While the west San Fernando Valley is not known for high rates of gang activity, a recent rise in gang-related crime in the area has prompted a Los Angeles city councilman to call for more funding to prevent the problem from getting worse.

The Los Angeles Police Department’s West Valley Division has a fully staffed gang unit, but it does not receive any direct financial help from the mayor’s Gang Reduction and Youth Development program, a $25 million program distributed across 23 zones around the city to operate gang prevention and intervention services.

The division instead depends on the GRYD zone services for the neighboring Topanga police station.

Councilman Bob Blumenfield, who represents the area, said during a Public Works and Gang Reduction Committee meeting Monday that he wants to look into how much it would cost to bring gang prevention and intervention services to the West Valley.

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A steady increase in gang-related crimes in recent years has worried Blumenfield, who points to violent gang crime in the West Valley rising 63 percent from 177 incidents in 2014 to 289 last year.

LAPD Valley Bureau Deputy Chief John Sherman said Monday that while violent gang crime in the overall Valley area is down so far this year, it is up 16 percent in the West Valley Division.

That division covers neighborhoods such as Sherman Oaks, Encino, Tarzana and Reseda.

West Valley Area Capt. Beverly Lewis said two gang-related homicides and 23 aggravated assaults have occurred this year. She told the committee that officers work hand-in-hand with gang intervention workers assigned to the neighboring Topanga Area Division.

But Michelle Miranda, who heads the Alliance for Community Empowerment, a nonprofit that operates some of the Topanga area’s GRYD services, said they are already stretched thin under current funding.

“We have some problems and challenges that we’re facing in the west San Fernando Valley,” she said, and one of those challenges is that their contract with the city gives them just $257,000 to work with.

That funding pays for two gang intervention workers and a pair of case managers, she explained.

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A GRYD zone was instituted in the Topanga area in 2011, offering prevention services under Summer Night Lights, a program that provides night-time activity for youth at Lanark Park in Canoga Park.

Services for the Topanga area were further expanded in 2015 to bring intervention services to the West Valley for the first time, adding another $200,000 to the costs, said GRYD program manager Refugio Valle.

Out of the total funding, the area receives about $500,000, according to mayoral aide George Kivork.

Alliance for Community Empowerment received part of the funding, and the rest went to Community in Schools, which provided prevention services, Kivork said.

The Topanga area, which includes West Hills, Canoga Park, Winnetka and Woodland Hills, usually gets a greater share of gang crime than the West Valley, officials said.

The Topanga area saw six gang-related homicides last year, LAPD Topanga Area Capt. Maureen Ryan said, although this year gang crime has been limited to six cases of shots being fired.

Out of those, there was probably “one true gang” shooting and that took place at Lanark Park, she said.

The gang problem in the West Valley area in general is not as severe as it could be, LAPD’s Sherman told the committee on Monday.

“Fortunately, we do not have any gang wars going on,” Sherman said. “Our crime has primarily been street robberies and lesser-injury aggravated assaults,” he said.

Gang violence also is on the rise in one other part of the Valley. The Mission area, which includes the northeast San Fernando Valley neighborhoods of Arleta, Panorama City, Sylmar and North Hills, has experienced a 15 percent increase in gang-related crime so far this year, Sherman said.