The Housing First Sharing Exchange: Creating Shared Accountability in the Movement to Strengthen Quality Services

Affordable housing and homelessness

County of Los Angeles (select only if your project has a countywide benefit)

Applying a proven solution to a new issue or sector (using an existing model, tool, resource, strategy, etc. for a new purpose)

CSH has seen fractures in LA County’s supportive housing (SH) system, including staff turnover and governance challenges. SH—affordable housing paired with services—is predicated on the Housing First model, the basic idea that everyone is ready for housing regardless of the complexity or severity of their needs.
In LA County, Housing First fidelity has been inconsistent. Tenants do not always have a say in their housing and are often treated as passive service recipients without insight. This has led to increased returns to homelessness and inadequate access to services.
The HFSE will create a framework for shared accountability, moving the field towards Housing First fidelity and strengthening the service delivery system. By ceding power to those with lived experience, we will:
1. Define quality SH from the tenant perspective
2. Create a framework for shared accountability
3. Support SH practitioners to deliver high-quality, tenant-centered housing and services in LA County

CSH will partner with three consultants with lived experience to deliver Phase 2 of the HFSE:
Develop a written Accountability Framework that defines quality SH from the tenant perspective and sets the stage for meaningful collaboration across the broad spectrum of individuals and organizations that impact LA County’s SH ecosystem.
Design a cohesive, cross-sector strategy for moving the field towards Housing First fidelity, centered around the core tenets included in the Accountability Framework.
Host a series of six Listening Sessions with local, state, and national cross-sector partners and funders to share the Accountability Framework and secure buy-in for the cohesive, cross-sector strategy. These listening sessions will include education on the Housing First fidelity scale, and a discussion around challenges, priorities, and recommendations from the tenant perspective for overcoming barriers to implementing Housing First fidelity within LA County’s housing and service delivery system. The Listening Sessions will create space for individual and community wellness.
This process is specifically designed to turn the traditional approach on its head. While typically, system leaders may engage tenants for feedback on programs or policies, through this project, tenants will invite system leaders to the table for an iterative process designed to coalesce all partners around a feasible, cohesive, cross-sector strategy to move the field towards Housing First fidelity.

True change comes when we can successfully demonstrate increased efficiency and improved outcomes resulting from specific, measurable changes to policy and practice. Through Phase 2 of the HFSE, we will work with tenants to design and secure buy-in for a cohesive, cross-sector strategy for improving SH operations in LA County with an emphasis on Housing First fidelity and tenant satisfaction. If successful, participating tenants will understand the Housing First model and feel supported and able to:
1) Develop concrete solutions to challenges to Housing First fidelity; and
2) Engage both system leaders who make decisions about SH and SH providers.
In Phase 1, we helped SH tenants assess their own experiences against the Housing Fidelity Scale. In Phase 2, by partnering with tenants to develop concrete action steps towards a pathway for shared accountability, we set the precedent that system leaders and those with lived experience must collaborate on solutions to ending homelessness.