Goodbye Big Gay Starbucks WeHo- Thank You for the Memories – Los Angeles Blade

August 2, 2022 News Editor

WEST HOLLYWOOD – The City of West Hollywood is co-sponsoring the Los Angeles Blade Monkeypox Town Hall featuring a panel discussion of public health experts on Wednesday, July 27, 2022 at 6 p.m. at the City of West Hollywood’s Council Chambers/Public Meeting Room, located at 625 N. San Vicente Boulevard.

The Monkeypox Town Hall is free and open to the public. Advance registration for in-person attendance is required. To register, please visit https://bit.ly/3yV2PJd. Seating will be available on a first-come, first-served basis and there will be limited validated parking in the adjacent five-story West Hollywood Park structure.

As an in-person indoor event, use of masks is highly recommended. The City follows guidelines established by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, which has announced that LA County has entered the High COVID-19 Community Level with the Omicron variant BA.5 having become the dominant variant, which may have increased ability to escape immunity.

The Town Hall will be broadcast live on Spectrum Cable Channel 10 in West Hollywood, livestreamed (and available for future viewing) on the City’s WeHoTV YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/wehotv, and livestreamed on AppleTV, Amazon FireTV, AndroidTV, Roku platforms by searching for “WeHoTV.”

The panel discussion of public health experts will include representatives from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health to discuss the latest information about monkeypox, community transmission, and available vaccines.

Participants scheduled to-date include: Dr. Leo Moore, Medical Director for Clinic Services, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.; Dr. Andrea Kim, Director of the Vaccine Preventable Disease Control Program, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health; Matt Ford, an actor, writer, and video producer who recently recovered from monkeypox; Matthew J. Mimiaga, Ph.D., Professor and Vice Chair of Epidemiology at UCLA Fielding School of Public Health and Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences at UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine; Dan Wohlfeiler, who leads a consortium of public health leaders and gay dating website and app owners who are working together to support HIV and STI prevention online; and Adam Sukija-Cohen, Ph.D., MPH, Director of Advocacy and Policy Research, Public Health Division Research at AIDS Healthcare Foundation.

The panel discussion will be moderated by KTLA’s John Fenoglio.

As public health officials track cases of monkeypox in the region, concerns about infection and access to vaccine, as well as confusion and fear, may cause concern among community members. Early data suggests that gay men, bisexual men, and other men who have sex with men (MSM) comprise a high number of cases of monkeypox virus. Anyone, however, in close contact with someone who has monkeypox is at risk. The Los Angeles Blade and partner organizations are hosting the Monkeypox Town Hall to help provide information, explain the science, and answer questions that people may have about the transmission of monkeypox and the experience of having it.

While the risk of contracting monkeypox is currently very low in the general population, the City of West Hollywood is disseminating information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (Public Health) so that community members can be informed about what do to if signs of monkeypox appear. Monkeypox is spread by close physical contact (including sexual contact) with someone who has symptoms or by touching contaminated items, such as clothing and bedding. It can cause flu-like symptoms and/or a distinct rash that can be bumpy or fluid-filled on the face, body, genitals, arms, and/or legs. The CDC and Public Health officials urge anyone with a rash that looks like monkeypox to isolate from others and to speak with their healthcare provider.

LA County Public Health has prepared a variety of health education resources, including flyers and handouts, such as: Pamphlet; Flyer; Signage; Pocketcard; and Intimate Contact Handout. LA County Public Health has recently expanded the eligibility criteria for Los Angeles County residents to receive the monkeypox vaccine. Learn more at https://ph.lacounty.gov/media/Monkeypox.

The Los Angeles Blade Monkeypox Town Hall is co-sponsored by the City of West Hollywood and is presented in partnership with more than a dozen LGBTQ and HIV nonprofit groups including: AIDS Healthcare Foundation; APAIT; APLA Health; BlackAIDS.org; California Libraries; Equality California; Ariadne Getty Foundation; Grindr; In The Meantime Men’s Group; JYNNEOS (the preventive vaccine from Bavarian Nordic); Latino Equality Alliance; the Los Angeles LGBT Center; [email protected] Coalition; and WeHo Times.

For more information, please contact Andi Lovano, the City of West Hollywood’s Community & Legislative Affairs Manager, at (323) 848-6333 or at [email protected]. For people who are Deaf or hard of hearing, please call TTY (323) 848-6496.

Los Angeles County Department of Animal Care and Control (DACC) Announces Pet Licensing Amnesty Period from August 1 to October 31

The City of West Hollywood is getting the word out about the Los Angeles County Department of Animal Care and Control (DACC) Pet Licensing amnesty program. To provide an opportunity for pet owners to economically renew their pet licenses, the DACC is waiving late fees for renewed or new licenses when purchased between August 1, 2022 and October 31, 2022.

All dogs and cats in the City of West Hollywood – as well as in unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County – must be licensed. Dog and cat licenses are an important means of identification. Additionally, pets must be re-vaccinated each year, or every three years with an approved three-year vaccine. Failure to vaccinate or license a dog or cat may result in fines or penalties. The County of Los Angeles also requires all dogs and cats to be spayed or neutered as well as microchipped. Reduced license fees are provided for spayed and neutered pets.

Failure to renew a pet license can result in a late penalty equal to the cost of the license. Additionally, owners of unlicensed pets brought into compliance by the DACC Field Licensing Enforcement program will be assessed an additional field licensing enforcement fee of $40.

For more information, please visit https://animalcare.lacounty.gov/licensing/ or call the DACC’s Enforcement Services Bureau’s Licensing Division at (562) 345-0400.

Residents may also contact the City of West Hollywood’s Neighborhood and Business Safety Division at (323) 848-6437 or by email at [email protected].

For people who are Deaf or hard of hearing please email [email protected].

City Calls-on Community Members to Reduce Water Use in Response to Drought Conditions

Southern California is experiencing severe drought conditions. Across the western U.S., scientists have found that the extreme dryness since 2000 has become the driest 22-year period in at least 1,200 years, a megadrought that research shows is being intensified by climate change.

West Hollywood residents and businesses are served by two water utility companies. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) serves most areas of the City and Beverly Hills Water serves certain areas on the west side of the City. Both utilities encourage their customers to continue to use water efficiently. The City of West Hollywood is reminding residents and businesses about water conservation rules now in effect.

All water customers — residential and commercial — are now limited to two-day-a-week outdoor watering as well as other water use restrictions, as follows:

LADWP customers are required to maintain a two-day-a-week watering schedule:
- Customers with street addresses ending in odd numbers may water on Mondays and Fridays before 9 a.m. or after 4 p.m.
- Customers with street addresses ending in even numbers may water on Thursdays and Sundays before 9 a.m. or after 4 p.m.
- LADWP rules call for no watering between the hours of 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., regardless of the day. More information about watering days is available at www.ladwp.com/wateringdays.
Beverly Hills Water customers are required to maintain a two-day-a-week watering schedule:
- Customers in locations north of Santa Monica Boulevard may water on Monday and Friday before 9 a.m. or after 6 p.m.
- Customers in locations south of Santa Monica Boulevard may water on Tuesdays and Saturdays before 9 a.m. or after 6 p.m.
- Beverly Hills Water rules call for no watering between the hours of 9 a.m. and 6 p.m., regardless of the day. Supplemental watering for trees is permitted. More information is available at www.bhsaves.org.

New restrictions also include two recommended practices: the use of pool covers to prevent evaporation, and the washing of vehicles at commercial car wash facilities. Hand watering is allowed every day during permitted hours if the hose is equipped with a self-closing water shut-off device.

Existing water conservation practices continue to be in place:

Limiting outdoor watering with sprinklers to eight minutes per station on permitted watering days
Watering with sprinklers using water-conserving nozzles for up to 15 minutes, twice a day, on the permitted watering day
No water should flow off of property
No water should leak from any pipe or fixture
No watering within 48 hours after a measurable rain event
No hosing of driveway or sidewalk
No washing of vehicles using a hose without a self-closing nozzle

The City of West Hollywood is urging water customers to adhere to restrictions and conservation practices to voluntarily reduce water use to help preserve the region’s water storage reserves in response to extreme drought conditions. More than half of the water used in Southern California is imported from the Northern Sierra and the Colorado River. Both of those sources are facing severe drought conditions; crucial storage reservoirs have never been lower.

The Metropolitan Water District’s Board of Directors has declared a Water Shortage Emergency calling for consumers and businesses to reduce water use and help preserve the region’s storage reserves. The West Basin Municipal Water District’s Board of Directors has moved to activate its Water Shortage Contingency Plan (WCSP) and declare a Water Shortage Emergency for the service area representing nearly one million people in 17 cities and unincorporated areas in Los Angeles County, including West Hollywood.

The City of West Hollywood offers tips for saving water on its website at www.weho.org/waterconservation. Visit the State of California’s “Save Our Water” drought action website at https://drought.ca.gov to learn about being drought-aware and using water wisely.

Water conservation tips are also available at:

www.bewaterwise.com

www.ladwp.com/waterconservation

www.beverlyhills.org/living/recyclingandconservation/waterconservation

www.westbasin.org

LADWP is also urging customers to take advantage of the many water- and money-saving rebates and programs available to both residential and commercial customers. Residential customers can find a comprehensive list of rebates and programs, including rebates for efficient clothes washers, toilets, and turf replacement, at www.ladwp.com/save. Commercial customers can visit www.ladwp.com/cwr for rebates and programs.

For more information from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, please contact the LADWP Customer Contact Center at 1-800-DIAL DWP (1-800-342-5397).

For more information from Beverly Hills Water, please contact Beverly Hills Public Works Customer Service at (310) 285-2467 or at [email protected].

For additional information, please contact the City of West Hollywood’s Department of Public Works at (323) 848-6375.

For people who are Deaf or hard of hearing, please call TTY (323) 848-6496.

City Council Receives Update about the West Hollywood Homeless Initiative

The City Council of the City of West Hollywood received an update regarding the City’s Homeless Initiative as part of its regular meeting agenda on Monday, July 18, 2022. The update provided the City Council and the community with details about the Homeless Initiative’s progress towards the goals of the Five-Year Plan to Address Homelessness in Our Community, as well as notable activities in the regional homeless service system, the delivery of local homeless services, and program outcomes from City-funded non-profit agencies.

The City’s Human Services and Rent Stabilization Department’s Strategic Initiatives Division oversees the West Hollywood Homeless Initiative in coordination with the City’s Social Services Division. The Homeless Initiative is a multi-disciplinary, multi-agency collaborative response, which includes multiple City Departments, City-funded social service agencies, the West Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, and Los Angeles County agencies.

The 2022 West Hollywood Homeless Initiative progress report is available at www.weho.org/homeless.

Notable Homeless Initiative updates and highlights include:

Beginning the process of developing a bridge housing, and supportive housing facility for people experiencing homelessness in West Hollywood. In May 2022, the State of California Homekey Program awarded the City a conditional grant award in the amount of $6,007,661 to support capital and operating costs to convert the Holloway Motel into an interim housing program that will be operated by Ascencia. Following this, on June 6, 2022, the City Council approved the purchase of the Holloway Motel with the intent to use the property for this purpose for the next 15 years. An interim housing location within the City of West Hollywood will provide people experiencing homelessness a place to stay temporarily while receiving supportive services on their path to permanent housing. There will be significant community and stakeholder engagement throughout the process to create this resource in West Hollywood;
Participating in Mayors for a Guaranteed Income and developing the City’s first guaranteed income pilot, which will also serve as the nation’s first pilot of this kind focused on older adults. The pilot will provide unconditional cash payments of a $1,000 a month to 25 adults ages 50+ for 18 months. The pilot is part of the City’s efforts to help prevent homelessness, assist community members to age in place, and reduce the stressors of financial instability;
Developing the West Hollywood Care Team, a new program envisioned to be a first responder service that supports community members — housed and unhoused — in behavioral health crisis stemming from a mental health condition, substance use, or other factor/s. The program is intended to reduce reliance on law enforcement by positioning this service as the first responder to people in a behavioral health crisis; and
Assessing the social service needs of community members of color to strengthen City-funded outreach programs. Findings from the study were presented to City Council on May 2, 2022 and the Social Services Division incorporated the recommendations into the FY 22-25 Social Services Request For Proposals.

Since October 2016, through West Hollywood’s focused efforts, the City of West Hollywood and its partners have successfully supported more than 208 youth and adults in establishing permanent housing and ending their experience of homelessness; notably, 125 of these housing placements have occurred since October 2019, which marked the beginning of the City of West Hollywood’s FY19-22 Social Service Grants contract cycle.

The City of West Hollywood looks to a range of data to understand trends in the number of community members experiencing homelessness in West Hollywood relative to the number of people getting housed. For example, in January 2020, the Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count tallied 66,436 people experiencing homelessness across the region and 112 people in City of West Hollywood. Through the City’s contract with Ascencia, the outreach team provides the City with monthly data on the number of unsheltered community members in city public spaces and reports from the last year show a monthly average count of 40 people experiencing homelessness. The crisis-level number of people continuing to experience homelessness across the region is a barrier to detecting the impact of year-over-year housing placements by West Hollywood’s contracted partners. Even with West Hollywood’s work supporting people to exit homelessness, the regional flow into homelessness remains a stronger pressure on the homeless system.

The City of West Hollywood is also an “Everyone In” city. Everyone In is a community movement with United Way of Greater Los Angeles to end the homelessness and housing crisis by building public and political will to create solutions, and affordable and supportive housing in every part of Los Angeles County. Upcoming Everyone In events are listed on the Everyone In website at https://everyoneinla.org/events/.

The West Hollywood Homeless Initiative’s agency partners continued to deliver critical services during the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic:

Throughout the past two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Homeless Initiative has focused on promoting and safeguarding the health of vulnerable community members and frontline staff. The following activities continued or resumed during year two of the pandemic:

Prevented homelessness among vulnerable West Hollywood renters with City Council-approved emergency funding for rental assistance and emergency meals. Two of the City’s contracted Social Services agency partners, the National Council of Jewish Women and the Alliance for Housing and Healing administered the City’s COVID-19 Emergency Rental Assistance programs. Since March 16, 2020, a total of $1,629,222 has been allocated to emergency rental assistance. A total of 70,000 emergency meals and packaged groceries have been provided to vulnerable residents with the help of MV Transportation, American GTS, and Ambiance delivering meals prepared by Project Angel Food and Jewish Family Services;
Increased outreach and engagement at West Hollywood Park, following the park’s re-opening in February 2022. In addition, with the full re-opening of West Hollywood Library, outreach teams reinstated in-person drop-in homeless services as of May 2022. The drop-in program, which began in October 2016, is a strategic collaboration between the City of West Hollywood, LA County Library, and City of West Hollywood’s contracted social services organizations, which include APLA Health, Ascencia, the Los Angeles LGBT Center, Step Up on Second, and Tarzana Treatment Centers. Drop-in hours are scheduled Monday through Friday, allowing unhoused community members a safe and consistent location to access services and get connected to support;
Continued facilitating local access to COVID-19 testing and vaccination through pop-up events focused on connecting community members experiencing homelessness with LA County Department of Public Health and Department of Health Services; and
Ongoing public health promotion through distribution of emergency supplies to community members experiencing homelessness in need of hygiene products, masks, hand sanitizer, bottled water, sleeping bags, blankets, and ponchos.

Through the West Hollywood Homeless Initiative, in partnership with the community, and with funding support from LA County Measure H, in 2018 the City established the “Five Year Plan to Address Homelessness in Our Community.” The plan identifies seven goals — and key actions to reach these goals — based on feedback from the West Hollywood community and stakeholders:

Goal #1: Provide support and resources to City staff and contractors in responding appropriately, safely, and effectively to persons who are experiencing homelessness in West Hollywood.
Goal #2: Support businesses and residents in responding appropriately, safely, and effectively to persons who are experiencing homelessness in West Hollywood.
Goal #3: Establish bridge housing and day center facilities in West Hollywood to serve people who are homeless in the City.
Goal #4: Continue the City’s support for the Rapid Re-Housing program to prevent homelessness among West Hollywood residents.
Goal #5: Increase the number of supportive housing, special needs housing, and other permanent housing options in West Hollywood for people who have experienced or are at risk of homelessness.
Goal #6: Strengthen partnerships with other cities and with nonprofit organizations to support regional and individualized solutions to homelessness.
Goal #7: Prevent homelessness among West Hollywood residents, especially seniors, individuals living with disabilities, and vulnerable families.

Making progress toward the goals of West Hollywood’s Five-Year Plan remains critically important in directing the local response to homelessness.

The West Hollywood Homeless Initiative seeks to effectively address homelessness. If you are concerned about a community member who is homeless, call the West Hollywood Homeless Initiative Concern Line at (323) 848-6590. If your concern requires time-sensitive assistance during nights or weekends, please call the West Hollywood Sheriff’s Station at (310) 855-8850.

For additional information about the West Hollywood Homeless Initiative, please visit www.weho.org/homeless. To learn more, watch a brief video overview about the West Hollywood Homeless Initiative on the City’s WeHoTV YouTube channel at https://youtu.be/aAvwRExSeYY. For more information, please contact Elizabeth Anderson, City of West Hollywood Strategic Initiatives Program Administrator, at (323) 848-6839 or [email protected]. For people who are Deaf or hard of hearing, please call TTY (323) 848-6496.