Mayor to Attend Meeting for Temporary

Homeless Shelter Proposal

Screenshot of Venice from anti-MTA site video – YouTube

A town hall meeting in Venice on Wednesday, Oct. 17, to discuss the proposed temporary homeless shelter planned for the MTA site has received RSVPs that exceed capacity, according to city officials.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and City Councilman Mike Bonin are scheduled to attend the Bridge Home Town Hall at Westminster Elementary School on Wednesday. Public feedback is sought for the design plans for temporary homeless housing on the MTA bus site. Video with the design plans is available on Bonin’s website; his district includes the Venice area.

Those who plan to attend the meeting are asked to RSVP, and a note on Bonin’s website states that current RSVPs exceed capacity but an overflow area for those unable to get into the event will be available. People in the overflow area can hear and ask questions during the town hall. RSVPs are still open and required for admittance.

Temporary homeless housing is part of the mayor’s “A Bridge Home” program, a citywide effort to move homeless people off the streets into temporary housing with services, until permanent housing is available. It is estimated that more than 30,000 people in the city of Los Angeles are homeless.

Such housing is being planned in each of the council districts around L.A., including at the Veterans Administration campus near Brentwood, which is among the neighborhoods Bonin represents. El Pueblo, the first Bridge housing, opened in September in downtown L.A.

A YouTube video about Bridge housing asks if the MTA site is the best place for temporary homeless housing and also encourages residents to attend the Oct. 17 meeting or email the mayor or Bonin.

Adult and youth housing are planned for the Venice location, with 100 beds for adults and 54 for youth, in different areas of the roughly 3-acre site.

The former bus yard is one of the few available locations in Venice, and in a survey conducted by Bonin’s office, it was the location suggested most frequently by residents who identified a need for the program in Venice, according to the councilman’s website. While the site is slated for development of permanent housing, the process is expected to take approximately three years about the length of the bridge housing program — and the bus yard is immediately available.

The Bridge Home Town Hall with Mayor Eric Garcetti and Councilmember Mike Bonin takes place at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 17, at Westminster Elementary School, 1010 Abbot Kinney Blvd.