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Redondo Beach homeless navigator reports placements, interim housing and retention work
Summary
City homeless housing navigator Lila O'Mura presented placement totals across housing types from 2022 through March 2025 and described outreach, retention and coordination with police, fire and county services.
Lila O'Mura, Redondo Beach's homeless housing navigator, reported placement and service numbers covering 2022 through March 2025 and described how the city coordinates with police, fire and county providers to place unhoused residents and then retain them in housing.
O'Mura told the Public Safety Commission she compiled only her casework numbers, not totals from outside providers such as CityNet and Harbor Interfaith. "These are just my numbers and not the other service providers like CityNet, Harbor Interfaith," she said. She gave category-by-category counts for permanent supportive housing, housing choice vouchers, tiny-home shelters, interim and emergency shelter, reunifications with family, detox and higher-level care referrals, motel placements, safe parking and other interventions.
The figures she reported included: permanent supportive housing placements (16 in 2022, 5 in 2023, 16 in 2024 and figures through March 2025), housing-choice vouchers (8 in 2022, 9 in 2023, 4 in 2024 and 4 in 2025 to date), placements at Pallet Shelter and partner tiny-home programs (18 in 2022, 10 in 2023, 20 in 2024 and 2 in 2025), bridge housing/single-room rentals (5 in 2022, 14 in 2023, 8 in 2024 and 3 in 2025), and other categories including reunifications (14 in 2022, 21 in 2023, 10 in 2024 and 4 in 2025 to date), interim housing placements (32 in 2022, 31 in 2023, 23 in 2024 and 10 in 2025), emergency shelter, motel placements, safe parking and referrals to higher level care and 51.50 holds.
Commissioners used the update to ask how referrals come in and whether clients lapse back into homelessness. O'Mura said most referrals come from the police department and library staff, and that the city allows her to provide "retention"—follow-up visits and ongoing case management—so clients do not feel abandoned after placement. "I have to really work at building trust ... sometimes years, unfortunately," she said. She described using county shared-housing programs, veterans tiny-home programs and partner cities when a client's ties are elsewhere.
Commissioners asked operational questions including whether O'Mura works with contracted agencies, what the Office of Traffic Safety grant funds (answered earlier by staff as traffic-safety enforcement and outreach), and whether volunteer safety and church-feeding programs needed extra patrol presence. O'Mura said she does regular outreach, often works evenings with police, and that the city attorney's office employment status allows her to accept urgent calls and continue fieldwork.
Commissioners and members of the public praised O'Mura's work and asked for additional data in future updates — examples included counts of people housed long-term versus those who later returned to homelessness, and comparisons with neighboring cities. O'Mura said she could supply additional metrics if the commission requested them.
The commission treated the presentation as an update (no formal vote) and directed staff to continue scheduling similar reports and to coordinate with the city manager's calendar for related budget items. Several commissioners also noted items in the agenda packet (a homeless services dashboard) and asked staff to make it available to the commission for follow-up.
The commission closed the item and moved on to other agenda business.
