Donor Recognition
written by Dhakshike Wickrema, Senior Project Manager
Last week, the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) published the nation’s first Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness. Click here to read the Plan.
The Plan comes on the heels of an unprecedented investment of $1.5 billion nationwide in Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Rehousing funds, increased investments in homeless assistance in federal budget requests, the reauthorization of homeless assistance (McKinney-Vento) funding through the HEARTH Act of 2009 and a push to coordinate funding across federal agencies providing services and housing for the homeless.
The Plan sets forth four goals:
In order to achieve these four goals, the Plan lays out objectives and strategies organized by 5 themes:
The Plan describes several Signature Initiatives that hope to test models of federal collaboration. One such initiative focuses on ending the chronic homelessness of 4,000 people. HUD and HHS would connect housing vouchers with health and social services provided through Medicaid and wraparound services funded through SAMHSA.
Another Signature Initiative targets families and children. HUD, HHS and the Department of Education are working together to implement a housing and services program for 6,000 families who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. HUD will provide Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers targeted to communities with high concentrations of families experiencing homelessness. Applicants will need to demonstrate coordination of these HUD vouchers with HHS-funded programs like CalWORKs. The Department of Education will help identify families through its network of homeless liaisons.
USICH will monitor progress by using HUD’s annual point-in-time measures (which capture information on the number of sheltered and unsheltered homeless populations), Homeless Assistance Grants (which capture information on permanent supportive housing projects and units) and Annual Progress Reports (which capture information on employment and participation in mainstream assistance programs). We can also look forward to implementation plans, an annual report card on progress, an annual update to the Plan itself and evaluations of the Signature Initiatives. New documents will be posted to the USICH website, so those interested in learning more should bookmark the following page: http://www.usich.gov/index.html.
written by Dhakshike Wickrema, Project Manager
Last week, 777 participants, representing 47 States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and three Canadian provinces, attended the 2010 National Health Care for the Homeless Conference in San Francisco. Barbara Poppe, Executive Director of the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, and Jim O'Connell, President of the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program, were the Keynote Speakers. (The speeches are available online at http://www.nhchc.org/2010conference/webcastinfo.html and photos can be found on Shelter Partnership’s Facebook page.)
The conference focused on innovative approaches and offered over 70 different workshops on a variety of policies, programs, research, and advocacy efforts related to health care for the homeless. Following are summaries of two workshops that stood out.
Differences Between Self-Reported and Actual Medical Conditions Surveys are frequently administered to homeless clients to find out about their health conditions. Many times, we are told to take the results of these surveys with a grain of salt since it is all “self-reported” data, which have not been corroborated with client medical records.
An interesting study was undertaken at Tom Waddell Health Center in San Francisco to test the reliability of self-reported medical data. Survey data collected from 340 homeless clients was matched to each client’s actual medical records. The results showed that medical data collected through self-report agreed quite strongly with each homeless client’s actual medical history! Especially strong agreement was demonstrated by the following categories: ER visits; asthma; emphysema; heart disease; liver disease; HIV infection; mental health issues; substance use issues; and trimorbidity (co-occurring medical, mental and substance use issues).
Advanced Issues in Documenting Disability Service providers from San Francisco’s Tom Waddell Health Center and Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program asked the audience to describe clients for whom they were finding it difficult to obtain SSI disability. Each presenter then suggested several strategies to help document the client’s disability in an effective manner so that the claim would be approved sooner rather than later.
The presenters stressed the importance of documenting only direct observations of the client’s behavior that might indicate that he or she could not be gainfully employed. Other strategies included having lay persons (non-clinicians) write letters testifying to their direct observations of the client’s disability; attaching a letter with a narrative that “paints a picture” of the client for the disability claims analyst; and even, in extreme situations, enclosing a photograph of the client to support the disability claim.
The presenters recommended that interested parties take the online training course on documenting disability that is available on the National Health Care for the Homeless Council website at the following link: http://www.nhchc.org/documentingdisabilities.html.
For those who are interested in learning more, all workshops from the 2010 conference will be available soon at the following link: http://www.nhchc.org/2010conference/. We highly recommend this conference to those engaged in finding solutions for the homeless; the 2011 conference will be held in DC and more details can be found at the National Health Care for the Homeless Council’s website: http://www.nhchc.org/index.html.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s most recent budget calls for major funding cuts to the safety net for families, and in some cases the total elimination of programs. Among the programs proposed for elimination is the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) Program, which provides cash assistance to extremely low-income families with children, while helping parents find jobs and overcome barriers to employment. More than 400,000 individuals would be affected in Los Angeles County alone, and over 75% of them are children.
Families who receive CalWORKs are barely able to secure and retain housing, as the maximum grant for a family of three in Los Angeles County is $694. This grant has not risen with inflation and is at the same level as in 1990. The grant for more than half of all of CalWORKs families is actually $561 as the adult member of the household is excluded from aid due to sanctions or eligibility issues.
The Governor has proposed that if the Legislature does not accept his proposed elimination of the program, the Administration would make a nearly 16 percent reduction in the grant levels from $694 to $586, as well as reduce associated child-care programs.
Since 2007, demand for CalWORKs homeless assistance, which provides once in-a-lifetime assistance with temporary shelter, move-in costs and rent arrears has increased by 36%. In Los Angeles County, the vast majority of families who are homeless staying in emergency shelters or transitional housing receive CalWORKs benefits; consequently if the program was eliminated or cut, the number of homeless families would skyrocket.
For more information on this proposal, please see the following websites: http://www.cbp.org/ and http://www.wclp.org/
Under HUD’s current definition of homelessness, which of the following households would be eligible for housing and/or services funded by HUD?
At the moment, only the households in situations (1) and (3) above are considered homeless by HUD. However, there are some big changes being proposed by HUD. If these proposed changes are finalized by HUD, very soon, if you told someone that HUD considered all of the households described above to be homeless, you would be correct!
Last May, President Obama reauthorized funding for the homeless through the Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing (HEARTH) Act, http://www.hudhre.info/hearth/. The HEARTH Act made several changes to HUD’s existing definition of homelessness. Because of this, the HEARTH Act required HUD to provide further clarification on how the new definition should be interpreted and made to work in the community.
On April 20th, 2010, HUD published the proposed rule related to the new definition of homelessness: http://www.hudhre.info/documents/ProposedHomelessDefinition.pdf. The proposed rule makes several changes that affect three categories of households: (i) those exiting institutions, (ii) those in housing but about to lose their primary nighttime residence and (iii) those consisting of unaccompanied youth and families with children.
For those exiting institutions, such as jails and hospitals, they must have been homeless immediately before entering the institution and temporarily resided in the institution for 90 days or less. (The current law uses a 30-day standard.)
For those in housing right now but about to lose it, they may be considered homeless up to 14 days before they are about to be displaced from their current housing. (The current law uses a 7-day standard.)
For those who are unaccompanied youth or families with children (a new category), there are several conditions that need to be met before they can be deemed homeless. The household should demonstrate that they have:
HUD is inviting public comment on these proposed new regulations until June 21, 2010. Interested persons may submit comments electronically through the Federal eRulemaking Portal at http://www.regulations.gov/search/Regs/home.html#docketDetail?R=HUD-2010-0030.
written by Steve Renahan, Senior Policy Advisor
The coffee was strong. The optimism stronger.
The attendees at the National Low Income Housing Coalition Conference in Washington, DC last week were there to learn what’s new in federal affordable housing and homeless policy. What they heard from Washington insiders and highly-placed dignitaries is that a buoyant spirit of hope pervades the HUD building, Capitol Hill, and the offices of advocates. (You can view photos from the event on our Facebook page.)
Speaker after starry-eyed speaker, including HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan during his plenary session remarks, described the new HUD “Dream Team” appointed by President Obama.
The Dream Team includes Shelter Partnership’s friends and colleagues Mercedes Marquez, Assistant Secretary for Community Planning and Development, with whom we worked on the LA City Permanent Supportive Housing Program of the Housing Trust Fund during her tenure with the LA Housing Department; Raphael Bostic, Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and research, who as a professor at USC reviewed a Shelter Partnership paper we presented at the USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development; Yolanda Chavez, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Community Planning and Development, with whom we worked during her time at LAHD and City Hall; Barbara Sard, Special Advisor to the Secretary, with whom we’ve worked for many years on Section 8 Voucher issues; and Deputy Assistant Secretary Carol Galante, who, as CEO of BRIDGE Housing, commissioned Shelter Partnership’s “Is Mixed-Population Housing a Solution to Homelessness?” report.
The Dream Teamers and other speakers at the conference predicted a slew of changes to HUD Programs to make them more accessible to homeless in need of permanent housing. New Section 8 Vouchers will target homeless with disabilities. The new federal housing trust fund will be funded at $1 billion in its first year and multiply from there. Production programs Section 202 and 811 will be reformed to leverage other capital sources to produce many more units for the elderly and disabled and will target homeless applicants. Mainstream HUD programs will remove barriers to access by the homeless. HUD will collaborate with other federal agencies to assure that tenants in HUD-assisted housing get the services they need. The Consolidated Plan process will be re-vamped to target those with the greatest needs.
The conference organizers picked the hotel closest to the HUD central office building (which happened to be the hotel serving the strongest coffee east of Seattle) so the Dream Team could easily participate; they did not disappoint.
written by Ruth Schwartz
There is certainly truth when it comes to the old adage that the “devil is in the details.” A recent case in point is the Housing Authority of the County of Los Angeles’ (HACoLA) draft Section 8 Administrative Plan.
The Administrative Plan is a part of the Public Housing Agency (PHA) Plan--a comprehensive guide to policies, programs, operations, and strategies for meeting local housing needs and goals. Among the issues that the PHA must address in the Section 8 Administrative Plan is how they will evaluate households for inclusion in the program that have had any interaction with the criminal justice system.
With approximately 21,000 housing vouchers, HACoLA is the second largest housing authority in the region receiving funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to provide housing subsidy to eligible low-income households residing in the unincorporated area of Los Angeles County and 62 participating cities. http://www.lacdc.org/CDCWebsite/AH/Home.aspx
The 2010 Administrative Plan sought to increase the “look back” period for households who had committed a crime. Effectively, the draft Plan proposed to deny access to Section 8 Vouchers for those applicants convicted of a drug-related or violent criminal activity within 5 years from the date of the conviction or end of imprisonment (whichever is later), thus denying help to some of the people who need it the most. The proposal to extend from 3 years to 5 years the exclusion period for persons and to continue to exclude all those who have not completed parole or probation, including summary probation, would similarly disadvantage HACoLA’s neediest applicants.
People who are chronically homeless are likely to have a conviction for a minor criminal offense or convictions for drug related offenses. These convictions often directly relate to mental disabilities. These past crimes do not indicate that such applicants are more likely to commit crimes once housed than anyone else; in fact study after study has demonstrated that affordable housing provides the base of stability that chronically homeless people need to live stably.
As a result of the public comment that was received, including by Shelter Partnership, HACoLA decided to not go forward this year with this proposal, but instead to convene stakeholders to try and come up with a more acceptable alternative. One of the ideas is to evaluate if an applicant demonstrates a pattern of criminal activities, rather than looking at a sole incident.
On the positive side, it is worthy of note that HACoLA has for nearly 20 years set aside several hundred Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers for special needs and homeless populations to access, which currently number 510. They are also administering a Section 8 program with the U.S. Veterans Administration for homeless veterans, the VASH program with 280 vouchers and have also recently developed a Project-Based Voucher program, which is tied to developments in the community.
There are more than 20 housing authorities in Los Angeles County alone. Community stakeholders concerned with securing housing for the homeless need to work in their own communities to identify barriers that may prevent the homeless from accessing permanent housing. And we, at Shelter Partnership, would be happy to help in those efforts.
In February 2009, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was passed into law. Also known as ARRA but more popularly referred to as the “Stimulus Bill,” the new law provides funds for communities, including the City of LA, to carry out a new initiative called the Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Rehousing Program (HPRP).
HPRP provides communities with funds to help families and individuals who are residents of the City of LA and:
1) Have an annual income that is 50% of the “Area Median Income”
[see fact sheet below for City of LA income limits]
2) Are homeless OR about to lose their rental housing and become homeless
Appropriate HPRP participants are those who would be homeless “but for” this assistance. That is, until they become stably housed, they have:
At the same time, HPRP stimulus funds are temporary so this money will be prioritized for families and individuals who are able to benefit from temporary assistance. In other words, HPRP funds do not provide long-term rental assistance.
The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) administers HPRP on behalf of the City. There are several agencies involved in this effort, identifying appropriate families and individuals who would be homeless “but for” this temporary help. The fact sheet below provides contact information for all of these agencies:
http://www.lahsa.org/docs/hprp/City-of-LA-HPRP-fact-sheet-Updated-1-11-10.pdf
HPRP Assistance for Persons About to Lose Their Housing and Become Homeless (Homelessness Prevention)
At the moment, the City is targeting families and individuals who are renters in the City of LA and have received either a 3-day notice (to pay or quit the premises) or an unlawful detainer (UD or eviction notice). Priority will be given to those who live in subsidized housing, rent-stabilized housing, have fixed incomes, live with disabilities, are aged 62 years or older, have a high rent burden or have a prior history of homelessness.
A partnership of legal aid organizations provides legal services, case management and temporary assistance to families and individuals who are about to lose their rental housing in the City. HPRP agencies providing homelessness prevention assistance are the Legal Aid Foundation of LA, Neighborhood Legal Services and Inner City Law Center.
Martha* and her grown daughter, Lisa*, both with serious health problems, almost lost their apartment. Negotiations by an HPRP-funded attorney allowed them to stay in their housing. HPRP paid back rent that had been used for a medical emergency.
Tom* had been employed for many years as a successful chain store manager before becoming permanently disabled in a car accident. Disability insurance took many months to start, depleting his savings. HPRP-funded legal services prevented his eviction and, on Christmas Eve, his landlord agreed to let Tom* stay if he paid back rent. HPRP provided three months of rent arrears and one month going forward until he received his first disability check.
HPRP Assistance for Homeless Persons (Rapid Rehousing)
At the moment, the City is targeting homeless families and individuals who are literally homeless on the streets, in emergency shelters or transitional housing and just need security deposit and utility deposit to quickly move into rental housing.
Three regional coordinating agencies (RCAs) provide case management services to homeless families and individuals identified for this temporary assistance and help with locating affordable housing. (The household must be able to pay rent on their own once the temporary assistance period ends.) HPRP agencies providing assistance to homeless persons are LA Family Housing, Special Service for Groups and PATH (in partnership with St. Joseph Center and Weingart Center Association).
In addition, the HPRP-funded Citywide “vehicular outreach team” operated by PATH makes contact with homeless families and individuals living in vehicles and refers them to the RCAs listed above for temporary assistance and rapid rehousing.
Jane* was an honorably discharged veteran and single mother with three children. Jane* had been homeless since returning from Iraq and recently received a Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (VASH) rental assistance voucher. HPRP paid for utility arrears, moving truck rental, security deposit, and utility set-up fees.
Joe*, a single father, also a U.S. veteran, with two pregnant teenage daughters received a VASH voucher. HPRP paid for storage cost arrears, security deposit, and utility set-up fees.
HPRP Is the Pilot Program for the HEARTH Act’s Emergency Solutions Grant
Over the three-year HPRP funding period, each community has the flexibility to modify the program design. The initial implementation of HPRP will provide vital information that will allow the City to fine-tune guidelines and protocols as the program matures.
Learning from HPRP is critical because not only is it a new program, it is the pilot program for the new Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG) described in the HEARTH Act. The HEARTH Act is the law reauthorizing homeless assistance programs and, beginning in 2011, ESG will provide annual funding to communities to carry out activities similar to HPRP.
Our hope is that the City will use HPRP as an opportunity to study the local homeless system, evaluate different approaches and prepare for ESG implementation. Tailoring assistance to local needs and priorities will help ensure that the City is well placed to transition seamlessly from HPRP to the new ESG program.
*Names of HPRP participants have been changed.
Jon worked as a successful general contractor in northern California, but after being diagnosed with a chronic illness 10 years ago at age 60, he was forced to retire. Soon thereafter, Jon went through a difficult divorce. He moved to Los Angeles with hopes of making a living in the real estate market. When that venture did not pan out Jon went through a downward spiral of events moving from a house to a boarding house to a motor home to a van to a motel and eventually to the streets of Venice and Santa Monica.
Meanwhile, there are over 10,000 units of below-market affordable housing for older adults in Los Angeles County, including many where tenants pay just 30% of their income in rent.
Why wasn’t Jon living in one of those buildings instead of on the street?
Many barriers prevent homeless older adults from accessing affordable units. Even though there are many affordable apartment buildings for older adults in Los Angeles, they meet only a fraction of the need. Therefore, managers of these buildings maintain long waiting lists and contact applicants by mail, a system that does not work well for homeless applicants. Property managers also require references from prior landlords, documentation of income, credit checks, birth certificates, and security deposits, all of which also tend to screen out homeless applicants. These difficulties are compounded by site-specific waiting lists, which require applicants for housing to apply for as many properties as possible to improve their chances.
But these barriers can be overcome.
In March 2008, Shelter Partnership released its 18-month comprehensive assessment of homeless older adults in Los Angeles County. We found that 30% of homeless older adults had been homeless for less than a month. For these homeless older adults, overcoming barriers to affordable housing is the primary solution to homelessness.
After releasing its Homeless Older Adults Strategic Plan, Shelter Partnership commenced a structured, staff-intensive process to work with subsidized senior housing owners to overcome their reluctance and programmatic barriers to providing housing to our target population. Concurrently, we work with agencies serving homeless older adults to identify, assist, and provide follow-up services so that these individuals secure housing and permanency in subsidized senior buildings.
Jon has his own affordable apartment now! Shelter Partnership has found many providers of affordable housing who are willing to make the extra effort necessary so homeless applicants have a fair shot at leasing, and the case managers at homeless service agencies stick with their clients throughout the process. Through this win-win program, at least 75 homeless older adults have been permanently housed, including Jon. Over 115 are on waiting lists, with good prospects to be housed over the next year.
Linking homeless older adults to affordable housing is one of many strategies we need to see implemented if we are to end homelessness among older adults in Los Angeles. Please take a moment to read the recommendations in the Homeless Older Adults Strategic Plan, and get involved.
If you provide services to homeless older adults or are a developer, owner, or manager of affordable senior housing in Los Angeles County, please contact Steve Renahan, Shelter Partnership Senior Policy Advisor, at srenahan@shelterpartnership.org, so we can work together to house homeless older adults.
written by Nicky Viola, Senior Project Manager
A man living in an emergency shelter who finally secured a part-time job, but lacks the transportation to actually get to work.
A woman and her two young children nearing their time limit at a transitional housing program who need to travel around the County searching for housing, but don’t have a car.
A homeless youth on his way to earning a GED, if only he had a reliable way to make it to class regularly.
What do these homeless individuals have in common? They are all eligible to receive bus tokens through the SHORE program. SHORE (Support for Homeless Re-Entry) is a transportation assistance program that Shelter Partnership administers on behalf of Metro. Metro provides 318,000 tokens valued at $397,500 annually to this program and contracts with Shelter Partnership to manage it. We in turn contract with 19 nonprofit organizations in central Los Angeles and allocate tokens to them monthly so they can distribute to the homeless individuals and families they serve. Agencies participating in the SHORE program include homeless shelters, access centers, an employment program, a family service organization and other service providers. All clients receiving SHORE tokens must be homeless and participating in case management services.
In 1993 Shelter Partnership helped to develop the SHORE program with Metro’s predecessor agency. Since then, we have acted as the liaison between Metro and the participating service providers. We determine the amount of tokens each agency receives, review their monthly reports tracking token usage, and monitor their program operations. Over 5 million tokens have been distributed to homeless individuals since the SHORE program’s inception. While administering this program is an unusual role for us in the Technical Assistance department, it allows us to assist agencies in providing a critical resource to their clients. Actually, in this way the program is similar to our S. Mark Taper Foundation Shelter Resource Bank.
In a sprawling region like Los Angeles, having access to transportation is essential for homeless individuals and families to regain their footing. Since most don’t have their own cars they rely on public transportation to get to medical appointments, school, jobs, and to conduct housing searches. Shelter Partnership is grateful that Metro allocates resources to the homeless population in Los Angeles and is honored to participate in the program’s implementation.
In 2009, driven by a steep rise in the General Relief (GR) caseload and a recognition that 60% of the GR population in Los Angeles County are homeless, the County set forth to develop a comprehensive, restructuring plan. When the Plan was presented to the Board of Supervisors in the early summer of 2009, the Board requested that a community planning process be established, which involved 11 County Departments and 10 community stakeholders. I had the honor to be appointed as a community stakeholder, which met from July through December.
On February 9th, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors took final action on the recommendations and implementation plan presented by the GR Restructuring Committee, which now sets the stage for implementation of the 42 recommendations. The two major Board reports that describe the recommendations can be found at these sites, but be patient if you decide to download them as they are very large files.
http://file.lacounty.gov/bos/supdocs/51541.pdf
http://file.lacounty.gov/bos/supdocs/52907.pdf
Everyone agrees that the $221 that individuals receive monthly plus food stamps (a level that has not changed in more than 25 years!) is woefully inadequate and does nothing to resolve their homelessness. While the grant level will not increase, with the implementation of the restructuring actions, there will be major enhancements for the population in terms of housing subsidies, assistance in securing SSI disability, and improved assistance in finding employment.
We are excited about the impending changes and believe that the restructured GR program will help thousands of GR recipients realize some degree of improved well-being and hopefully in many cases resolve their homelessness.
On the housing side, if the Plan runs its full course through 2014, 10,000 individuals at any given time will receive rental subsidies of up to $400 from the County, with an additional $100 coming from the individual’s GR check. We believe that the $500 monthly rental subsidies will often be used to secure shared housing. Currently, 900 individuals receive such assistance under the Homeless Prevention Initiative’s Pilot Program. The County plan is to increase this number by 154 housing slots monthly.
There will be two distinct and equal groups of homeless GR recipients receiving the assistance: those who are disabled and applying for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits, and those who are deemed employable. In the latter group, 20% of the housing slots will be set-aside for transitional age youth ages 18-24.
Another major element of the Restructuring Plan calls for better SSI advocacy on behalf of GR clients with disabilities. Through the recommendations, the Plan calls for increasing the approval rate at the time of initial application for SSI Disability from 40% in 2008-2009 to 70% in 2012-2013.
These recommendations include conducting a more extensive medical and/or mental health disability assessment to identify GR recipients who may be eligible for SSI benefits. This process will not only provide essential documentation of disabilities for the SSI application, it will also identify clients who may need additional mental health treatment to secure medical documentation to further support and strengthen their SSI disability claims. The recommendations also include retrieval of medical and mental health records on behalf of GR participants. This will help each disabled participant to better document and support their SSI disability claims, leading to higher approval outcomes.
In the next few months after the County has begun to implement the Plan, Shelter Partnership will request that they allow us to sponsor a community briefing, much as we did last month. We will be sure to post any such announcement on our website and our Facebook page. And I will continue to blog on the GR Restructuring efforts in the upcoming months.
It is truly inspiring to have the opportunity to visit the agencies addressing homelessness on the front-line and to see first-hand the life-changing work that is being done by so many dedicated people in our community. Last Saturday, I assisted in leading a tour organized by the Urban Land Institute of Los Angeles’ Young Leaders Group. The 1000 Homes Initiative is designed to educate the community—including developers, architects, students, elected officials and their staffs, and the general public—on the benefits of permanent, supportive housing as an important strategy for solving homelessness in our region.
Led by Los Angeles Councilwoman Jan Perry, representing the 9th Council District, I joined more than 50 community members in touring the developments of Skid Row Housing Trust and A Community of Friends—nonprofits that develop permanent, supportive housing for homeless persons who come from the shelters or the streets. We also visited Los Angeles’ largest emergency overnight shelter, New Image Emergency Shelter.
We were so fortunate to have Councilwoman Perry on the tour as she is the City Council leader in promoting and supporting the development of permanent, supportive housing for the homeless and has made solving homelessness a priority.
Permanent, supportive housing works extremely well for disabled homeless individuals—often people with mental disabilities, physical disabilities and/or substance abuse disorders—most of whom have also been homeless for a long time. Many of these individuals have multiple disabilities and are unable to secure and retain housing without the case management and health care supportive services that are provided on-site.
We also had the opportunity to meet people who were previously homeless, but now stably housed, and hear about their experiences. Councilwoman Perry and I spent time with a gregarious 45-year old man who secured his own apartment two years ago and then discovered his talents as a singer and songwriter. Before moving in, Steven spent three years encamped in a tent at Palisades Park in Santa Monica. He is now working part-time as an extra on films and thoroughly enjoys his life and his opportunities, including the ability to receive ongoing mental health treatment at a nearby clinic and prepare nutritious meals for himself.
In future blogs, I will share more about the developments that we visited and the agencies that sponsor these developments. In the meantime, please take a look at Shelter Partnership’s Facebook page where photos of the day’s activities are posted.
Homeless individuals who make use of the emergency shelter beds in the State armories just received welcome news. The State National Guard, working with the State Emergency Management staff, has agreed to allow the emergency shelters to permit homeless people to stay in the armories/shelters all day. Typically, the shelters provide services between 6 p.m. and 7 a.m., providing two meals and a safe secure bed for the night. (Because the National Guard may use the armories during the day, the agreement that we have with the State is that homeless individuals have to leave early in the morning and not return until late afternoon.)
During this most unusual storm week, the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA), that administers the funding for the operating costs of these programs, made a special request to the State to allow the shelters to stay open 24 hours to shelter homeless residents all day.
The armories are used only during the Winter Shelter program. The winter shelters affected include programs in Culver City, Glendale, Pomona, Sylmar and West Los Angeles and provide overnight shelter to 645 individuals nightly.
The LAHSA Countywide Winter Shelter Program funds programs in 14 locations for a total of 1,650 emergency shelter beds, which includes the beds in the State armories.
We applaud LAHSA and the National Guard for their life saving and quick response. And we also would like to thank the Governor’s office and State Senator Gilbert Cedillo for their interest and quick response.
Exciting changes are being proposed for Los Angeles County’s General Relief (GR) program in the next month—most notably the expansion of the successful GR rental subsidy pilot program.
It all began in 2006 when the County of Los Angeles embarked on the implementation of the $100 million Homeless Prevention Initiative (HPI). Among the 28 HPI programs was a little noticed pilot program by the Department of Public Social Services (DPSS) to provide 900 homeless GR participants with a $300 rental subsidy. With that and $136 from the individual’s $221 GR check, $436 was available for housing. (If they shared housing the individual’s contribution was reduced to $113.) Generally, the individuals who participated in the pilot were able to find housing in a shared living situation.
After a year, the County Chief Executive Office did an evaluation, The General Relief Housing Subsidy and Case Management Pilot Project: An Evaluation of Participant Outcomes and Cost Savings, which found that the program was successful. Click here to see the whole report http://file.lacounty.gov/bc/q3_2009/cms1_137380.pdf Specifically, individuals that were identified as “employable” and received the rental subsidy secured employment much quicker than GR participants without the rental assistance. Furthermore, GR participants who were applying for SSI Disability and received rental assistance were approved for federal assistance much sooner than GR participants who did not receive the rental subsidy.
Armed with this information and additional analysis, in the summer 2009, the Department convened a workgroup of 11 County departments and 10 community stakeholders to make recommendations to the L.A. County Board of Supervisors to restructure the General Relief program. I was privileged to be appointed as one of the stakeholders. DPSS had also been authorized to recommend utilizing $7.2 million to implement the recommendations.
One of the recommendations is the expansion of the rental subsidy program to serve 10,000 GR participants by December 2014 and to increase the rental subsidy to $400 a month and reduce each individual’s contribution from their GR check to $100 a month. So instead of a $436 monthly rental subsidy, individuals would have $500.
Other proposed changes include: hiring staff to help retrieve medical records so that better applications may be submitted when applying for SSI; eliminating the current cursory employability screening and replacing it with a more extensive medical/mental health disability assessment; and customizing services for populations such as transitional age youth as their experiences and needs are very different from the general population.
In an effort to help community organizations understand the proposed changes, Shelter Partnership will be sponsoring a workshop with DPSS staff on the morning of Wednesday, January 20th, 2010. Click here for more info about this presentation.
Do I believe the recent headlines that homelessness on any given night in Los Angeles County has declined 38% in the last two years to 48,085 people?
Like much about homelessness, the truth is more complicated than a yes or no answer.
I do believe that homelessness has declined—perhaps by as much as 4,000 people, including people in families—largely because of greater public investment in affordable housing for people with extremely low-incomes by the City of Los Angeles and the County of Los Angeles, as well as other local cities, including Santa Monica.
But equally important is the fact that the 2009 homeless count appears to be more accurate than the 2007 previous count. Or said differently, the 2007 homeless count may have been too high.
Why is that? One, the implementing agency, through a very large expansion in the use of volunteers, was able to do a full count of 50% more census tracts—from 505 to 754. As a result, they did not need to rely as much on projections as they did in 2007.
Two, the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA), had a better handle on the location of shelter beds in the region and secured a more complete count of the sheltered homeless than they did in their previous count.
And three, LAHSA did a much better job of counting the “hidden homeless”. These are people who may live in their automobile or recreational vehicle and park it on someone’s private property, or live in an unfinished garage. This year they sampled, through random phone calls, a much larger number of households than in 2007, and also had professional researchers query the respondents. In doing so, there was a more than 100% decrease in this component of the count.
However, we do believe that there may be an undercount in the number of families—1,840—that are reported as homeless because their living situation can be so fluid when they have financial, domestic or other challenges and the number of emergency and shelter beds are limited in the region. Unlike single individuals, they are rarely found living on the street.
Shelter Partnership plans to study in some detail the actual coping strategies that families employ that may help explain the low count and will share our findings on an upcoming blog.
As a final point, it is important to point out that no count of the homeless in a region as large as Los Angeles County can ever be 100% accurate. There are many reasons for this; for example while homeless people often camp out in abandoned buildings for safety and warmth, it is considered too dangerous to have volunteers enter such buildings to conduct a count. Additionally, there are many other areas where people sleep that can’t necessarily be seen from a car at night.
In any case, 48,085 people homeless on any given night is a major problem that demands immediate and sustained efforts if it is to be solved.
Ruth Schwartz, Founder and Executive Director
