Skid Row Families Demonstration Project

About the Program

Category: Human Services (Best in Category)

Year: 2009

Family homelessness is a mounting problem in Los Angeles County and continues to escalate. As a result, the First District Supervisor spearheaded an unprecedented public-private partnership to help get homeless families off of Los Angeles’ Skid Row and into affordable, permanent housing. She delegated 5.7 million dollars to implement the Skid Row Families Demonstration Project (SRFDP). The SRFDP is a governmental-nonprofit collaboration of the Departments of Children and Family Services, Mental Health, Public Social Services, Public Health, and Housing Authority, City of Los Angeles and Beyond Shelter, a California non-profit agency which specializes in helping homes families relocate to, and stabilize in, permanent housing in residential neighborhoods located throughout L.A. County. Launched in 2006, the Skid Row Families Demonstration Project is comprised of three distinct yet overlapping program components: Phase I, the crisis intervention program; Phase II, the housing first program; and Phase III, the home based case management program. Through this innovative approach, 1000 individuals in homeless families—including 700 children and 300 adults—have been relocated out of Skid Row and into permanent housing.