuss and vote on a proposed homeless shelter plan in the City located on Norwalk Blvd.
It is the only item on the agenda, with the meeting slated to start at 5:30 p.m.
Inside sources are telling Hews Media Group-Community News that City officials are planning to use the empty lot, located on Norwalk and 226th and owned by the City, to build a shelter and house the homeless in the region.
Those same sources are telling HMG-CN that the plan “is already approved,” meaning there are three council persons ready to vote yes.
That vote could raise the ire of many businesses and residents who live around the open lot, along with the older adults who live across the street at the Senior Terrace Apartments, and the parents of children who go to Hawaiian Elementary School only two blocks away.
The empty lot at 226th and Norwalk Blvd. in Hawaiian Gardens. The elementary school is on the right, the senior apartments on are the left.
City Initiates Study
Three years ago, the council directed City staff to study the impact of homeless in the city, out of that the Hawaiian Gardens Homeless Coalition was formed.
Two years later, the voters of Los Angeles county approved Measure H, raising the county sales tax to generate $355 million annually over a ten-year period to provide funding for homeless services across the county.
Measure H funds twenty-one “Homeless Initiative Strategies” with the funding allocated regionally to eight “Service Planning Areas.”
The funding allocation is determined by each SPA’s percentage of the 2017 homeless count.
Hawaiian Gardens is in SPA 7 and includes the cities of Artesia, Bell, Bellflower, Bell Gardens, Cerritos, Commerce, Cudahy, Downey, Huntington Park, Lakewood, La Habra Heights, La Mirada, Maywood, Montebello, Norwalk, Pico Rivera, Santa Fe Springs, Signal Hill, South Gate, Vernon, Walnut Creek, Whittier.
In 2017, the county indicated the City had 53 homeless people, an increase of 44 individuals from the 2016 count.
When the time was right, Hawaiian Gardens applied for and was awarded a county grant of Measure H funding to develop their plan to address homelessness locally. The award put formulation of the City’s own ambitious plan into motion, a plan the sources are saying will be approved at the July 31 Special Council Meeting.
Language Indicates Shelter
The verbiage in the City’s plan strongly indicates the City intends to build the shelter and confirms what sources told HMG-CN.
In the Summary Section, the plan states, “the City will offer interventions to people who are homeless …. leading to more permanent supportive resources.”
In another section it states, “The City will improve outcomes by supporting the expansion of local drop-in centers and explore opportunities for reducing the homeless ….to meet the growing needs for supportive housing and shelters.”
The City’s plan sets up a number of major goals, including “Enhancing Local and Regional Homeless Services.”
Under that major goal item 3(d) stated, “with neighboring cities seek measure H funding for the cost of a dedicated shelter bed and options for supportive housing.”
“I read the agenda,” said one Hawaiian Gardens resident who did not want to be identified, “they are clearly setting up to build a shelter, and I can tell you, the residents in the area will not be happy.”
The homeless population in HG is real, whether you build the shelter or not. I do t believe building a shelter will bring more homeless to the area, they are already present. To stick our heads in the sand and pretend there is not a homeless problem is rediculous. We need shelters and assistance to our homeless population.
You’re right, homeless people do need shelter because they are not animals. Even animals need shelter.