Family Interim Housing and Supportive Services Center

Housing and Homelessness

Pilot or new project, program, or initiative

As homelessness continues to be a great concern, TWC keeps the needs of families experiencing homelessness at the forefront. Family homelessness, often a mom and 2 to 3 children, is on the rise. A LA Times 2021 editorial stated “more than 5,000 of the county’s 58,000 homeless people are children.” Impact on our youngest citizens is traumatic. As a 65-year provider of children’s services, TWC understands and uses guiding principles: every child deserves a quality place to call home, reducing the length/depth of child homelessness curbs the cycle of generational homelessness, and helping parents resolve crises keeps children out of substandard housing. TWC targets Southeast county, which has no interim housing for families. Resources are 9 units in one shelter, available only to mothers with children ages 12 and under. Families with 2 parents or teens are separated and sheltered elsewhere, if beds can be found, or placed in a motel, which is unsuitable for families with young children.

As the cornerstone of the “From Homeless to Homeowner” campus, TWC’s Interim Housing Project will address complexities of homelessness among families, allow families to remain together, be assisted with service needs right on campus, and answer their greatest concern by helping chart a permanent path out of homelessness. The project is TWC’s part of a partnership to create a campus of coordinated options to help families transition from homelessness to stable housing to successful owners of their first homes. It will have 40 interim housing units, 89 permanent supportive housing units and 21 ownership units, supported by an on-site Supportive Services Center. TWC is project lead and is building the Interim Housing/Service Center. Partners are Richman Group for permanent housing and Habitat for Humanity for ownership. Once constructed, TWC will provide 6 to 9 months of safe housing in units shared by families, as we help solve issues that caused homelessness and locate permanent housing at the complex or in the community. The onsite Service Center will be open to all campus residents and help 150 families a year. TWC will offer case management, life skills training, children’s mental health services, parent training, nutrition education, family mentoring, education and employment support, domestic violence counseling, financial literacy training and connections to financial benefits, health, childcare and legal assistance provided by on-site and community-based partners.

TWC’s Interim Housing and Supportive Services Center will make life better for some of our community’s most vulnerable citizens as well as have broad public benefit. We will increase housing stock needed to address the homeless epidemic; improve the lives of homeless families and their young children; and impact homelessness in the low-income communities of Southeast Los Angeles County. Working with the campus’ other components, TWC will provide a coordinated progression from homelessness to stability. As the first crucial step, TWC’s housing will give families a place to stay where they are welcome, accepted, safe and supported as we help them with stability plans for housing placement and permanency. The project will integrate housing stability with service solutions and increase critically-needed affordable housing. In a strategic way and at a single location, TWC and partners will provide solutions to recurring homelessness among families and the complexity of barriers they face.

With a focus on systems change and family stability, TWC and partners will evaluate the benefit of “From Homeless to Homeowner” as a model for moving families from homelessness to highest possible level of independence. TWC has an excellent track record in helping placed families retain housing, a 98% average over the past 3 years. TWC will look at the impact on housing needs in Southeast/East Los Angeles County, which has no interim housing for families. Current resources are limited in number and scope, causing families to leave their local community. TWC sees benefits from reducing transiency and keeping them in a community they know and close to their service system. They can continue in and benefit from their mental health care, substance abuse recovery, education and work training. Children will remain in their schools where they know teachers and have friends. This will increase stability in their lives and improve sustainability as families stay in their local support system.

While not a collaborative proposal, the “From Homeless to Homeowner” campus has coordition and collaboration as its core. The project will help create the Southeast/East community’s first all-inclusive housing and services campus for families experiencing homeless. With TWC as lead, the campus is a private-public partnership with the Richman Group, a developer with significant experience in affordable rentals, and Habitat for Humanity, widely recognized and respected for bringing homeownership opportunities for families who are low-income. Each partner contributes our specific area of expertise and will work collaboratively to provide a seamless transition from homelessness to housing permanency, respecting and to stability, based on each family’s needs.