The recent homelessness town hall held by Neighborhood Council Valley Village was attended by over 250 people and collected 125 pairs of shoes for the Shoes for the Homeless program. Read about the event, and check out NCVV’s great community engagement idea where they follow up with unanswered stakeholder town hall questions on their website.
story by Suzanne Lewis-Gregory, Communications Chair, NC Valley Village
The June 28 Town Hall Forum on Homelessness sponsored by NCVV’s Board of Directors brought together community and city leaders to meet with over 250 Valley Village stakeholders, discussing how we can work together to have a positive impact on this very important issue.
After brief presentations from each of the seven panelists, questions were presented from stakeholders and answered by representatives from LAPD and the HOPE Team, the City Attorney’s office, CD2, State of California Highway Patrol and LA Family Housing. Over 70 questions were submitted by audience members and 20 were answered at the meeting. The remaining questions will be addressed and feedback posted on myvalleyvillage.com by the end of July.
“This was an important first step for us to begin working together to bring forward solutions” said Suzanne Lewis-Gregory, NCVV Board member. It was announced at the meeting that a Board-level Committee will be set up in July to start working within our community to address the issue of homelessness.
Information presented at the Forum addressed a wide variety of matters related to homelessness, including use of Measure HHH and Measure HH funds, local support services that are available in Valley Village, activities underway to prevent homelessness, the issue of RVs parked at Chandler and Laurel Canyon, help available from The LAPD HOPE Team, contact information for our Senior Lead and other LAPD resources, assistance provided by State Officials and California Highway Patrol, and more. With the wealth of information provided by the panelists came an even greater understanding of the scope and scale of the issue – and of the concept that it will take many years of work to make progress and truly help people.
Special thanks to our guest panelists Todd Gilman and Nicole Carsell from the office of LA’s City Attorney, Officer Daniel Harty from LAPD’s HOPE Team, Acting Senior Lead Officer Tony Chang, CHP Public Information Officer Leland Tang, Stephanie Klasky-Gamer from LA Family Housing, and Jessica Fugate from the Office of Councilman Paul Krekorian and Emma Taylor from Assemblymember Adrin Nazarian.
NCVV also Collected 125 pairs of shoes for www.shoesforthehomeless.net during the Town Hall and will contine to collect Shoes for the Homeless and Food for the North Hollywood Interfaith Food Pantry through the end of the year. It Takes a Village.
photo of panel at NC Valley Village Homelessness Town Hall by Suzanne Lewis-Gregory
