A game changer to solve homelessness? Keeping people housed
A game changer to solve homelessness? Keeping people housed
Editorials
The Times Editorial BoardTheres no question that Los Angeles needs more permanent housing for people who are already homeless. That is the citys and countys main responsibility and should receive the most funding from resources dedicated to ending homelessness. But without more homelessness prevention, waves of people will continue to end up on the streets, replacing those who move into housing and leaving Los Angeles always a step behind in grappling with this crisis.
It is imperative to catch people before they fall into homelessness. Even as L.A. County has made more than 20,000 permanent housing placements annually from 2020 to 2022, the unhoused population has gone up steadily from 52,765 in 2018 to 75,518 in 2023.
"Preventionis the thing that will change the face of homelessness in this county, said Cheri Todoroff, the executive director of the L.A. County Homeless Initiative. She recently said that if the flow of people into homelessness could be prevented, the county could solve homelessness in three years. Yet programs to help people stay housed are underfunded, scattered across different agencies and difficult to access. That's a problem.
Optional trim begin->Once again,Last month several thousand volunteers fanned out across Los Angeles County in late January in search of homeless people on streets and in parks and riverbeds as part of the annual count. This is important work that helps shape policy and determine state and federal funding. And when the 2024 homeless count tally is released later this year we will know if the population of homeless people has gone up or down from last Januaryyear. But it won't tell us how many people narrowly escaped homelessness or who have homes now but are a paycheck or eviction notice away from losing them and ending up on a sidewalk.optional trim endNumerous programs provide rental subsidies to help people keep their housing. In Los Angeles County, the Department of Mental Health, Department of Children and Family Services, Department of Public Social Services and
theLos Angeles Homeless Services Authority all offer some sort of homeless
nessprevention programs. Officials estimate that these programs prevented 31,570 L.A. County residents from becoming homeless between July 2017 and September 2023.
There are other programs as well. The city of L.A. set aside $30 million from Measure ULA, the tax on real estate transactions over $5 million for an emergency renters assistance program. Thousands of tenants applied in the fall and most are still waiting to hear if they have been approved.
The homelessness prevention efforts will be put to the test this month when the last eviction protections in the city
expiredand landlords
are wereallowed to proceed with evictions against tenants for unpaid rent incurred between Oct
. ober1, 2021
,and Jan
. uary31, 2023. A University of Pennsylvania study on rental debt in the city of L.A. estimated that 60% of the 100,000 to 150,000 households behind on rent as of last August
won't wouldn'tbe able to pay back rent by the Feb. 1 deadline.
Eviction protections appear to help.
While hHomelessness did go up in 2022,
it went up but onlyby 4%, a fraction of the 12.7%
it had gone up in thei
ncrease found in theJanuary 2020
annual homelesscount. Officials attribute that to the pandemic-era eviction moratorium.
As the Measure ULA fund grows
,so should the amount set aside for renter assistance. But eviction protection is not the universe of homelessness prevention. In fact, most people in California on the verge of homelessness are not even lease
holders the people whom eviction defense and assistance is geared toward.
According to the California Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness released in 2023, barely a third of people surveyed who lost their housing were leaseholders. Nearly half were people who lived in housing but didnt hold the lease. And 19% came from an institutional setting such as a prison or jail. That shows why L.A. needs a broad array of prevention programs, including rental subsidies and guidance in finding housing after leaving prison or the foster care system.
Many of the people surveyed didnt even know about rental assistance programs. They were more likely to seek help from friends or family, not government agencies or nonprofits.
Thats all the more reason that city and county officials must publicize and promote the availability of assistance. An estimated 500,000 tenants in the county are severely burdened by rent, meaning they spend half their income on housing. Most will not lose their housing, but it's both compassionate and cost-effective to help those who are alarmingly close to falling into homelessness. Its less expensive to keep someone in housing with
temporarymonthly subsidies
, of varying lengths of time,some less than $500, than to put them up in interim housing that costs several thousands of dollars per month.
Policy experts have ideas to improve outreach. The homelessness study authors recommend providing prevention services at various agencies and offices where people go for social services, health
care or domestic violence services, for example. Or agencies could proactively reach out to people identified as at high risk of losing their housing, Janey Rountree, executive director of the California Policy Lab at UCLA, suggested. Rountree helped develop a computer model that pinpoints users of L.A. County services who may be most vulnerable to falling into homelessness. The countys Homeless Prevention Unit uses the model to find and reach out to them.
We know how to solve homelessness with housing. Helping people stay in their homes is one of the best ways to end this crisis. Prevention is difficult work but it's essential.
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