Promoting Partnerships
ADVANCING COORDINATION
THROUGH COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT
Beginning in early 2010 and throughout fiscal year 2011,
and in accordance with the Homeless Emergency As-
sistance and Rapid Transition to Housing (HEARTH) Act,
LAHSA began restructuring the Los Angeles Continuum
of Care’s planning process to work more effectively in
preventing and ending homelessness. LAHSA enrolled
the help of the continuum’s 10-member Coordinat-
ing Council to act as a liaison between the agency and
the community to ensure their needs and priorities were
incorporated into the continuum’s planning process. Each
of the eight Service Planning Areas in LA County has one
representative and an alternate serving on the committee.
The body is chaired by LAHSA’s Executive Director. The
agency’s Policy and Planning and Programs Departments
staff the council.
Now, in alignment with HEARTH, the foremost priority of
the body was to develop a clear and transparent funding
and project selection process for McKinney-Vento Home-
less Assistance Act projects. A major part of this was
prescribing more definitive roles and responsibilities for
housing and service providers, LAHSA’s Commission
and staff.
In 2011, LA received more McKinney-Vento funding for
new permanent supportive housing projects than any other
continuum in the nation with an award of over $12.4 mil-
lion. This was due in large part to the Council’s hard work.
OUR PARTNER AGENCIES:
MAKING US BETTER
Last year, the Homeless Management Information Sys-
tems (HMIS) Department launched a series of continuous
improvement group discussions with LAHSA’s service
providers called HMIS User Forums. The central purpose
of the forums was to enhance the LA Continuum’s HMIS
which supports the various homeless programs and ser-
vices. This was achieved through proactive interagency
collaboration, creative problem solving, and the discovery,
sharing and implementation of best practices. In this open
and solutions-rich environment, LAHSA was better able to
anticipate, understand, and effectively meet user needs.
As a result of these discussions, LAHSA has deployed
several practical user-suggested innovations like the
creation of online video tutorials as an alternative edu-
cational tool. The tutorials have significantly reduced the
need for frequently repeating live training sessions and
technical support. User feedback has also led to signifi-
cant improvements in HMIS trainings, reference guides
and system design.
Because of the hard work and commitment of the user
forum participants, the LA Continuum of Care has made
tremendous progress in accurately capturing homeless
client data and providing real-time, high-value informa-
tion. In the end, this makes the continuum stronger and
more efficient.
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Solar panels on rooftop of ACOF’s Osborne Place, Pacoima.
