PROCUREMENT: GUIDING INVESTMENTS
IN ENDING HOMELESSNESS
As LAHSA forges ahead to make the Los Angeles Con-
tinuum of Care more efficient, a key area the agency has
worked hard on this past year is around procurement of
new programs.
Fundamentally, LAHSA solicits bids for services from
diverse sources of funding through Requests for Proposals
(
RFPs) in order to provide a fair and transparent review
process for establishing grant award recommendations.
Our funding opportunities endeavor to invest in programs
that utilize evidence-based best and promising practices
in homeless program design.
The RFP evaluation process examines core competencies,
services, and outcomes desired in selected providers to
ensure that homeless individuals and families are ultimately
permanently housed through LAHSA’s investments.
In addition to driving program design, LAHSA established
investment priorities for the LA continuum by targeting
priority populations and program types that align with
local needs and federal policies through the RFP process.
For example, federal policies such as participation in the
Homelessness Management Information System and co-
ordination of services within the continuum are incentiv-
ized by the awarding of points through the RFP evaluation
process.
LAHSA will continue to set policy and investment priori-
ties by way of RFP assessments to help ensure that
future programs are effective in helping to end home-
lessness in Los Angeles.
HOMELESS COUNT INNOVATIONS
Conducted by the Los Angeles Continuum of Care (LA
CoC), the Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count is the
nation’s largest point-in-time-count of homeless persons,
covering over 4,000 square miles. This is a community-
wide undertaking made possible only with the support of
thousands of Los Angeles volunteers, homeless housing
and services agencies, nonprofits, businesses, faith based
groups, government agencies and academic organizations.
The 2011 biennial count, which took place from January
25 - 27,
boasted a record 4,000 volunteers; 1,000 more
than in 2009. This huge volunteer base enabled LAHSA to
ensure that there was less extrapolation than ever before
as more of the homeless were directly tallied, leading
to increased reliability of the homeless estimates. The
number of census tracts fully counted in the LA CoC rose
from 505 to 922. There are 1,887 tracts in all.
YOUTH COUNT
LAHSA’s 2011 youth count, part of the larger biennial
count, received national acknowledgment as a best prac-
tice by the National Alliance to End Homelessness and the
U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness. Los Angeles is
one of the few jurisdictions in the United States to conduct
a youth count to ensure hard to reach youth, ages 24
and under, who are not typically numbered in nighttime
street counts are included in its overall homeless count.
OKLAHOMA
4,625
homeless persons in entire state
LA COC
3,959
homeless youth*
NEW MEXICO
3,601
homeless persons in entire state
*
Includes youth 18-24 and youth under 18 and unaccompanied.
Excludes 5,700 youth, under 18 and in families.
The agency partnered with 13 homeless youth agencies
(
seven more than in 2009) to conduct the count. Further-
more, under the supervision of LAHSA youth provider
staff, homeless youth volunteered to help with the count.
THE OPT-IN PROGRAM
For the 2011 Homeless Count, LAHSA stepped up its
efforts to substantially increase participation of local LA
CoC jurisdictions. The Opt-In Program provides local
communities with homeless count numbers specific to
their area or city allowing them to obtain detailed home-
less count information. Opt-in cities and communities
coordinate the count within their borders using locally
recruited volunteers from public and private agencies
and tally 100 percent of their census tracts.
Additionally, LAHSA partnered with 28 cities and seven
communities; a 119 percent increase in Opt-In Area
participation over 2009. The result: cities were able to
precisely estimate a point-in-time number of the homeless
families and individuals in their jurisdiction – a fundamental
planning tool in ending homelessness in Los Angeles.
INCREASE IN CENSUS TRACTS COUNTED FROM 2007-2011
1200
2007
505
CENSUS
TRACTS
1000
800
600
400
200
0
2009
2011
1,382
Counted
Extrapolated
1400
754
1,133
922 965
KEY HOMELESS COUNT NUMBERS:
2011
HOMELESSNESS IN
LOS ANGELES COUNTY
2009
HOMELESSNESS IN
CITY OF LOS ANGELES
51,340
52,931
23,529
25,771
= 3% decrease
= 9% decrease
THE SCALE OF YOUTH HOMELESSNESS IN LA (2011)
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