SOHA September 2022 9-21-22 Community Meeting:
Kiara Backstrom.
President of SOHA Matt and VP Bob Anderson introduce themselves and other members on the board then call the meeting into order:
Senior Lead Officers give their reports:
OFFICER Saldana (South of Sherman Oaks)
- Break ins and burglaries on VenturaBlvd. west of Van Nuys toward Sepulveda
- Hot prowl reported
Officer Roma (Northern part of Sherman Oaks)
- Crime up 30%
- Property crime up 4%
- Concerns of burglary and long wait times on phone calls
- 8772755273 – phone number for the police station
Andy Solomon: Neighborhood Prosecutor for the City Attorney
- Ventura and Stern concerns
- Working with CD4 and LAPD
- Making more progress
- Trying to prevent the negative attention that the city has been getting
- Communicating with businesses on Ventura
- [email protected]
Eliza Schwarz Field Deputy:
- Womens wellness workshop
- October 22nd or 23rd 1:30 – 3:30
- Free women’s self-defense class – location TBD
Ryan Ahari Sherman Oaks Field Deputy for Council member:
- Partnering with neighborhood council
- Event on October 29th at the Van Nuys Sherman Oaks Park at 5:30
- Department of Transportation speed hump application open
- Homeless count numbers CD4 saw unsheltered homeless go down 4%
- Went up 163% sheltered homeless
Maria – committee report
- State housing bills
- Local concerns about rezoning
- Overlays : 5-7 story apartment buildings in single family housing neighborhoods
- Want housing placed in commercial areas
- Want to move the overlays
Bob Anderson – Metro Sepulveda Corridor Project Updates
- Issues with metro communicating with the public
- Don’t consider affordability
- Every metro project grossly over budget
- Misses poorer communities in LA
- Avoiding affordable railways
- Denying the wishes of neighborhoods and businesses
- Attempting to communicate with metro
Larry Slade Chair of SOHA Homelessness Committee
- Members of the committee working on fostering cooperation of law enforcement to enforce maximum permissible enforcement by law against homelessness encroachments
- Cultivate relationships with new businesses
- Social media presence – Next Door and Facebook
- Fundraising and private security to provide extra pressure for a safe residency
Candidates for LA County 3rd District SupervisorBob Hertzberg and Lindsay Horvath:
- Questions on Homelessness impact on business owners ; division of responsibility on the city for tackling the mental health/homeless issue
- Bob: moral crisis, public safety and health risks. City council did an ordinance
- Regional approach – no legal obligation – small cities should tackle the issues on their own not depend on LA county to do it on its own – separation of powers
- Lindsay: identify the issues and then solve them, get people off the streets and connect them to housing and care for health, mental health, or drug issues
- Street teams to connect individuals to get them help with service, housing, and systems of care
- Housing options for everyone – affordable housing to prevent more homelessness
- Every homeless person has a story we can’t assume that they all have the same issue
- Question onLA HomelessService Authority budget $800 million – motion report generated – should lahsa be reformed or reorganized
- Lindsay – wants lahsa reformed – lahsahas to exist because it is a court decision
- Want service providers and people with homeless experience to have a say in how lahsa should be reformed
- Hold elected officials accountable – stop finger counting
- Bob – wants to look regionally – coordinate with the state but cities must tackle issues county wide
- Lindsay – wants lahsa reformed – lahsahas to exist because it is a court decision
- Question on senate bill 1338 – December 1st 2024 deadline to implement – How will they support people in need?
- Bob – agrees to set up a plan, put money into mental health, transitional housing. – communicate with the governor and create a pilot project
- Lindsay – wants action immediately, working with the sheriff’s department to place people into care rather than placing them in jail
- Question on La ordinance 41.18 roles on fixing this
- Lindsay – supports local control but wants people to be protected amongst communities – county needs to deliver care for people on the streets
- Bob – agrees with 41.18, people need to be protected first and homelessness need to stay out of school and business zones – inconvenience, wants people off the streets as fast as possible
- Questions on transportation – metro decision – as supervisor what will you do to fix the metro decision that affects this community?
- Bob: management issues, metro doesn’t consider costs, wants communities questions answered, focusing on management
- Lindsay: gather community support and stop spending money on alignments that don’t help the community, wants to save time and money and bring awareness to whats going on in the Sepulveda line
- Question: parking criteria and housing development, no mass transit system in the valley – what do you propose for transit issues in the valley?
- Bob: develop more parking, make more changes as we evolve
- Lindsay: expand and improve bus lines – reliable transportation, more stops, shady stops, and benches, improve safety, provide more services like dash line and city bikes, encourage public transportation
- Question: what will you do to improve safety in working with the Sheriff’s department?
- Bob: stop pointing fingers and work with one another
- Lindsay: wants accountability in the sheriff’s department work together to make sure law enforcement has the resources to make the community safer yet wants to tackle the issues within the sheriff’s department that have hurt people, working with sheriff Luna to do this – liability trust fund
- Bob: moral crisis, public safety and health risks. City council did an ordinance
