The Way Home

A Sense of Urgency begins at the dawn of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many experts were predicting homeless communities around California and the world would be the hardest hit. In this episode, we meet some of the frontline workers who are grappling with this possibility and doing everything they can to help those in harm's way.

Food, Water, Care follows a committed team of doctors and nurses from Oakland, CA, as they head into homeless camps to provide urgent care to homeless individuals. Now, in addition to the usual health conditions they encounter, they're also faced with COVID-19. While their primary function is providing health care, they're also able to offer something they've never been able to before – housing.

Repercussions of Racism documents LA Family Housing's unprecedented efforts to get an entire encampment of homeless individuals off the streets and into a Project Roomkey hotel. Most of the people living in this camp are black, and several of them grew up in this region of the San Fernando Valley because, for decades, it was one of the only places where Black Americans were allowed to buy homes.

A Challenge. An Opportunity focuses on the temporary housing initiatives enacted during the emergency phase of the pandemic when our state and local leaders found a way to swiftly move people from the street to hotels, trailers, and other unique housing solutions. What can we learn from this rapid response, and how can we make the temporary – permanent?