Family Stabilization Program Expansion

Housing and Homelessness

San Gabriel Valley

Expand existing project, program, or initiative

The homelessness crisis in LA County has reached record proportions with residents falling into homelessness faster than the unhoused are moving indoors. The most recent Point-in-Time count completed in 2020 revealed that our service area of SPA 3 was home to some 4,555 homeless individuals. The long-term economic impacts of the pandemic, increased costs of living, low-paying jobs, and high rental rates are leaving many low-income families extremely vulnerable for homelessness. Many are living paycheck to paycheck and a job loss or health emergency can quickly derail their finances, and as a result their housing. We receive an average of 100 calls a week requesting shelter; requests for one-time rental assistance have more than doubled during the pandemic years. Our proposed program expansion would help bring 7 additional beds to the shelter to help families and single women move from homelessness to permanent housing and prevent dozens of families from falling into homelessness.

The Family Stabilization Program intends to break the cycle of homelessness and quickly move homeless families and individuals into safe, stable housing. This program includes: 1) the 30-90 day “Our House” Family Shelter providing room and board, case management and other essential services to general population homeless families and single women; Our House is still the only area residential family housing program for general population. 2) Rental assistance is homeless prevention providing 1-month rental assistance to persons experiencing an emergency, with rent in arrears or due within ten days. Clients are asked to show that their income will normally cover their needs, so they won’t become homeless the month following service. After the 1-month term, we check back with both the client and the landlord to see if further case management or supportive service referrals are needed to maintain the client in their home. Clients in both programs are assisted in making individual action plans to realize their goals for achieving or maintaining permanent housing, self-reliance and independence. Through involvement with community collaborations, and by coordinating with other social service agencies, both public and private, the program is designed to fill gaps in the existing system of homeless support/prevention services. We plan to expand the program to reach more homeless/near homeless LA county residents through additional shelter beds and rental assistance for more clients.

Additional Homeless families and single women will be given a place to stay with supportive services, and through our comprehensive approach, they will be assisted in moving from homelessness to self-reliance. Most of our clients leave the shelter to move into permanent housing with increased income through assistance in achieving or upgrading employment or obtaining mainstream benefits. With the intensive support provided by our program and our collaborative partners, families and single women are prepared to enter and/or sustain permanent housing when they leave our housing program. Our Rental Assistance program will allow more LA County households who are at high risk of losing their housing due to temporary challenges to avoid homelessness and stay in their homes, while assisting them with case management and referrals to be able to sustain their housing beyond their exit from the program. Long term, funding will be leveraged to continue this expansion.

Success for the shelter program is being able to provide room, board and all supportive services to our clients, and successfully move families to safe and stable housing. Outcomes for clients (with recent results) include: 1) move into safe, stable and sustainable housing for at least 4 months after moving out of the shelter (95%); 2) successfully completing at least 75% of personal goals while in the shelter (80%); 3) saving at least $1,000 while in the shelter (57%). These goals are evaluated through review of case management documents, exit interviews and surveys taken at 1 and 4 months after families exit the program. We provided approximately 5,700 bed nights of housing over the last two years. Success for rental assistance is: 100% of those assisted will remain housed for another 30 days, and that an additional 85%+ of these families will retain their housing for at least 6 months following assistance. Over 90 LA families a year are served by our Family Stabilization Program.