Happy At Home: Protecting At-risk Households

Housing and Homelessness

San Gabriel Valley

Expand existing project, program, or initiative

11% of those experiencing homelessness on the night of the 2023 Pasadena Homeless Count reported eviction as the reason. Wages remain stagnant while rents continue to skyrocket (avg 1 BR $2200). Pasadena's poverty rate is 13.2 %. 58% of residents are renters and about half of those are rent burdened, paying more than 30% of their income on rent. 25% more are severely rent burdened, paying more than 50% of their income on rent. Numerous surveys report that 41-68% of Americans cannot cover a $1000 emergency. Without the resources to manage a financial setback, families risk falling deeper into arrears and facing the threat of eviction and homelessness. Once homeless, a family's entire structure is destabilized. Food, water, shelter and clothing are not guaranteed, children may miss school, and mental and physical health issues rise. Keeping people housed is far less expensive and much more effective than attempting to rehouse those who have become homeless.

Critical to maintaining housing stability in our community, our Eviction Prevention and Rental Assistance Program staff of two FT case managers, provides supplemental or full short and medium-term rental assistance to households who are currently threatened with eviction due to an inability to pay their rent. We follow established eligibility guidelines to ensure we assist clients with the most immediate risk of eviction and the greatest financial need. Clients must demonstrate a total household income below 50% of the Area Median Income for LA County and must qualify as either 'at-risk' of homelessness or currently experiencing homelessness. Some examples of 'at-risk' criteria include recently receiving a pay or quit notice to vacate or an eviction notice, fleeing a domestic violence situation, currently paying to live in a hotel, or staying with a friend due to lack of housing. Most households require an average of $4000 of rental assistance. To date in FY23, 117 households (a total of 204 individuals) have been supported to pay over 300 months of rent. In addition, these clients received supportive services to help sustain their current housing including in-house counseling or referrals for employment development, healthcare, budgeting, financial planning, and other supportive services. An additional 100 households were provided with rental aid resources outside of Friends In Deed.

Like many other areas across the nation, southern California is in the midst of a housing crisis that forces many low income households to expend significant amounts of their income to maintain their housing. Our vision for this program is the development of a safety net that catches those families who are unable to pay their rent on their own and prevents them from falling into homelessness. Research shows that homelessness is expensive for social services and traumatic for families who experience it, and even modest financial assistance is oftentimes sufficient to help households maintain housing through a difficult season of their lives. Prevention programs continue to grow across the country, our hope is that with increased funding we will be able to provide sufficient support for all families in the Pasadena area who are most at-risk of falling into homelessness.

Although it is challenging to measure whether a household with an eviction notice would have definitely become homeless without our support, we evaluate the success of our assistance to keep folks stably housed by the number that return for additional rent support. Because all clients are entered into the Homeless Management Information System, we are able to track not only whether they return to us, but whether they return to any agency in the area for assistance. In the past five years, less than 5% of clients have returned for additional rent support. Additionally, staff conduct follow-up surveys with all assistance recipients within several months of program exit, tracking their progress in continuing to stabilize their finances and stay current with rent.