Welcome to the June edition of The Road Home. This edition of our newsletter features articles on our Best Practices for Addressing Street Encampments guidance, progress vaccinating our unhoused neighbors, what to do if you’re experiencing housing discrimination, raising awareness about LGBTQ+ Youth Homelessness in America, and more. For more frequent updates, check out our blog on Medium, also called The Road Home, here.
How Best to Address Street Encampments in Los Angeles
The subject of street encampments in Los Angeles has led to much discussion about how best to move people indoors and best support them in their path to permanent housing. To ensure an effective, collaborative response, the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) has developed Best Practices for Addressing Street Encampments. The guidance lifts up evidence-based and proven practices for service providers and community partners on the most effective ways to conduct location-specific outreach to bring those living in encampments inside to shelter and housing.
Raising Awareness: LGBTQ+ Youth Homelessness in America
LA County’s youth homeless population has unique needs and characteristics when compared to the overall homeless population. They are more likely to be female, Black, or Latinx. They are more likely to report being LGBTQ+ and less likely to have a substance abuse issue or mental illness.
Make a Difference. Become a Host Homes Mentor
We celebrated Pride Month this June and reflected on its history, the need for it, and how far we have come in the acceptance and celebration of LGBTQ folks. Unfortunately, Pride does not extend universally. Persistent hate and rejection have their most devastating effect on young people. Family rejection based on sexual orientation and gender identity can cause catastrophic consequences — including homelessness.

For young people who have been kicked out, rejected, bullied, and sometimes abused, there is a path to finding home. The Host Homes program provides temporary placement for young people experiencing homelessness, age 18–24, to stay with hosts for up to six months on the path to permanent housing.
What to do if you’re experiencing housing discrimination
Housing discrimination is among the several challenges many LGBTQ+ individuals and families face as they seek housing. However, there are several laws meant to protect our clients against this type of discrimination, such as the Fair Housing Act, HUD’s Equal Access Rule, and State and Local Laws Prohibiting Discrimination on the Basis of Sexual Orientation and/or Gender Identity.
Progress Update: Vaccines for People Experiencing Homelessness
Since the onset of COVID-19, Los Angeles County and its partners have worked quickly to prevent the spread of the virus among people experiencing homelessness. Since February, LAHSA has been working with the County Health Department's Housing for Health to help vaccinate our unhoused neighbors. The partnership has administered thousands of vaccine doses, but there are challenges that must be addressed to build upon the early success.
Data Spotlight: Permanent Housing by District
This issue's Data Spotlight features the number of housing placements recorded in HMIS from January 1, 2021, through May 31, 2021. Housing coordination and placement efforts are led by the Los Angeles County Coordinated Entry System, a collaboration of homeless service providers, funders, and public entities. These include the LA Continuum of Care (CoC) led by LAHSA, the Glendale CoC, the Pasadena CoC, the Long Beach CoC, the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services (DHS), the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health (DMH), the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA), and the Los Angeles County Community Development Authority (LACDA). A separate but parallel system for veterans led by the US Department of Veteran's Affairs (VA) also helps place persons experiencing homelessness into housing. Each of these organizations either fund providers that place LA County's unhoused population into permanent housing, or they provide the housing resources to do so.

Disclaimer: The graphic above only includes housing placements recorded in LAHSA's Homeless Management Information System (HMIS). The annual placements LAHSA releases in conjunction with Homeless Count or the State of Homelessness includes data from multiple sources from across the county. Since we only receive client-level information from external sources on an annual basis, the above graphic should not be compared to the annual placements number.

In addition, recent housing move-in data may not be reflected on this graphic as it can take 60-90 days after the contract's execution for the data to be entered into HMIS.

Council District placements are determined by housing unit address. It is worth noting that not all addresses could be geo-coded.