A comprehensive strategy with 25 actions, accountable agencies, timelines, and performance benchmarks to prevent and end homelessness in Los Angeles County.

From 2002 through 2004 the Economic Roundtable and the Institute for the Study of Homelessness and Poverty at the Weingart Center carried out research, listened to ideas from community stakeholders, and met with public officials in order to prepare this strategic plan for ending homelessness in Los Angeles County. This strategy was prepared on behalf of Bring LA Home, whose mission was to “prevent and end homelessness in Los Angeles County by creating and implementing a comprehensive, innovative, and realistic 10-year strategic plan to end homelessness.” Pieces of the Roundtable/ Institute strategy were incorporated into a simplified, less comprehensive plan, Bring Los Angeles Home, which was coordinated by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) and released on April 6, 2006.

The expectation was that the Roundtable/Institute strategy contained in this document would be tested and refined through public dialogue about its guiding principles and strategic actions. This strategy was completed in June of 2004, but remained out of the public domain until LAHSA concurred with a Freedom of Information Act request for its release in July 2006.

Section Headings:

Forward

Acknowledgements

1. Executive Summary
2. Mission and Guiding Principles
   • Mission
   • Guiding Principles
   • Background
   • Overview of the 10-Year Plan
3.  Homeless Geography and Institutional Linkages
   • Acute Poverty
   • Public Assistance Recipients
   • Youth
   • Mental Illness
   • Jail Inmates and Probationers
   • Geographic and Institutional Summary
4. Strategy to End Homelessness
   • Overview
   • Action Steps and Tools for Action
   • Chronically Homeless Residents
   • Strengthening the Strategy to End Homelessness
5. Scope of Services and Cost to End Homelessness
   • Overview
   • Four Key Factors that Affect the Size of the Homeless Population and the Cost of Ending Homelessness
   • Creating Four Scenarios for Ending Homelessness
   • Four Scenarios of 10-Year Costs to End Homelessness
   • Sources of Funding for Homeless Housing
   • Local Government Engagement in Addressing Homelessness
6. Conclusion

Photograph by David Kjelkerud, “Strategy at Galerienhaus.” Photograph uploaded to Flickr Creative Commons on July 29, 2008, taken on July 26, 2008.  Protected under the CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 DEED license.