New online tool allows LA County residents to access homeless ‘outreach’ services

The Los Angeles County Homeless Initiative and Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority Thursday unveiled an online portal for the general public, first-responders and service providers to provide information on homeless persons on the street and request outreach.

The portal, dubbed LA-HOP, is funded by Measure H, the county measure approved by voters last year and expected to raise $355 million annually for 10 years for homeless programs through a sales tax increase.

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Officials said the portal takes the guesswork out of figuring out geographic boundaries by routing requests and tracking the response. An outreach coordinator in each region serves as the “air traffic controller” for all requests and deploys the most appropriate outreach team to the site, which officials said will reduce response times to those in need.

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“With just a few taps on a cell phone, LA-HOP makes it easier to request help for people experiencing homelessness on the streets of L.A. County,” Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas said. “This innovative tool will help us deploy our street outreach teams where they are most needed, so they can begin building relationships with our homeless neighbors and offer to connect them to services and housing.”

The tool can be found at la-hop.org.