From 89 to 8: How the Hollywood Media District BID Achieved a 91% Reduction in Unhoused Population and Earned a Los Angeles City Council Members Appreciation

Redesigning the outreach program from the ground up

When AGS Security Manager Bill Stankiewicz took a hard look at the district's unhoused situation in the summer of 2023, the census stood at 89 individuals. The number had been there or near there long enough that stakeholders had begun to treat it as a fixed condition rather than a solvable problem. Stankiewicz disagreed. In the summer of 2023, he rebuilt the outreach program from the ground up: changing how the team identified, engaged, and tracked unhoused individuals within the district, and establishing a formal monthly census as the primary accountability metric for the program.

The redesigned program was not enforcement-first. It was contact-first prioritizing consistent, non-confrontational engagement with the same individuals over time, combined with active coordination with social services resources to connect individuals with housing and services options. Security officers became the consistent human presence that made outreach possible; their value was not in moving people along, but in building the relational continuity that made voluntary cooperation achievable.

Monthly census tracking as a formal accountability tool

A central innovation of the redesigned program was treating the monthly unhoused count as a primary performance metric not a secondary observation. Every month, the team conducted a formal census of individuals within district boundaries, recording both the total count and individual status changes (new arrivals, exits, service referrals, voluntary departures). This created a time-series record that told a story month by month, made the program's progress visible to the Board, and gave the team a data foundation to identify where the program was working and where it needed adjustment.

The census data also served a purpose that became critical later: it built an evidence record that could be presented to elected officials. When the time came to engage Councilmember Soto-Martinez's office, the team didn't arrive with a narrative they arrived with 17 months of documented numbers showing a trajectory that was impossible to dispute.

Structured zone patrol with full digital documentation

The district is divided into two patrol zones District Zone 1 and District Zone 2 each covered by dedicated Detex checkpoint tours that provide verifiable, timestamped records of officer presence at specific locations. In April 2026 alone, the AGS team completed 38 full patrol tours (19 per zone), generating an irrefutable log of coverage that the BID can present to any stakeholder, insurer, or elected official who asks what their security investment is actually delivering.

Beyond patrol tours, the team logged 721 distinct activities in a single month 447 business checks, 92 critical patrols, 64 unhoused outreach contacts, 51 calls for service, 43 service requests, and 14 public assists. Every activity is documented in real time through TrackForce, providing the Board with a monthly activity report that shows not just what officers did, but when, where, and how long each activity took.

Building a city government partnership

As the census numbers dropped and the documentation record grew, the program became a credible basis for city-level engagement. The AGS team's work in the Hollywood Media District came to the attention of Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez of Council District 13, whose office has responsibility for the district's boundaries. Rather than arriving as a critic which is the more common dynamic between security programs and elected officials in conversations about unhoused policy Councilmember Soto-Martinez arrived as a supporter. His surprise attendance at the Hollywood Media District's Annual Stakeholder meeting, and his decision to present his appreciation on the spot, reflected a city official's recognition that the program had accomplished something that city resources alone had not.