Los Angeles to Vote on Damaging Ordinance, Long Opposed by CSH and our Partners

CSH and multiple partners have battled the Community Care Facilities Ordinance (CCFO), a proposed ordinance in Los Angeles. It would prohibit in all single family zones (over 85% of the residential area of the City) renting to four or more people in either a single residence or duplex, and would impose extremely burdensome parking restrictions on such households in multifamily zones. As examples, the CCFO would ban—

  • Renting to a family of four, even if the family includes young children,
  • Renting to a total of four people in a duplex, even if only two people live in each unit, and
  • Renting to four individuals who are people with disabilities, students, or seniors.

The CCFO would also make homes and shelters “parole-probationer homes” if the household includes more than two unrelated probationers and parolees. It would require a landlord to obtain a conditional use permit in multifamily zones and ban such structures outright in single family zones. In addition to violating state and federal law, the CCFO would harm City residents.

  • It would exacerbate crime, rather than reduce it. Restricting housing to people who are on probation and parole will only lead to greater crime, as probationers and parolees are seven times more likely to recidivate when homeless than housed. Evidence shows renters and people sharing housing are not, as proponents claim, more likely to commit crime than homeowners.
  • If enforced, it would lead to greater homelessness, as thousands of households would become illegal under the CCFO scheme.
  • It would severely decrease housing opportunities for low-income households and people with disabilities, putting multiple projects the City has supported in jeopardy.
  • The parolee-probationer provision would place City law in conflict with federal guidelines in administering housing programs, like Shelter Plus Care and HUD-VASH.
  • Because it blatantly violates fair housing laws in disproportionately impact people with disabilities and people of color, the City could lose its federal housing funding.

Despite opposition from CSH and over 150 other organizations, and a letter from USICH Executive Director Barbara Poppe expressing serious concerns, the CCFO may pass in Los Angeles. Similar ordinances are being introduced throughout the nation to attempt to eliminate sober living homes without blatantly violating fair housing. These ordinances can lead to increases and homelessness.

Help us stop the CCFO, should it pass:

  • E-mail Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to urge him to veto the damaging ordinance, or go to www.StopCCFO.org to sign onto the CCFO petition.
  • Keep track of proposed ordinances in your community, and educate policymakers on the impact on people at risk or already experiencing homelessness. Similar ordinances limit the number of leases in a single unit, and others limit the number of people who could rent in a single home.

For further information, contact Sharon Rapport, Associate Director, California Policy, at sharon.rapport@csh.org or (213) 623-4342, ext. 18.

California Releases Action Plan to End Youth Homelessness

On January 8, 2013, California Senator Carol Liu hosted a press conference to officially release a statewide action plan to address youth homelessness in California.  The plan, “More Than A Roof: How California Can End Youth Homelessness,” was developed by the CA Homeless Youth Project  with substantial input from a number of youth, youth service providers, youth housing providers, public agencies, philanthropic groups, and elected officials throughout the state.  The plan acknowledges that youth homelessness is a multifaceted problem that requires an intersectoral approach to solving, and identifies numerous action steps that service providers, government agencies, and policymakers can take to achieve ten goals in the areas of:More-Than-a-Roof-Cover-Image

  • Prevention & Early Intervention
  • Education
  • Employment
  • Supportive Services
  • Housing Strategies
  • Health
  • Juvenile Justice & Law Enforcement
  • Rural Areas
  • Governance
  • Research & Data

More Than A Roof  builds on the federal plan to end homelessness, Opening Doors, and will be presented to the State Assembly Select Committee on Homelessness and other stakeholder groups to begin taking action on the plan.  The Select Committee is chaired by Assembly Member Toni Atkins, who was one of three CSH Champion Awardees at the 2012 Supportive Housing Quality Awards.

CSH staff in Los Angeles participated on the advisory board for the plan, and contributed the Housing Strategy Best Practice Spotlight on the Coalition for Responsible Community Development (CRCD).  CRCD has received extensive support from CSH in their development partnerships to build and operate permanent supportive housing for TAY, and is a grantee of the Stable Homes, Brighter Futures TAY initiative in Los Angeles.

Learn more about CA Homeless Youth Project and  download More Than A Roof: How California Can End Youth Homelessness

Watch the recording of the January 8, 2013 Press Conference on California Youth Homelessness

28th Street Apartments Grand Opening

On Monday, December 3, 2012, the Coalition for Responsible Community Development (CRCD) and Clifford Beers Housing, Inc. (CBH) opened the 28th Street Apartments in South Los Angeles.  Originally the historic 28th Street YMCA designed by renown African-American architect, Paul Williams, the building has been adaptively re-used to provide 48 units of studio-style affordable housing, 1 studio-style manager’s unit, and approximately 8,000 square feet of ground floor space for services.  The building provides permanent housing and services for low-income adults, formerly homeless transition age youth (TAY), and adults with mental illness.  The ground floor also houses the first Vernon-Central Workforce Development Network – Youth Source Center, where more than 300 TAY living in the Vernon-Central community of South L.A. who are disconnected from the traditional education system will have access to employment, workforce development training, and education resources.

The total development cost for the 28th Street Apartments was $23.7 million.  At least eight different funding sources brought the project to fruition.  CSH provided a $1.6 million acquisition and predevelopment loan to Clifford Beers Housing and a grant to CRCD under the Stable Homes, Brighter Futures TAY initiative to support the onsite coordination and provision of services for TAY tenants.

 The grand opening celebration was captured by NBC Los Angeles

MHSA Housing Program 5th Anniversary Event

November 9, 2012  - President and CEO of the Housing Authority, Douglas Guthrie, along with California State Senator, Darrell Steinberg and others from Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health and the Supportive Housing Alliance came together at Villas at Gower to celebrate the Fifth Anniversary of the Mental Health Services Act (MHSA) Housing Program.

To date there are 33 MHSA Housing Program projects in various stages of development in Los Angeles County – resulting in approximately 746 units of Permanent Supportive Housing for MHSA eligible clients, and chronic homeless adults,  families and children, and Transition Age Youth (TAY). The program has leveraged hundreds of millions of dollars, created jobs and fostered public-private partnerships.

CSH is proud to be a part of this significant milestone – contributing  $29,485,492 in loans and grants, and training to project sponsors and service providers of 25 MHSA Housing Program projects. We look forward to future collaborations with the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health.

For more information please visit Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health  

 

5th Anniversary of the Mental Health Services Act (MHSA) Housing Program

You are invited to join CSH in honoring the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health and the Supportive Housing Alliance Program by celebrating the 5th Anniversary of the MHSA Housing Program on Friday, November 9 from 10am to 12pm at Villas at Gower- 176 N. Gower St., Hollywood.

The successful implementation of the MHSA Housing Program in Los Angeles County has resulted with a commitment of $112 million towards 33 active projects with 13 currently open and occupied housing approximately 369 homeless individuals with a mental illness and their family members.  This success is evidence of the great collaboration and partnerships established through the implementation of the MHSA Housing Program.

For more information please call (213) 251-6582 or visit dmh.lacounty.gov.

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Join us for Homewalk 2012 hosted by United Way of Greater Los Angeles

In Los Angeles CSH is proud to partner with the United Way of Greater Los Angeles for the 6th annual HomeWalk on Saturday, November 17th at Exposition Park. The CSH  team is raising funds and awareness to end homelessness in Los Angeles county by participating in this unique 5K Run/Walk.  This is an incredible opportunity to show your support to end homelessness in Los Angeles county.   Through our collective efforts we can make sure every individual has a place to call home.

Click here to Join our team today or show your support

For more information about how to join our team or make a donation, contact Natalie Thropay.

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Frequent Users Programs Seeing Positive Early Results in Los Angeles

Comprehensive solutions are needed to effectively bend the health care cost curve, improve quality of care and advance population health. In Los Angeles, hospitals, Federally Qualified Health Centers, housing developers and homeless service providers are collaborating on innovative ways to improve health outcomes of patients who are identified as chronically homeless.

In Los Angeles we are optimistic because the program model of intensive case management and supportive housing placement for frequent users of emergency systems is already seeing results. With 47 participants enrolled to date, recent hospital utilization data for the first 20 patients referred out of California Hospital Medical Center shows a 74% decrease in hospital costs for these 20 (from $282,157 to $73,954). By housing chronically ill patients and helping them find medical homes and mental health services, emergency department visits have decreased 57%, inpatient readmissions have gone down 67% and inpatient days have decreased 80%.

FUSE
(May 2011-present)
Baseline
(1 year prior to enrollment)
1 Year post enrollment in FUSE Change
Average ED Visits 2.5 1.1 ↓57%
Average ED Charges $1,423 $580 ↓59%
Total ED Charges $28,450 $11,606
Avg. Inpatient Admits 2.0 0.6 ↓67%
Avg. Inpatient Days 10.0 2.0 ↓80%
Avg. Inpatient Charges $12,685 $3,117 ↓75%
Total Inpatient Charges $253,707 $62,348


The Frequent Users Systems Engagement pilot program in Los Angeles
links 80 frequent users of hospital emergency rooms directly to supportive housing with intensive case management to ensure that they are finding homes and stabilizing their physical and mental health. Five sites are implementing these programs utilizing“navigators” who coordinate all housing and social services. The program is being funded by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation and UniHealth.In the current economic and health care environment, these kinds of costs savings are critical. Hospital, FQHC and the supportive housing sector are finding ways to steward resources link care management and supportive housing to not only realize stabilization of our most chronically ill homeless patients, but also reduce emergency department and inpatient readmissions and health care cost savings. Work like what is being done in Los Angeles can inspire other communities to work together to effectively address the social and economic complexities of homelessness.

CSH’s Social Innovation Fund Initiative expands this model to new communities. The pilot program managed by the Economic Roundtable, is a substantial cross-sector collaboration that will be working together to integrate healthcare and supportive housing for hundreds of individuals over the next five years.

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Los Angeles: Integrating FQHC Health Care Services with Supportive Housing

Since the fall of 2011, CSH and United Homeless Health Care Partners have provided a quarterly training series for housing developers and Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC) in Los Angeles around integrating Health Care and supportive housing, based on our guide, Integrating FQHC Health Care Services with Permanent Supportive Housing in Los Angeles. The workshops aim to create a common language and understanding regarding business operations among both supportive housing developers and FQHC’s, to explain how financing works for both sectors, to define the needs of target populations and the services required to meet this need in health care, mental health care and substance abuse services.

Participants included a team from Garvey Court, a 69-unit apartment and mixed-use project which focuses on improving the health and health care for El Monte seniors in the San Gabriel Valley.  Garvey Court, which opened in February, provides on-site health services and a focus on wellness and is expected to decrease hospital visits for residents and others in the community and reduce the demand on the county health care system. The Cleaver Family Wellness Clinic, an FQHC, will open a new satellite site at Garvey Court in July, with services to the public 20 hours a week. The Church of Our Saviour Center, a nonsectarian, community outreach organization, opened the Cleaver Family Wellness Clinic in 1999, and serves between 3,500 to 4,000 patients per year.

Other teams in the workshops have focused on scattered site units for frequent users, along the lines of the FUSE model.

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