City Council

(23) 23-0281 HOUSING AND HOMELESSNESS COMMITTEE REPORT relative to reforming and improving the Coordinated Entry System (CES) to address factors that cause bias in acuity scores and significant delays in matching people to housing units. Recommendations for Council action, as initiated by Motion (Raman – Yaroslavsky – Blumenfield – Harris-Dawson): INSTRUCT the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA), with assistance from the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA) and homeless service providers, to report within 30 days, with a plan to reform and improve the CES to address factors that cause bias in acuity scores and significant delays in matching people to housing units. This report should include consideration of: Adopting an alternative assessment tool to the Vulnerability Index and a survey called the Service Prioritization Decision Assistance Tool that has been evaluated for racial bias and reduces reliance on self-reporting by clients, in addition to potentially incorporating data about utilization of emergency services such as jails, Police/Sheriff, emergency rooms, mental health beds and the child welfare system when determining a vulnerability score. Making CES more compatible with place-based interventions such as Encampment-to-Home based on successes in other localities where this has been done, such as the City of Santa Monica. Indicating clearly in CES which households are "match-ready" and prioritizing those households for housing matches. Referring two households to the Los Angeles County (County) Department of Health Services for each case management service slot to reduce delays due to challenges locating clients. Developing and offering training for new and existing Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) developers about the PSH population, CES and the pivotal role developers play in fostering housing stability for formerly homeless households. DIRECT the LAHD and REQUEST the City Attorney to amend guidelines, policies or guidance, for programs that do not use the Continuum of Care or other funding that requires use of the CES, so as to amend the requirements or preferences for the CES tenant matching process from 80 percent to 25 percent where the CES process is not required. The amendments should allow and encourage, where possible, project owners to submit amended Tenant Selection Plans identifying service providers and partners prioritizing eligible prospective tenants from interim housing sites to the greatest extent possible. These sites include Tiny Home Villages, A Bridge Home sites, County-funded interim housing, LAHSA-supported congregate shelter sites and Project Roomkey and Inside Safe sites. The Tenant Selection Plans must describe the outreach, housing navigation and assessment processes to be used by each developer or service provider. Developers or service providers, as appropriate, will submit quarterly reports to the LAHSA and to the Housing and Homelessness Committee evaluating their adherence to their Tenant Selection Plans’ outreach, housing navigation and assessment goals. Developers or service providers that have not previously operated supportive housing will include in these quarterly reports descriptions of relevant training their staff receive. DIRECT the LAHD, with the assistance of the City Administrative Officer (CAO), to report within 60 days after the implementation of this directive, and on a regular basis after that, to the Housing and Homelessness Committee regarding the number of units removed from the CES tenant matching process, occupancy numbers for these units and the impact of this policy change to lease-up times for these units, including a comparison to units that were leased up through the traditional CES process, as well as recommendations concerning any additional resources needed by service providers or developers for housing navigation to quickly prepare and move residents from interim to permanent housing. DIRECT the LAHD to participate in weekly lease-up calls with the LASHA and HACLA pertaining to the units removed from the CES tenant matching process pursuant to Motion (Raman – et al. – Harris-Dawson), attached to Council file No. 23-0281. Fiscal Impact Statement: Neither the CAO nor the Chief Legislative Analyst has completed a financial analysis of this report.