Alisa Orduña shares her insight on Santa Monica's COVID-19 response and the pandemic's disruption both on the lives of L.A.'s unhoused and the approach cities take towards crises of public health, safety, and wellbeing, going forward.
While COVID-19 magnifies many glaring crises facing metropolitan Los Angeles, California, and United States, the potentially catastrophic impact of the virus on the unhoused has catalyzed urgent, unprecedented action to provide adequate shelter and sanitation services to the region’s most vulnerable residents.
The Planning Report interviewed Alisa Orduña, senior advisor on homelessness for the city of Santa Monica, for insight on the city’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the compounding impacts of the virus on the unhoused in Los Angeles. Orduña weighs in on how the crisis is disrupting lives and vital services and transforming how governments in California plan for, and respond to, public health and safety emergencies, now and henceforth.
"For the first two or three weeks that we've been in the pandemic, and as the various declarations come down requiring the housed community to stay safer at home, we've been making sure that our unhoused communities still have access to basic services."
For the full interview, read in The Planning Report.
FULL STORY: Santa Monica's Alisa Orduña: Pandemic Compounds Urban Homelessness Challenges
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