With what they say is a lack of visible results, West Covina residents voiced their frustrations about local efforts to curb homelessness at a community meeting.
Representatives from a number of agencies and the city spoke to some 50 residents at the Cortez Park Senior and Community Center on Wednesday night about outreach efforts, the need for local shelter beds, encampment cleanups and the challenges police face when asked by the public to move homeless individuals along.
Chief among the topics discussed was Measure H, the quarter-percent county sales tax to fund homeless services approved by voters in 2017.
Azusa, Covina, Duarte, Glendora and West Covina were approved to receive $343,250 in Measure H funding to hire case managers to help local homeless people connect with services.
In addition, West Covina is set to receive an additional $100,000 to offer incentives for landlords to rent to those looking to get off the street, for motel and hotel vouchers and to create shelter beds or transitional housing, acting City Manager Nikole Bresciani said at the meeting.
“We know your frustration, we feel it,” Bresciani told residents. “We’re trying to get out there and be proactive.”
Also in attendance were officials with the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, the L.A. County Homeless Initiative, Union Station Homeless Services, United Way of Los Angeles’ Everyone In campaign and Supervisor Hilda Solis’ office.
But when given a chance to ask questions and raise concerns, several of the residents said the efforts by the groups were not doing enough.
“We hear the same rhetoric each time you have you come,” resident Jerri Potras said. “When are we going to see results? When are we going to stop seeing needles in the park?”
Sue Augino, one of the organizers of a group of residents seeking their own solutions to homelessness in the city, called the meeting a waste of time and said there’s little incentive for people whose jobs depend on homelessness to exist to want to eliminate it.
“It’s not human nature to work yourself out of a job,” Augino said in a statement.
Other residents, like Stephanie Serrano, expressed frustration with West Covina’s inaction to create a shelter or offer shelter beds in the city so that the city’s homeless would have someplace nearby instead of having to go to shelters in Pomona or Bell.
“Every city should have to carry its weight — the burden shouldn’t just be on cities like Pomona and El Monte that are stepping up and building shelters and affordable housing,” Serrano said.