Common Ground: A Campaign employee surveys a homeless woman on Skid Row.

Permanent supportive housing for the most vulnerable homeless

Permanent supportive housing combines affordable housing with comprehensive services such as mental health treatment, substance abuse prevention, employment opportunities, and life training. Studies in Los Angeles show that it is 40 percent less costly to place someone in permanent supportive housing than to leave them on the streets.

To achieve a measureable reduction of chronic homelessness in Los Angeles, housing resources need to be used more effectively by being matched with the most needy and costly chronically homeless individuals. In 2007, Common Ground developed an outreach model implemented in Times Square in New York that resulted in a decline of 87% in street homelessness in three years. In 2010, Community Solutions launched the 100,000 Homes Campaign, a nationwide effort which aims to house 100,000 chronically homeless persons across the nation in three years. The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation is supporting the work of Common Ground in Los Angeles as it partners with community programs and public sector leaders to house the most vulnerable homeless.

The Foundation supports several groups working to identify and house the most vulnerable chronically homeless. Organizations that have received funding for this work include:

  • Ocean Park Community Center in its work to house individuals who have been identified on the Santa Monica service registry as the most vulnerable homeless persons in the city and provide respite care to those suffering from severe health and mental conditions who have been discharged from two local hospitals.
  • Mental Health America of Los Angeles in its partnership with the City of Long Beach and PATH Partners on the Long Beach Homeless Connections Initiative which brings together service, government, business, faith-based, and educational groups to find solutions to house these vulnerable individuals.
  • St. Joseph Center as it aims to house more vulnerable, chronically homeless individuals on Venice streets through expansion of the Venice Chronic Homeless Intervention Project.
  • Skid Row Housing Trust in its work to continue to permanently house the most vulnerable chronically homeless persons living on the streets in Skid Row.
  • Step Up on Second’s Housing First project toward the placement of individuals listed on a 2010 vulnerability index survey in the Hollywood region into permanent supportive housing.
  • Downtown Women's Center to implement and evaluate Critical Time Intervention (CTI) as part of an effort to provide permanent supportive housing for homeless women in downtown Los Angeles.
  • Housing Works to support its Mobile Integrated Service Team (MIST) in providing outreach, engagement, housing placement, and services in permanent supportive housing to chronically homeless persons in Los Angeles County.

Results

In the first year of Ocean Park Community Center's (OPCC) three-year project:

  • Twenty-two people who were part of the city's homeless service registry improved their housing stability, 14 of whom obtained permanent housing.
  • The health status and psychosocial function of 96 homeless people improved through their use of respite care bed services; 43 percent of those who used the respite beds secured shelter or permanent housing upon exiting the program.

Resources

100,000 Homes Campaign, Community Solutions National Campaign