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Supervisors direct joint DMH–HSH effort to better serve people with serious mental illness living outdoors
Summary
The Board approved a motion directing the Department of Mental Health and the Department of Homeless Services and Housing to strengthen coordination, establish a homelessness liaison and jointly define metrics for serving unhoused people with serious mental illness. The vote was unanimous after the board added a DMH–HSH metrics requirement.
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on March 17 overwhelmingly approved a motion by Supervisors Lindsey Horvath and Kathryn Barger directing a series of operational and coordination steps to improve services for people experiencing homelessness who have serious mental illness.
The motion asks for an identified homelessness liaison and a cross‑agency team to convene case conferences, expand field‑based mental‑health and mobile response capacity, and strengthen workforce development for behavioral‑health specialists working with street‑based populations. It also directed DMH and HSH to improve data sharing and to jointly develop shared metrics to track referrals and service availability.
Dr. Lisa Wong, director of the Department of Mental Health, told the board DMH has already added staff and programs focused on unhoused people and that a dedicated liaison and an interim cross‑agency team are in formation. She stressed the need for more housing and in‑patient and treatment bed capacity, noting county and state constraints. Peter Loo, the county’s chief information officer, said back‑end data integration is underway and a community information exchange solicitation is active to support client‑level sharing and case conferencing.
Supervisors pressed for concrete, shared metrics — including counts of unhoused people referred to Full Service Partnership (FSP) teams and tracking whether increased referrals from the homeless response system affect DMH capacity for other priority populations. Supervisor Holly J. Mitchell successfully proposed a friendly amendment to require DMH and HSH to develop those metrics jointly.
Advocates and service providers from the city and county testified in support, calling for sustained funding, field‑based teams, and easier pathways from outreach to intensive services. The board approved the motion 5‑0.
What’s next: DMH and HSH will stand up the liaison and the dedicated team in the near term and return with joint metrics and a plan for phased implementation. The motion also asks departments to coordinate on leveraging VHSA/Prop 1 funding and on advocacy for state flexibility on service and housing funding.
