Homelessness Prevention

HEALTH SERVICES

County Spending Category
1.1 Housing for People Experiencing Homelessness
Federal Expenditure Category
Long-term Housing Security: Services for Unhoused Persons
Project Launch Date
11/14/2021
Anticipated End Date
06/30/2025
Interpretation Languages
  • Armenian
  • Cambodian (Khmer)
  • Farsi
  • Korean
  • Russian
  • Spanish
  • Tagalog/Filipino
  • Thai
  • Mandarin
  • Cantonese
  • Vietnamese
  • Arabic
  • Hindi
  • Japanese
  • ASL
Written Languages
  • Armenian
  • Cambodian (Khmer)
  • Farsi
  • Korean
  • Russian
  • Spanish
  • Tagalog/Filipino
  • Thai
  • Traditional Chinese
  • Simplified Chinese
  • Vietnamese
  • Arabic
  • Hindi
  • Japanese
  • ASL

Project Contacts

Indicators & Metrics to Date

  • Send outreach letters to prospective participants.
    1858
  • Make three call attempts to prospective participants.
    3424
  • Enroll eligibile and interested participants who were able to be contacted.
    1000
  • Conduct intake assessment to determine participant needs.
    1000
  • Provide at least $4,000 in flexible financial assistance to participants.
    877
  • Link each participant to at least two supportive services.
    528
  • Receive list of prospective participants based on CPL's predictive model.
    8171
  • CPL will review and analyze post-program administrative data for 1,000 participants.
    633
  • Perform exit survery for every client discharging from HPU.
    372

Target Populations

  • Systems Impacted Individuals
  • Systems Involved Individuals

Project Description

The Department of Health Services’ (DHS) Housing for Health Homelessness Prevention Unit (HPU) is a proactive, collaborative and data-driven effort to identify high-utilizers of County services and systems who are at imminent risk of losing their housing and provide them with supportive services and flexible cash assistance to address an array of needs, including rent and utility arrears, and connection to mainstream services and benefits. The need for targeted prevention resources is more acute than ever, given the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on people at-risk of experiencing homelessness who are disproportionately impacted by negative economic downturns. Studies have also shown that communities of color have been the most impacted by the economic consequences of COVID-19. The HPU is committed to serving those populations who have been hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting economic downtown and works closely with its research and evaluation partner, UCLA’s California Policy Lab (CPL), to ensure that the predictive models used to identify program participants are fair, equitable and target those most in need of support. HPU program participants are highly vulnerable with histories of high-acuity contact with County agencies (e.g., diagnoses of serious mental illness; criminal justice involvement), with over 93% of all individuals referred to HPU identifying as people of color, the same households and communities that have been most negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. With the addition of the ARPA funds, the HPU will be able to expand to serve families at risk of losing their housing as part of its target population, providing them with financial assistance and linkages to supportive services to help them retain safe, sustainable housing and prevent them from entering the homeless services system.

Goals & Objectives

Goal Description By December 2026, at least 1,800 individuals and families will receive flexible financial assistance and linkages to supportive services, such as health, mental health, substance use, money management, community building, family reunification, to assist them in retaining permanent housing and improving their overall health.

Objective Description HPU will provide services in all 8 Service Planning Areas to assist participants for 4-6 months with maintaining or identifying and securing permanent housing for vulnerable people at risk of experiencing homelessness.

Activity Description Conduct outreach to at least 5,400 people to attempt to enroll them in the program.
Indicators
# Type Name Baseline Target
14 Service Delivery Send outreach letters to prospective participants. 5000.00
15 Service Delivery Make three call attempts to prospective participants. 5000.00
16 Service Delivery Enroll eligibile and interested participants who were able to be contacted. 1000.00

Activity Description For the 1,800 enrolled participants, provide at least $4,000 in flexible financial assistance to resolve their immediate financial barriers and stabilize their housing.
Indicators
# Type Name Baseline Target
2 Service Delivery Provide at least $4,000 in flexible financial assistance to participants. 1000.00
18 Service Delivery Conduct intake assessment to determine participant needs. 1000.00

Activity Description Link each participant to at least two supportive services, such as health, mental health, substance use, money management, community building, and family reunification.
Indicators
# Type Name Baseline Target
1 Service Delivery Link each participant to at least two supportive services. 1000.00
18 Service Delivery Conduct intake assessment to determine participant needs. 1000.00

Outcome Description Improve the housing security and stability of participants in Los Angeles County by assisting participants in maintaining or identifying and securing permanent housing.

Goal Description By December 2026, California Policy Lab (CPL) will conduct a randomized control trial to evaluate the HPU and inform further investment in targeted, proactive homelessess prevention programming.

Objective Description CPL will evaluate short and long term outcomes of 1,000 HPU participants who have been identified by CPL's predictrive model as individuals and families most at risk of losing their housing.

Activity Description CPL works with CIO to produce a list of high risk individuals and families on an as-needed basis to HPU.
Indicators
# Type Name Baseline Target
1 Performance Receive list of prospective participants based on CPL's predictive model. 9000.00

Activity Description CPL and HPU will measure permanent housing retention at participants' time of discharge.

Activity Description CPL will measure long term permanent housing retention by observing participants interaction with the homeless services system.
Indicators
# Type Name Baseline Target
1 Performance CPL will review and analyze post-program administrative data for 1,000 participants. 1000.00

Activity Description CPL will measure long term improved overall health by observing the nature of HPU participants' interactions with mainstream County systems, including DHS, DMH, DPSS, LASD.
Indicators
# Type Name Baseline Target
1 Performance CPL will review and analyze post-program administrative data for 1,000 participants. 1000.00

Outcome Description Improved overall health of HPU participants as seen in CPL's long term evaluation of program participant interaction with DHS, DMH, DPSS, LASD.