1. Riverside County communities ending family homelessness
Riverside County Department of Public Social Services
Margaret Adkins, Social Service Planner
July 22, 2018

2. Riverside County Map & Office Locations
Roughly 180 miles wide
County population (Census 2017) : 2,423,266 (95% urban, 5% rural)
Land area in square miles: 7,207
4th most populous City in California
(roughly the same size as the state of New Jersey or Massachusetts )

3. Homelessness in Riverside county
Homelessness in Riverside County decreased countywide from 2017 to 2018 by 3.7%. The 2018 PIT count totaled 2,316 sheltered and unsheltered homeless adults and children, compared to 2,406 in 2017.
As you are aware, PIT counts sheltered and unsheltered homelessness. Although there were significant decreases in sheltered homelessness (19%), there were increases as with other southern California counties in many riverside county cities. Of the 28 Riverside county cities, 15 had increases in unsheltered homelessness.

4. HOMELESSNESS IN RIVERSIDE COUNTY
Overall Riverside County has decreased total homelessness by more than half from 2005 to 2018.
Total Decrease
This includes family homelessness
52%

5. Snapshot of Family homelessness riverside county
Overall, Riverside County has decreased total family homelessness by 61% from 2013 to I don’t know if you can all see this, but the number of PIT homeless sheltered and unsheltered families in 2013 was 604. This number decreased to 234 by 2017.
Overall, Riverside County has decreased total family homelessness by 61% from 2013 to 2017

6. family homelessness Sheltered and unsheltered
This chart shows the breakdown of PIT count sheltered and unsheltered homeless people in families by year. By 2017, there were only 4 unsheltered homeless people in families counted.

7. EARLY shortfalls
Inadequate number of shelter beds for families
Limited number of dedicated RRH or PSH beds for families
CES ranking and prioritization
Chronically homeless individuals
Veterans
Community agencies addressed family homelessness in silos
Limited resources to link families to community based services
Information sharing
What we found was that our a lot of our families were traditionally lower barriered and shuffled as a lower priority. Many families were not getting services through the CoC/CES and they remained in homelessness a lot longer or were screened out all together. Priority given mostly to Veterans and chronically homeless individuals. In order to reverse this trend our CES approached family homelessness to include emergency shelters. Our CES committed to refer families into funded projects, crises or emergency systems and create access to other community housing resources. In May of this year, a bill passed through California Legislature allowing for information sharing amongst homeless services providers.

8. Community supports Riverside County Housing Authority (HA)
Priority preference
Rapid Rehousing- 10 beds for youth with families
200 Section 8 Vouchers for Family Reunification
Expansion of RRH beds dedicated for families in Coordinated Entry System
Lighthouse PSH- 12 families, 36 emergency shelter (ES) beds
Martha's Village- 120 emergency shelter beds
Lighthouse RRH- 12 families, 40 beds
Path of Life (dedicated family shelter)
Our crisis response changed the landscape of family homelessness in Riverside County. All in all over 500 family shelter beds were dedicated to the CES. Families were connected to the type of assistance based on their individually tailored needs.

9. COMMUNITY SUPPORTS (continued)
Other Community Supports
City of Temecula- Western Riverside Regional Council of Governments (WRCOG)-12 families
Valley Restart Emergency Shelter- 35 beds
Project Touch–21 day ES
ADV and Shelter From the Storm-105 beds
CalWORKs Housing Support Program (HSP)
1.5 Million to fund permanent housing for CalWORKs (TANF) homeless families
Department of Behavioral Health
Housing Authority
HSP closed the gap- (security deposits, move in costs)

10. FAMILY HOMELESSNESS CalWORKs (TANF) Homeless Assistance JULY 2017 through June 2018
Even though there was an obvious decrease in chronic family homelessness, we still have a family homelessness problem in Riverside County that do not fall into the chronic arena. There were 3,328 CalWORKs (TANF) approved homeless applications last Fiscal Year (which is 28%) of our active CalWORKs/TANF population. Most low barrier with lower vulnerability scores. In order to prevent them from ever entering the CES or a state of chronic homelessness, services for these families were addressed through the CalWORKs Homeless Assistance (TANF) and the Housing Support Programs. The HSP is a RRH –Housing First program in our county which is funded through the California Department of Social Services. Only 383 of the approved families were placed in permanent housing on the TANF side of the house - due to extreme income limitations, we knew that we had to get these families into HSP to access the 1.5 million dollars allocated to permanently housing this population.

11. Outreach efforts Strengthened Behavioral Health partnerships
Infrastructure changes
HSP, Homeless Programs Unit and the Housing Authority started working conjunctively with emergency shelters to assess sheltered families for HSP and or Section 8 eligibility
Countywide HSP Roadshow - Awareness Campaign
Orientation and Appraisal presentations
Child Protective Services Outreach/Awareness Campaign
School District Staff Presentations
Family Resource Center collaboration
Economic Development Agency Family Self Sufficiency collaboration
Warm hand off between CalWORKs Homeless Assistance (TANF) and HSP
Active Continuum of Care/Coordinated Entry System Participation
A massive outreach campaign began – we reached out to various community agencies to make them aware of the funding allocation and availability of services. Supportive services that we have available. I encourage you all to reach out to local community agencies to partner in ending homelessness.

12. Family homelessness hsp- placed in permanent housing
This table depicts the number of HSP families that secured permanent housing by Fiscal year from the onset of the program through 06/2018 of FY 17/18. The 76% increase in the number of families placed in permanent housing from FY 14/15 to 17/18 is a result of the major HSP overhaul and our outreach efforts. We established community partnerships across all levels of government and sectors.

13. Housing Support program statistical data
Orange represents new applications, gold represents the number of approvals, the green represents the number of applications denied, while the darker brownish purple depicts the number of families financially assisted with any portion of their permanent housing and then the brown represents the number of families that secured permanent housing within the first 5 months of the fiscal year. As you can see, the number of HSP applications increased significantly (252 to 562) which equates to a 123% increase from the same time period last fiscal year. The number of approvals into HSP increased by 274%. The number of denials decreased 25%. And the most astonishing is the number of families financially assisted increased by 419%. Lastly there was a 305% increase in the number of families that secured permanent housing. The overall increases in these areas can be attributed to a variety of factors.
CW HA was no longer once in a lifetime
Tiers of service were removed
Collaboration and communication improved with contracted partners
Countywide outreach efforts
Leadership changes- all partners

14. HSP PartnershipS Riverside County Housing Authority
Homeless Programs Unit 
Department of Behavioral Health
Continuum of Care Membership
Coordinated Entry- HomeConnect
City of Riverside
Community Employment Partners
Partnerships between community service providers, public housing, and local HHS agencies are key in resolving homelessness. This slide shows the contracted and non-contracted partnerships that were developed and or strenghthened in the Housing Support Program.

15. Housing Authority Provides housing identification
Performs a weekly orientation across the county after approval to the HSP
Develops and maintains relationships with landlords
Develops and maintain available housing stock
Makes payments for financial assistance for permanent housing directly to the vendors

16. BEST Practices No wrong door
Streamline referral process between programs
Weekly Housing Orientations with partnering agencies
Housing Authority and Behavioral Health Support
Effective CoC/CES that screens families into funded projects
Effective homeless prevention methods- Eviction Prevention/Diversion
Partnership with Children's Services and Adult Services
Weekly Team Decision Meetings
Funding leveraging
No wrong door- HSP in all 12 district offices and CES access points

17. MOVING FORWARD
We are the key agents for change in ending family homelessness!
Make productive partnerships with your TANF agency leaders
Link families to the benefits of community based services
TANF agencies offer supportive services that would not be otherwise available under most HUD funding
Child Care Services
Transportation
Employment Services
Ancillary Services
Temporary and Permanent housing options
Implement effective homeless prevention methods
Think outside the box. The solutions may be in your own programs or communities
Homeless families can rebuild their lives if given an opportunity for change
DON’T MISS YOUR OPPORTUNITY!

18. Questions? Allocation re-distribution?
Does CDSS plan on having an all staff
Do we plan on training

19. CONTACT
Margaret Adkins, Social Service Planner Family Stabilization, Housing Support Program and Eviction Prevention Services