Corporation for Supportive Housing

The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation has supported the efforts of the Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH) to catalyze the development of permanent supportive housing for nearly 20 years. Most recently, this partnership has focused on Los Angeles County, where thousands of chronically homeless people live on the streets.

In 2004, through a $7 million grant to CSH and a $1 million program related investment (PRI), the Foundation sought to add 1,000 permanent supportive housing units to the development pipeline in Los Angeles. Doing so involved three primary strategies: increasing public sector commitment and coordination for permanent supportive housing; building the capacity of developers and providers to make permanent supportive housing available; and leveraging Hilton Foundation resources through partnership and collaborative funding from private and public sources.

The Hilton Foundation continued its support of CSH in 2009 with $5 million in PRI funds and again in 2010 through a $9 million grant. CSH used $4 million of this PRI to create the LA Supportive Housing Recovery Initiative, a public-private effort that provides loans and technical assistance to PSH developers with projects that are stalled due to the economic crisis.  The remaining $1 million of the new PRI is being utilized by CSH to participate in the Los Angeles County Housing Innovation Fund (LACHIF) to fund acquisition and predevelopment costs for new projects in LA County, jump-starting PSH production and encouraging sponsors to engage in new projects.

The most recent grant of $9 million supports further efforts to prevent and end chronic homelessness in Los Angeles by engaging various stakeholders through a mix of lending, grant making, training, technical assistance to nonprofits and government, and coordination and alignment of public systems. CSH is developing targeted initiatives for vulnerable homeless people who are cycling through institutions such as emergency rooms, jails, prisons, foster care, as well as homeless veterans.

Results

• From 2004 to 2010, CSH has been directly responsible for adding almost 3,000 permanent supportive housing units.

• In 2004, less than 25% of PSH units were occupied by chronically homeless individuals; by 2010, CSH efforts led to better targeting, with 56% of the countywide units targeted to this vulnerable group.

• The CSH Supportive Housing Institute: Opening New Doors has graduated 58 nonprofits from its training sessions, which prepare them to navigate the process of developing housing that provides support services. Twenty-eight of the 31 projects that were approved for more than $1 million in funding from the L.A. County Mental Health Services Act housing program include Opening New Doors graduates on their project teams.

• The Hilton Foundation's $1 million program-related investment loan resulted in an additional $29 million from other funders for the Los Angeles Supportive Housing Loan Fund. Of the $25 million in available lending capital for the Fund, 75% was deployed for $18.7 million in loans to local projects.

Resources

• Mobilizing Los Angeles County to End Chronic Homelessness, In Practice, Martha R. Burt, 2011.
• The Initiative to End Homelessness for People with Mental Illness in Los Angeles County: Final Evaluation Report, Urban Institute, 2010.
• "Addressing Homelessness Among People With Mental Illnesses: A Model Of Long-Term Philanthropic Effectiveness," Health Affairs, 28, no. 3 (2009): 907-911.
• Widening Effects of the Corporation for Supportive Housing's System Change Efforts in Los Angeles, 2005-2008, Urban Institute, 2009.
• Hilton Foundation Project to End Homelessness for People with Mental Illness in Los Angeles: Changes in Homelessness, Supportive Housing, and Tenant Characteristics Since 2005, Urban Institute, 2008.
• System Change Efforts and Their Results, Los Angeles, 2005-2006, Urban Institute, 2007.