Humankind LA Information

Humankind LA is a street-based advocacy organization serving the unhoused community in Westlake, Los Angeles. We work to ease the crippling isolation experienced by people facing homelessness so they can pursue their goals. By showing up as a consistent presence, we help create the physical, emotional, and technological connections individuals need to find relief and move forward. Our work began when our founder encountered a young man dying on a sidewalk and no one would help her assist him. That moment—and the deep lessons learned as she befriended him and joined him on the street—shaped our unique approach, which blends counseling psychology, ethnography, agile innovation, and organizational development to design solutions that are both compassionate and effective. As part of the LA Continuum of Care, we operate through the Coordinated Entry System to connect clients with housing, goal-setting support, and critical resources. Our Help Desk, located inside a MacArthur Park swap meet, serves as a vital point of connection in a vulnerable yet resilient neighborhood. About 75% of the people we serve are not connected to other case management services and face overwhelming barriers to health care, legal aid, housing, and documentation. With high case manager turnover, the instability of street life, and the trauma nearly all our clients have endured, trust is hard to build and even harder to sustain. By offering dependable, empathetic support, we’ve helped almost 100 clients move into permanent housing, dozens into interim housing, over 100 regain vital documents, and roughly 50 reunite with family. Most people who find us come through word of mouth—proof that we’re providing dependability, care, and hope. Humankind LA is a 501(c)(3) organization.