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LOS ANGELES (CNS) - The City Council Tuesday moved forward with several recommendations aimed at identifying whether the Community Investment Family Department would be a good choice to lead homeless prevention efforts.
Council members originally voted 13-0 to move the matter forward with council members Curren Price and Kevin de León absent. However, Council President Paul Krekorian introduced a motion to reconsider the matter to allow council members to provide remarks. Afterward, the recommendations were approved in 14-0 vote with de León present.
Councilman Hugo Soto-Martinez said the recommendations are about seeing if the CIFD would be able to serve as the central department for homeless prevention. Staff will report back with a look at the department's current staffing levels and budget, and also include funding recommendations that would address whatever gaps there may be.
"We know that the CIFD operates Family Source Centers -- they do a lot of work around domestic violence, and human trafficking," Soto-Martinez said. "They (CIFD) led the BIG:LEAP Program looking at guaranteed basic income for the city of Los Angeles."
He noted that the CIFD manages $300 million in federal, state and local funds through its consolidated fund, and manages more than 130 contracts.
"They've been a wonderful department. Usually their vacancy rate is around less than 10%, and that's actually at 5%," Soto-Martinez continued. "But if we're going to really look at CIFD to be the number one department to do homelessness prevention, we have to really look at the how the department is doing right now."
According to the councilman, the department's budget grew by 68% in the 2023-24 fiscal year, but staffing only grew by 5%.
"If we're going to really look at CIFD as being the Department of Homeless Prevention, we have to make sure that we give them the support that they need, the staffing that they need, the budget that they need in order to make that happen," he said.
Councilwoman Eunisses Hernandez echoed her support for the CIFD to serve as the lead on homeless prevention. She said that even with all the good work they do, they sometimes turn people away due to a lack of resources and staffing.
"But they serve thousands and thousands of people, and it would be great for them to get all the resources they need so that they can serve all the people that they have coming to their doors and expand the work that they've already been doing," Hernandez said.
On Aug. 24, 2022, Councilmen de León and Bob Blumenfield introduced a motion calling for relative city departments, including the CIFD, to evaluate homelessness prevention programs operated by the city, the county of L.A. and the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.
The goal of the motion was to identify a city department lead that would be tasked with the responsibility of monitoring, evaluating and reporting on the city's homelessness prevention programs. Additionally, the lead will ensure a cohesive citywide and regional homelessness prevention system.