Los Angeles, U.S.A. — The Home For Good Funders Collaborative announced an unprecedented commitment of over $105 million in resources allocated in coordination across public and private systems to help end chronic homelessness.

These resources will provide permanent supportive housing to over 1,000 chronically homeless individuals throughout the Los Angeles region, including veterans, individuals, youth, and families. The $105 million in resources include housing vouchers (calculated over 15 years), capital funds and health, mental health and substance abuse services.

“This is the Home For Good blueprint come to life,” says Jerry Neuman, Co-Chair of the Home For Good Task Force. “Foundations and businesses provided new funds, those funds were leveraged with new and existing public resources and the combined resources are carefully focused on the greatest need, moving chronically homeless people from streets to homes. And the process will generate significant savings for our systems.”

Research has demonstrated substantial cost savings permanent supportive housing yields. Studies consistently find that placing chronically homeless people in permanent supportive housing creates a cost savings of over 40%. The 2012 Los Angeles County evaluation of Project 50 concluded that for each chronically homeless person placed in permanent supportive housing, there are savings of $4,774 over two years measured against the costs of leaving those people on the streets.

The awarded funds will provide housing and services for chronically homeless people using existing permanent supportive units as current tenants move on to other housing, working with landlords to use Section 8 vouchers in market-rate housing, and developing new units of permanent supportive housing. The awards will generate this housing across the Los Angeles region, including the San Fernando and Antelope Valleys, Hollywood, South Los Angeles, Boyle Heights, Pasadena, Santa Monica, and Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles.

Elise Buik, President & CEO of United Way of Greater Los Angeles, which leads the Collaborative and with the L.A. Area Chamber of Commerce created the Business Leaders Task Force on Homelessness, says, “The Collaborative reaches dozens of communities throughout the region working to end homelessness because its members exercised extraordinary diligence and focused on measureable results.

Their work is a clear signal to the Los Angeles community that investing in an end to chronic and veteran homelessness is good for our communities in every respect – it not only reduces the strain on severely limited government resources, it makes our metropolitan area significantly more desirable as a place to live and work and spend.

“The remarkable partnership between the public, private, and nonprofit sectors created through this Collaborative is exactly the kind of innovation and collaboration we need to realize this goal. We look forward to broadening the Collaborative to welcome additional corporate, public and private funders in years to come.”

The Home For Good Funders Collaborative is the first of its kind in Los Angeles. A partnership of 24 public and private funders, the Collaborative began with a seed grant from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation. In this, its first year, the Collaborative pooled and aligned $5 million in donated philanthropic and business funds. These $5 million in private funds leveraged public sector commitments of over $55 million, with an additional $45 million in public funds from the City and County of Los Angeles and the City of Pasadena.

All the funds were made available through an innovative new application process. The Collaborative enabled dozens of organizations addressing homelessness to submit a single application rather than several. Where multiple applications to create housing with services often result in agency-by-agency waiting periods which can extend to years, the Collaborative award process took just over 7 months.

Steven M. Hilton, President and CEO of the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, says, “We applaud our partners from the private and public sectors for coming together to combine our collective resources and efforts to help those most in need. Homelessness is a problem too big for each of us to solve on our own; only together can we hope to improve the situation in Los Angeles.

“The remarkable partnership between the public, private, and nonprofit sectors created through this Collaborative is exactly the kind of innovation and collaboration we need to realize this goal. We look forward to broadening the Collaborative to welcome additional corporate, public and private funders in years to come.”

Collaborative partners from both City and County agencies praise the coordinated approach the Home For Good enterprise has taken.

Doug Guthrie, President & CEO of the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles, says, “The Home For Good collaborative represents the best public-private partnership around our common goal of housing the chronically homeless. It takes careful alignment of all of our resources – Housing Authority subsidies, County health services and private foundation funding for critical gaps – to successfully house this population, and Home For Good provides Los Angeles with a common framework to get the job done.”

Mitch Katz, Director of the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, says, “Through participation in the Collaborative the health department has been able to align resources with other funders and greatly expand access to permanent supportive housing for patients who have a chronic illness or disability and are homeless. Housing these patients has been shown to reduce public costs, especially in health care.”

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The Mentor Network, a national network of local human services providers, has launched a new website – www.makeadifferenceathome.com – and an online advertising campaign designed to increase awareness about the need for more Host Home providers.

Host Homes consist of individuals and families who provide caring homes in the community for children in need and adults with developmental disabilities.  In partnership with The Mentor Network, Host Home providers open their hearts and their homes and have the opportunity to earn extra money to help make ends meet.

“The Mentor Network is called a ‘network’ for a reason — it’s not just one person or group.  It’s a national network of people, in communities across the country, who are joined by the common belief that positive, nurturing relationships are the basis for growth and change and that these relationships are best fostered through active participation in the daily rhythms of neighborhood and family life,” said Dwight Robson, Chief Public Strategy & Marketing Officer at The Mentor Network.

Across the nation, there are more than 100,000 individuals with developmental disabilities who are waiting for access to community-based services.  In addition, there are more than 400,000 children in the foster care system.

“There are already thousands of individuals who have decided to make a difference at home, but the need for community-based care continues to grow,” Robson said.  “Through this campaign we hope to show people how rewarding this work can be and encourage them to consider how much of a difference they could make in the life of an adult or child in need.”

The new website is designed to help interested individuals learn more about being a foster parent or host home provider and includes videos, case studies and other interactive features.

“We refer to our host home providers and foster parents as ‘Mentors’ because they do so much more than just provide a home to an individual in need — they help them grow and learn, forever changing their lives,” Robson continued.  “Mentors make a huge difference to the life of an individual and they also earn extra money at home that can help make ends meet.”

Mentors are caring individuals from all walks of life who provide support for children with emotional, medical and behavioral challenges and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.  Mentors help children and adults thrive as part of the community and positively impact their home life.

“When you take in and care for a foster child or an adult with developmental disabilities, you’re giving them something money can’t buy — a helping hand, a home, a family, and someone who wants to share a life with them.  As a Mentor, you show them through your actions that we all matter and we all deserve to live life to the fullest,” said Robson.

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Individuals who have been homeless are staffing a “homeless hub” launched by two non-profit agencies (along with other health care and social service providers) with the support of the Philadelphia Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disability Services (DBHIDS). The Hub of Hope, in a Suburban Station concourse storefront, serves homeless individuals who have been reluctant to make use of services.

The Mental Health Association of Southeastern Pennsylvania (MHASP) worked with Project H.O.M.E. to create and staff the storefront office, which was launched on January 3 and will be open until April.

“We were approached by DBH to come up with creative ways to do better on behalf of the people who had been living in the concourse,” said Michael Brody, MHASP’s director of Service Operations. MHASP interviewed some 20 formerly homeless individuals and “one of the things that came out in these focus groups was people who were formerly homeless talking about how helpful it was to receive help from people who had had similar experiences,” Brody said.

The majority of MHASP staff members are in recovery from serious mental health conditions, including some staffers who have been homeless. “What we’re bringing to this project is employing three recovery coaches who are Certified Peer Specialists” – individuals in recovery who have been trained to help others work toward recovery – “to do outreach to and follow up with people who make use of the Hub of Hope,” Brody said.

The recovery coaches are working with the Student-Run Emergency Housing Unit of Philadelphia (SREHUP) and with the Project H.O.M.E. housing coordinator, and play a major role in ensuring that people who come to the Hub are welcomed, Brody said.

“Peer support staff are working to build trust and relationships with people entering the Hub, and ensuring they are getting connected,” said MHASP outreach advocate Johnathan Evans, himself formerly homeless, who supervises the recovery coaches. “They are helping to walk people through the process of having their medical and psychiatric needs met.”

“People are coming in on a daily basis and really making use of this added service,” Evans noted. At this writing, 95 individuals have already been served. “The certified peer specialist team has been welcoming people into the Hub and reaching out to them in the concourse.

They are introducing them to representatives of the Behavioral Health Special Initiative [which provides assessments, referrals and funding support for persons who are uninsured or underinsured with substance abuse problems] and walking them over to Mary Howard Health Center.”

The Hub is open from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. and from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. M-F. “People we encounter in the evening will be given an appointment to come in the morning to link with a recovery coach,” Brody continued. “The recovery coach will be doing outreach to find those folks to bring them back to get them linked with services.” MHASP will also offer psychiatric services one evening a week.

“It has been a wonderful collaboration with Project H.O.M.E. and a number of other homeless service providers,” Brody said, “and we appreciate the support of the Department of Behavioral Health.”

Marcella Maguire, Ph.D., director of DBH Homeless Services, said that DBH welcomes what MHASP brings to the table. “DBH is excited to have MHASP bring its peer outreach services to persons who have severe mental illnesses and are experiencing homelessness. The City has been successful in helping hundreds leave homelessness, but we know that a small group remains on the street despite our best efforts.

MHASP has always been committed to trying new models to assist those most in need, and we hope that this novel use of Certified Peer Specialists will assist many more in leaving homelessness and engaging more fully in their recovery.”

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