New Department of Homeless Services and Housing set to launch; county highlights encampment-response gains

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Sept. 2 received an update on the county’s implementation of the People Experiencing Homelessness (PEH) missions and the timeline to launch the new Department of Homeless Services and Housing (HSH).

Director Sarah Mahan told the board the county has moved quickly to create central tools and operations to coordinate outreach and encampment resolution across cities and unincorporated communities. "In December, just four months later, the ECRC was officially launched," Mahan said of the Emergency Centralized Response Center (ECRC), which now manages requests and coordinates partners on outreach, interim housing placements and cleanup operations.

The ECRC now operates a ticketing system that had received hundreds of internal and public requests; Mahan said average assignment and closure times have fallen as the system matured. She also highlighted Pathway Home, the county’s RV encampment program: county staff marked the 1,000th removed in the program’s two-year run and reported more than 1,700 people brought into interim or permanent housing, with 395 permanently housed following RV removals.

"There have been several notable crises and countywide emergencies for which the ECRC has coordinated our unsheltered response," Mahan said, listing wildfire and tsunami activations and heat events. She also reported that delegated emergency authorities have sped hiring and contracting: 719 delegated-authority requests have been approved since February 2023 and the county has hired roughly 2,200 employees using expedited authorities.

Mahan and county staff described four priorities to make encampment work more cost efficient: (1) rightsize interim housing footprint; (2) strengthen interim housing service practices (17 trainings delivered); (3) improve permanent-housing throughput and vacancy fills; and (4) expand “encampment-to-home” strategies that place people directly from encampments into permanent housing when feasible.

Board members asked about timelines and the fiscal implications of moving LAHSA-funded programs to the new county department; Mahan said the department is on target for a Jan. 1, 2026, launch and will present spending plans for Measure A and transferred LAHSA contracts in the draft Measure A spending plan due in November. Interim LAHSA CEO Gita O'Neil said she and county staff are coordinating closely to execute contracts for fiscal 2025–26 and to help staff transitions.

The board received and filed the presentation after public comment calling for continued investment in culturally specific and immigrant-responsive outreach.

Ending

County leaders described the new department's launch as on schedule and emphasized data work, training, partnerships with cities and unincorporated area outreach, and efforts to shift more people into permanent housing while making operations sustainable in a constrained fiscal environment.