Transforming Metrics for Success
10
THINKING SMARTER ABOUT
PERFORMANCE
In early 2010, LAHSA standardized the goals for its
funded programs by consolidating achievement rates by
program type and target population. This pushed provid-
ers of similar programs to focus on the same goals of
getting their clients into permanent housing and helping
them seek and secure financial resources.
Additionally, in early 2011, efforts were made to ensure
the performance goals mirrored national standards,
including provisions in the Homeless Emergency As-
sistance and Rapid Transition to Housing (HEARTH) Act
of 2009. The revised goals focused primarily on these
metrics:
•
Placement in permanent housing;
•
Retention in permanent housing;
•
Increases in income;
•
Linkages to services that address barriers to housing; and
•
Reductions in average length of stay in non-permanent
housing programs.
So now, more universal achievement rates were being
established. However, these achievement rates were more
clearly defined as “continuum goals,” and service provid-
ers were encouraged to at least work towards improving
their performance under each metric by 10 percent or
higher than they had done in the previous year. In this way,
service providers were given a chance to focus on more
realistic incremental goal achievements and at the same
time, LAHSA staff gained an opportunity to take a more
targeted approach to providing training and technical as-
sistance.
Finally, by the end of the 2010-2011 program year LAHSA
succeeded in eliminating 95 percent of the previously
required manual reporting by enhancing current Home-
less Management Information System (HMIS)-generated
performance reports and usage policies. By creating
more intelligent tools and processes that utilized automa-
tion and standardization, LAHSA-funded agencies could
devote more time and resources toward effectively serv-
ing the homeless in the following program years.
MAKING PROGRESS IN HOUSING THE
HOMELESS
In program year 2010-2011, LAHSA-funded programs led
the way in helping 6,337 households get into permanent
housing. Most notably, the Homelessness Prevention
and Rapid re-housing Program (HPRP) in the City of LA
represented 24 percent of those placements. Many of the
other placements came from access centers and 14-hour
shelters primarily because those programs served the
highest volume of homeless clients.
To put the prior table into context, the following table
demonstrates the rate at which households exiting from
each program type were able to gain permanent housing.
Here, the real successes are demonstrated to be happen-
ing again in the American Recovery and Reinvestment
Act-funded HPRP, as well as in transitional housing
programs, particularly those serving youth ages 18 to 24.
Finally, 81 percent of all those served in LAHSA-funded
permanent supportive housing programs retained their
housing for at least six months. This is significant be-
cause it demonstrates that those that receive the housing
and benefits provided through permanent supportive
housing have a very high rate of stability and are more
likely to stay housed in the longer term.
PERMANENT HOUSING PLACEMENT RATES
PROGRAM YEAR 2010-2011
1%
Safe
Havens
Winter
Shelters
8% 13%
Transitional
Housing
Programs
for Youth
Supportive
Service
Only
Programs
26%
51%
24-
Hour
Shelters
14-
Hour
Shelters
Transitional
Housing
Programs
for Adults/
Families
Access
Centers/
Street
Outreach
Centers
HPRP
Rapid
Rehousing
(
City of LA)
39%
54%
82%
100%
938
PERMANENT HOUSING PLACEMENTS
PROGRAM YEAR 2010-2011
TOTAL PLACEMENTS: 6,337 HOUSEHOLDS
22
Safe
Havens
Winter
Shelters
112
226
Transitional
Housing
Programs
for Youth
Supportive
Service
Only
Programs
607
24-
Hour
Shelters
14-
Hour
Shelters
1,012
Transitional
Housing
Programs
for Adults/
Families
1,066
1,512
Access
Centers/
Street
Outreach
Centers
HPRP
Rapid
Rehousing
(
City of LA)
842
81%
19%
Retained for 6
Months or More
RETENTION IN PERMANENT
SUPPORTIVE HOUSING
PROGRAM YEAR 2010-2011
Not Retained for
6
Months or More
263
(19%)
1,148
(81%)
TOTALS SERVED: 1,411
