Policy & Practice | Winter 2023

critical state funds are no longer limited to rapid rehousing but will also be used for prevention and per manent supportive housing. n Launching a Bridge Support Demonstration Project to ensure every youth exiting foster care has a stable housing plan. As a first step in this effort, the center supported the DCFS Supportive Housing Division in developing a process that identi fies all youth exiting DCFS within six months and engages each youth’s caseworker about their housing plan. Youth who do not have a place to go upon exit receive short-term transitional housing, case manage ment, housing navigation, and life skills support through a collaboration among the DCFS, the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health, and a community-based organization, Safe Place for Youth. With backbone support provided by the center and core funding from private philan thropy, led by the Ralph M. Parsons Foundation and a donor-advised fund within the California Community Foundation, this project will serve up to 90 DCFS-involved TAY over two years. A participatory project evalua tion, which involves youth with lived experience in the evaluation design, development, and implementa tion, will serve as a measure of the project’s impact and its potential for replication. Keys to Success One Roof LA is changing the housing landscape in Los Angeles County by bringing a Housing First mindset to the all of the county departments, fos tering a culture of collaboration and shared responsibility among agencies, centering the voices of people with lived experience to inform program goals and actions, and generating more affordable housing options, greater access to those housing options, and more robust support services to help keep child welfare-impacted families and youth stably housed. If this can be done in Los Angeles, home to the nation’s largest public child welfare agency, we believe other jurisdictions can achieve similar

This is not a crisis that the County’s Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) can solve alone. In 2018, the center spearheaded L.A. County’s participation in a nation wide One Roof Leadership Institute 2 sponsored by the Corporation for Supportive Housing. This effort brought leaders from multiple county departments to the table, including the DCFS, the Los Angeles Community Development Authority, the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, the Homeless Initiative within the County’s Chief Executive Office, and more, to collaboratively develop innovative ways to increase housing resources and stability for DCFS-impacted children and families. Additional county partners have since joined this core team, including the Departments of Public Social Services, Consumer and Business Affairs, and Mental Health, among others. With ongoing philanthropic funding and backbone support provided by the center and its consultant team, including Watson Consulting Group, what began as a one-year commitment by county leadership has continued for the past six years. The multi pronged strategy of One Roof LA, then and now, is to align systems and increase available resources in order to reduce the number of child welfare-involved families and youth entering homelessness, rapidly support those who are currently homeless, and streamline homeless prevention services. Over the years, One Roof LA has grown to comprise nearly 30 project partners, including county agencies, philanthropic organizations, experts in homelessness and child welfare, and individuals with lived expertise. With ongoing support from the center and its consultants, along with guidance from those with lived experience, a collaborative of cross-sector partners works together to keep lines of commu nication open, problem-solve barriers to housing access, coordinate programs and resources, and launch innovative new initiatives that are truly changing both systems and the lives of those touched by the systems. Three particularly exciting innova tions have resulted:

n Launching the nation’s first Supportive Housing Division within DCFS. The division, led by agency veteran Gail Winston, enables DCFS to consolidate, standardize, and scale up best practices for reducing homelessness among both child welfare-impacted families and transition-age youth. Specialized caseworkers in the division refer DCFS clients experiencing housing instability to resources and provide leadership and support to the county’s more than 5,000 child welfare caseworkers. The center has partnered with Winston and her lead ership team in developing a Strategic Plan for the division, which incor porates the voices of DCFS-involved

Funders

California Community Foundation Carl & Roberta Deutsch Foundation Conrad N. Hilton Foundation First 5 LA Reissa Foundation Rose Hills Foundation

Specialty Family Foundation Ralph M. Parsons Foundation

youth and families and outlines core strategies and measurable outcomes. Together, we have successfully advo cated for and secured additional state and federal funding, along with a growing allocation of federal housing vouchers. n Implementing the Keeping Families Together approach. This national, evidence-based program model aligns resources to provide supportive housing to child welfare impacted families at the highest risk of homelessness. Supported by One Roof, DCFS secured expanded funding from the California Bringing Families Home grant to identify families with open child welfare cases who are experiencing home lessness, promote their access to rapid rehousing, and support their capacity to retain custody of their children. Moreover, because of the research and advocacy done through the One Roof LA collaborative, these

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