An Initial Assessment of California’s Homeless Emergency Aid Program: Assessing California’s Response to the Crisis APRIL 2020 California State University, Sacramento Division of Social Work and Institute for Social Research A Report prepared for the Homeless Coo rdinating and Financing Council in the California Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency 1 Acknowledgments The Sacramento State research team would like to thank the administrators and other stakeholders who participated in our interviews and surveys about their experiences with HEAP. We also appreciate the direct service providers who took time from their important work to talk to us about the programs and services they are helping coordinate in their communities to address homelessness. We also wish to acknowledge the support of the College of Health and Human Services and the Division of Social Work at Sacramento State. Research Team • Arturo Baiocchi PhD • Jessica Newham Assistant Professor of Social Work Research Analyst II, Institute for Social Research • Susanna Curry MSW PhD • Fleur Monnet Marfori Assistant Professor of Social Work Graduate Research Assistant, Institute for Social Research Table of Contents Acknowledgments Research Team Executive Summary ................................................................................................................................................................................ i Key Findings about Funding ..................................................................................................................................................... i Key Findings about Strategies ................................................................................................................................................ ii Key Findings about Early Successes & Challenges ......................................................................................................... iii Section 1: Introduction ...........................................................................................................................................................................1 State of Homelessness in California .......................................................................................................................................1 A Short History of HEAP Funding .......................................................................................................................................... 5 Purpose of Report and Methodology ................................................................................................................................ 10 Section 2: How are grantees spending HEAP Funds? .............................................................................................................. 12 Allocation of HEAP Funds by Category ............................................................................................................................. 12 Services ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 13 Capital Investments .................................................................................................................................................................. 14 Rental Assistance ....................................................................................................................................................................... 16 Youth Set Aside .......................................................................................................................................................................... 17 Differences in Spending between Cities and COCs ...................................................................................................... 18 Differences in Spending between Urban and Non-Urban Jurisdictions ................................................................ 19 Section 3: Strategies, Regional Coordination, and HEAP ........................................................................................................ 21 General Plans to Address Homelessness .......................................................................................................................... 21 Specific Strategies Regarding How to Prioritize HEAP ................................................................................................ 23 Strategy 1—Using HEAP to Develop Innovative Responses to Homelessness ................................................... 25 Strategy 2—Using HEAP to Scale-Up Existing Programs and Services ..................................................................27 Strategy 3—Using HEAP to Reassess and Revamp the System ............................................................................... 28 Section 4: Lessons Learned and Preliminary Outcomes ......................................................................................................... 30 Initial Concerns about the Flexibility of HEAP ................................................................................................................ 30 The Challenges and Success of Collaborative Planning ............................................................................................. 32 The Challenges Associated with Declaring a Shelter Crisis ....................................................................................... 34 The Challenges of Building Something New: Delays in Capital Investments ...................................................... 35 The Support of HCFC Staff .................................................................................................................................................... 35 Preliminary Perspectives on Impact of the Funds ......................................................................................................... 36 Summary and Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................................... 36 Appendix A: Survey Instrument & Results ................................................................................................................................. 40 Appendix B: Methodology and Factor Analysis ....................................................................................................................... 48 Appendix C: Glossary ........................................................................................................................................................................ 50 Appendix D: Allocation Tables ....................................................................................................................................................... 56 Executive Summary California has been facing a homelessness crisis, particularly in the last four years as communities across the state report substantial increases in the number of people experiencing homelessness. In response, the California State legislature passed SB 850 in 2018, providing $500 million in one-time funding to California communities through the Homeless Emergency Aid Program (HEAP). By February 2019, the Homeless Coordinating and Financing Council (HCFC) had awarded 70% of funds through 43 Continuums of Care (CoCs)1 and 30% of funds to 11 large cities throughout the state of California. The HCFC has commissioned faculty researchers at California State University, Sacramento to design and implement a series of evaluation reports of HEAP. This report summarizes an initial assessment of the planning and implementation phases of the initiative. Drawing from a review of applications, 20 in-depth interviews and 40 survey responses out of the 54 jurisdictions, this report describes: • The variety of programs and innovative practices funded by HEAP in the past twelve months. • The overarching strategies that communities used to guide their funding decisions. • Early successes as well as challenges that communities have encountered while implementing HEAP. Readers of this report should note that the data and results presented are preliminary given that the report does not focus on first-year outcomes.2 Nonetheless, the findings discussed in this report regarding planning and implementation will help inform and frame ongoing evaluations of HEAP and other similar state initiatives. Key Findings about Funding We learned that most communities have invested the largest share of their HEAP grants toward providing direct services to individuals and families experiencing homelessness or at-risk of homelessness. Over half of these services were fully operational as of Fall 2019. ● Ninety-two percent (92%) of communities used some portion of HEAP to provide direct services such as such as street outreach, system navigation and homeless prevention services; these investments will total $194 million (or represent 39% of all HEAP expenditures). 1 A Continuum of Care (CoC) is a community board that coordinates local homelessness planning efforts and disperses federal funds awarded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). 2 A future report will provide more detail about specific programs as well as review first-year outcomes associated with the number of individuals and families assisted. i ● Many jurisdictions also prioritized HEAP towards capital investments to develop infrastructure projects like emergency shelters and navigation centers.