Mayor Eric Garcetti Joins 2-Day Summit On Homelessness, Housing, Climate Change

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Mayor Eric Garcetti and four other West Coast mayors will join White House officials at a two-day summit in Portland starting Thursday to discuss homelessness, housing and climate change.

Garcetti and mayors from Seattle, Portland, San Francisco and Eugene, Oregon, will share their thoughts on the three topics during the event.

U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Juan Castro and U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness Executive Director Matthew Doherty will join the mayors on the first day to discuss the issues of housing and homelessness.

The gathering comes as Garcetti and members of the Los Angeles City Council are working with county officials on a plan for tackling growing homeless in the city. The council this week approved $12.4 million to be used for increasing the number of shelter beds this winter and housing subsidies for about 1,300 homeless individuals.

The one-night estimate of homelessness covering all of Los Angeles County, except for Glendale, Pasadena and Long Beach, conducted in January found there were 6,781 more homeless people than in 2014, a 20 percent increase. The estimate was conducted in connection with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress.

The second day's talks will revolve around climate change and coincide with the final day of COP21, a climate change conference in Paris at which more than 100 world leaders are working to reach a legally binding agreement on goals for reducing greenhouse gas and other emissions that cause climate change.

Garcetti, President Barack Obama and Gov. Jerry Brown were among those who attended the Paris conference.

(©2015 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)